Constitution

The election of diffinitors needs no confirmation; thus their authority begins immediately after their election and acceptance.

1. The election of diffinitors is held on the day appointed (see n. 357), under the presidency of the vicar of the province or the prior provincial in accordance with n. 507.
2. It shall be decided by secret vote whether they shall be elected simultaneously or consecutively.
3. With the consent of the majority of the voters, a discussion [tractatus] about those to be elected may be held before the election.
4. All postulation is excluded; and the election shall be carried out in the following manner:
   1. if the diffinitors are to be elected simultaneously, the election ends in the seventh ballot in which a relative majority suffices;
   2. if, however, they are to be elected consecutively, and if for the election of any diffinitor nobody secures an absolute majority in the first three ballots inclusively, in a fourth and
      final ballot only those two may be presented who received the greater number of votes in the previous ballot as in n. 494, § III.
5. No document of election shall be drawn up; the results of the election shall be recorded in the acts of the chapter.

1. To be eligible as a diffinitor of a provincial chapter, besides the conditions stated at n. 443, § I, it is required that:
   1. he shall not have served as a diffinitor in the immediately preceding provincial chapter;
   2. he is not the prior provincial who completed his term of office immediately before the chapter;
   3. he is assigned in the province, or is a member of the province assigned to a convent under the immediate jurisdiction of the Master of the Order, provided that he does not belong to the general council.
2. Even brothers who are not members of the chapter may be elected diffinitors; in this case they have a vote in all the elections of the chapter except in the election of the prior
   provincial if it has to be repeated.

The diffinitors of a provincial chapter are the brothers who are elected by all the voters of a provincial chapter to decide, together with the president, the more important affairs of
the chapter.

1. The election of a prior provincial always needs the confirmation of the Master of the Order.
2. The Master of the Order may confirm or cassate the election as he judges what is for the good of the Order.

The election of a prior provincial cannot be extended beyond seven ballots. Even in the last ballot an absolute majority is required; however, if it is a postulation, n. 450, § IV, must be observed.

1. For anyone to be eligible for the office of prior provincial, besides the conditions mentioned in nn. 443 and  459, § I, it is required that:
   1. he be thirty years old and ten years from first profession;
   2. he shall not have been prior provincial in the same province for the two four-year terms immediately preceding;
   3. he is not a visitator general in that province.
2. If a brother cannot be elected because of a lack of one or more of the conditions mentioned in § I, 1, 2, and 3, the brethren may postulate him to the Master of the Order.

1. If it happens that a prior provincial ceases to hold office before the end of the four-year term, the Master of the Order, after consulting the vicar and the council of the province, shall determine the date of the election and the conditions – namely, whether the prior provincial shall be elected in an ordinary provincial chapter or in a simple elective assembly.
2. In this case, the Master of the Order has power to shorten or extend the four-year term of the prior provincial to be elected in such a way that the following election may be celebrated again during the normal provincial chapter at the usual time.

The election of a prior provincial shall normally occur in a provincial chapter, or extraordinarily in a simple elective assembly (see n. 351, II).

Given the requirements of n. 443, § I, all the electors are eligible except for those who have exercised the same office for the same convent in the chapter immediately preceding.