Hence the person to be elected as Patriarch should be a man worthy of the confidence and respect of the whole nation, and he should possess all the qualifications and dignity required by his position. He should belong to that class of bishops who have always been considered as candidates for the office. At the same time he should be worthy of the perfect confidence of the Government, an Ottoman subject beginning at least with his father and above thirty-five years of age.
Article 2.—In case of vacancy of the Patriarchal Throne, in consequence of the death or resignation of the Patriarch, or from any other cause, the Political and Religious Assemblies meet and elect a Representative (locum tenens), and request the Sublime Porte to confirm their choice.
The General Assembly elects the Patriarch, but the Religious and Political Assemblies have the right by a list of candidates to express their opinion in regard to the merits of the candidates.
The election of the Patriarch will take place in the following manner:—
In the first place the Representative (locum tenens) prepares a list of all the bishops within Ottoman territory, indicating opposite each name their qualifications in the sense of the first article, and presents it to the Religious Assembly.
The Religious Assembly convokes a general meeting of ecclesiastics and prepares a list of candidates by secret ballot—that is, each member present writes on a slip of paper the names of all the bishops that he does not consider unfit from a religious point of view. A list of these names is prepared in the order of the number of votes received by each.
The Representative presents this list to the Political Assembly. This Assembly, after an investigation into the political merits of the persons indicated, elects by a majority of votes five candidates and presents this list to the General Assembly.
At the same time the first list prepared by the General Religious Assembly should be hung in the hall of the General Assembly. The General Assembly, after learning from these two lists the opinions of the competent Assemblies concerning the religious and political qualifications of the candidates, elects the Patriarch by secret ballot and by a majority of the votes.
The General Assembly may give its votes to a person outside the list presented by the Political Assembly, but the name of that person must have been indicated in the list prepared by the General Assembly of the ecclesiastics. No one can be elected whose name is not on that list.
If no majority of votes be obtained on the first ballot, the names of those two who have received the largest number of votes are announced by the Representative to the General Assembly, and the second ballot should be on those two names. For this second ballot those of the national deputies who cannot be present may forward their votes in a sealed and signed letter addressed to the Assembly, or to the Representative, or to the Chairman of the General Assembly.