The statute of the province determines:

1. whether to have preparatory commissions; 
2. the day on which the election of the prior provincial and the diffinitors of the chapter shall be held;
3. how many diffinitors of the chapter are to be elected, namely, four, six, or eight;
4. whether councillors of the province are to be elected, how many of them and when;
5. the day on which the elections for the general chapter shall be held.

When the letter of convocation has been received:

1. the election of delegates mentioned in n. 352, § I, 5, shall be held; and in convents having the right, the election of the socius or socii of the prior going to the chapter shall be held under the presidency of the subprior; further, an election shall be held for supplementary voters to provide for the situation referred to in n. 352, § II.
2. three months before the beginning of the chapter, the prior provincial shall send out a report on the state of the province and the more serious problems facing it; the officials of the province (see nn. 376-381) shall send to the capitulars and convents a report on all that is within their competence;
3. in every convent of the province a discussion shall be held under the presidency of the prior in which the reports described in n. 2 shall be examined, and proposals or petitions to be sent
   to the chapter to the benefit of the province or the convent shall be determined.

The chapter, which the voters shall not fail to attend, shall be convoked by the prior provincial or by the vicar of the province at least three months before it is to be held.

1. If, however, the provincial chapter is due to be held during the four months prior to a general chapter, counting from the first day of the month assigned in the acts for its celebration, the chapter shall be postponed until after the promulgation of the acts of the general chapter. It then falls to the Master of the Order to assign a date for the provincial chapter, after consulting the prior provincial.
2. A provincial chapter shall not be omitted even if a prior provincial has already been appointed.

When he absents himself from his province or, at least, the country, the prior provincial should appoint a vicar.
  If no vicar has been designated, the socius of the prior provincial becomes the vicar ipso facto unless the provincial chapter shall have determined otherwise.

1. The four-year term is calculated from one provincial chapter to another, disregarding the few days, weeks, or months by which, occasionally, the term falls short of or exceeds the four-year period; and it is terminated on the day immediately before the vigil of the commencement of the provincial chapter.
2. If it should happen that a prior provincial’s four-year term ends when the Order has no Master or that it ends within four months of a general chapter (see n. 354, § I), in either case it is understood that his term is extended until the following provincial chapter which will be held after the completion of the general chapter.

The prior provincial shall have a register in which he shall record his activities.

The prior provincial at the end of a visitation, shall convey to the brothers his observations and ordinations in writing.

The prior provincial is obliged to visitate his entire province twice in four years – personally, if possible, or else by appointing another. He must, however, visitate the convents of the novitiate and the studentate each year.

What has been established above for convents and houses holds good also for convents and houses which are immediately subject to the Master of the Order, unless in a particular case the Master of the Order himself determines otherwise.