Patrícia Jerónimo 3.4. Rights of citizens by birth and by acquisition The Timorese Constitution does not distinguish between the rights of citizens by birth and the rights of citizens by acquisition, except for purposes of determining who is eligible for the office of President of the Republic, an entitlement reserved for Timorese citizens by birth [Article 75 (1) (a)]. Here, the Constituent Assembly preferred the Portuguese model over the Mozambican one,137 even though there was at some point a proposal to exclude citizens with acquired citizenship from diplomatic and military careers, as mentioned earlier in this report. In the absence of a constitutional provision explicitly authorising other distinctions in the rights enjoyed by citizens by birth and by citizens by acquisition, ordinary law cannot establish other forms of discrimination against citizens by acquisition, nor can it impose any incapacities, even if temporary, on individuals who reacquire Timorese citizenship under Article 15 of the Nationality Act. Any such differentiation among Timorese citizens would be contrary to the constitutional principles of universality and equality, according to which all citizens are equal before the law, are entitled to the same rights and subject to the same obligations [Article 16 (1) of the Constitution]. It would also be contrary to Article 24 (1) of the Constitution, which prescribes that the restriction of civil and political rights is only possible in the cases expressly foreseen in the Constitution (Miranda 1998: 128-129). It was for this reason that Article 6 of Law no. 3/2004, of 14 April 2004, on Political Parties,138 which prescribed that only Timorese citizens by birth were entitled to hold leadership positions in political parties, was deemed invalid in the literature (Jerónimo 2012: 114). A 2016 legal reform corrected the problem by eliminating the requirement of citizenship by birth in Article 6 of Law no. 3/2004.139 It is also highly questionable that the differentiated regime for loss of Timorese citizenship set in Article 14 of the Nationality Act passes constitutional muster, since individuals who acquire Timorese citizenship by naturalisation clearly have a weaker status, which they can be deprived of against their will and with no regard to whether or not they will become stateless as a consequence of the withdrawal of Timorese citizenship. 137 Under Article 29 of the 1990 Mozambican Constitution, citizens with acquired citizenship were denied access to the diplomatic, the military and any equivalent careers, while ordinary law was to establish requirements for the exercise of public functions or of private functions of public interest by Mozambican citizens with acquired citizenship and by foreigners. The 2004 Mozambican Constitution makes the differences in status even clearer, by prescribing that the citizens with acquired citizenship, aside from being denied access to the diplomatic and military careers, cannot be members of Parliament, nor cabinet ministers, nor hold a position in any sovereign power of the State [Article 30 (1)]. 138 Lei sobre Partidos Políticos, available at http://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2002_2005/leis _parlamento_nacional/3_2004.pdf [05.02.2017]. 139 Law no. 2/2016, of 3 February 2016, available at http://mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2016/ serie_1/SERIE_I_NO_5.pdf [05.02.2017]. 40 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/7 - © 2017 Author