PROVIDENCE — Here’s a potential bumper sticker:

VOTE CIANCI: 2014

Due to his felony conviction and five-year prison term for racketeering conspiracy, former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. cannot hold office for at least five years, according to the secretary of state’s reading of the state Constitution. The next mayoral election for which Cianci would be eligible is in 2014, when he would be 73.

The Rhode Island Constitution spells out a three-year temporary prohibition against convicted felons holding office. That prohibition does not begin until a felon completes his or her sentence, as well as any time on probation. Cianci, 66, who was released from federal prison to a Boston halfway house this week, will be on probation for two years.

Lawyer Patrick T. Conley, an expert in constitutional law who represented Cianci 17 years ago when a voter group challenged Cianci’s right to take office in 1990, said the limits on felon office-holders are clear.

“It’s not a permanent disqualification,” Conley said.

In September 2002, U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres sentenced Cianci to 64 months in prison, with a $100,000 fine, and two years of supervised release when Cianci got out of jail.

Last year, voters amended the Constitution to allow felons to vote immediately after they got out of prison, Conley said. “So he would be able to vote instantaneously, but as far as running for office, he would have to wait for the prescribed period, which would be not only the jail sentence but any supplementary obligations he might have as a result of his conviction,” he said.

This is the text of Article 3, Section 2 of the state Constitution:

“An elector shall be disqualified as a candidate for elective or appointive state or local office or from holding such office if such elector has been convicted of or plead nolo contendere to a felony or if such elector has been convicted or plead nolo contendere to a misdemeanor resulting in a jail sentence of six months or more, either suspended or to be served. Such elector shall not, once so convicted, attain or return to any office until three years after the date of completion of such sentence and of probation or parole.”

Conley said he was unaware of any section of the Constitution that conflicts with Article 3.

The three-year prohibition was written into the Constitution in 1986. Conley successfully defended Cianci in 1990 against a challenge to his right to hold office due to Cianci’s 1984 felony conviction for assaulting his wife’s alleged lover.

“I was the one who argued before the Supreme Court that the 1986 ban on felon office holding was prospective only and not retroactive,” said Conley, who added that has had “nothing to do” with Cianci in many years. “In retrospect, I would say that of all my Supreme Court victories, that’s the one I cherish least.”

In a curious coincidence, one of the lawyers who handled a 1990 challenge to Cianci was David N. Cicilline, now the mayor of Providence.

marsenau@projo.com