General Assemblies of Lucrecia
General Assemblies of Lucrecia Asembleas Xerais de Lucrecia Tribunos Generales de Lucrecia | |
|---|---|
| 737th Session | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | Tricameral |
| Houses | Senatorial House Centuriate Assembly Popular Assembly |
| Leadership | |
Marco Bahamonde since 25 March 1995 | |
Juan Portillo since 15 March 2033 | |
| Structure | |
| Seats |
|
 | |
Popular Assembly political groups |
|
 | |
Centuriate Assembly political groups |
|
| Elections | |
Popular Assembly last election | 18 March 2035 |
Centuriate Assembly last election | 13 March 2032 |
| Meeting place | |
| National Assembly Building Emérida d'il Mar, Lucrecia | |
The General Assemblies of Lucrecia (Isurian: Asembleas Xerais de Lucrecia; Pelaxian: Tribunos Generales de Lucrecia) is the tricamerial parliament of Lucrecia. Its three legislative houses are, from lowest to highest, the Popular Assembly, the Centuriate Assembly, and the Senatorial House. The Popular Assembly is a federated legislative house that is split between the provincial Tributary Assembly, and the popular Common Assembly, the members of both chambers being chosen through direct election and serve for three years. The Centuriate Assembly, initially representative of the regions of the Emeritan and pre-1970 Lucrecian republics, represents the cantons and the linguistic groups of which they are elected by and serve for five years. The Senatorial House represents the aristocracy of the republic, and was once the most powerful legislative house until its powers and abilities reduced it to a 500-strong committee of legal experts as the aristocracy tended towards the law instead of the military as their mainstay; they are appointed for life by the Consuls.
The sitting for the two lower houses always begins in March, with the Centuriate election being held on 13 March and the legislative election being held on 18 March. Members of these houses have no set term limit, although it is customary for members to retire at the age of 80 to make way for younger aspiring politicians, often a protégé of the outgoing member. Presently, there are 1050 members of the General Assemblies, with each legislative house being given as follows: 500 senators, 150 centurions, 200 tributaries, and 200 popular representatives. This makes the General Assemblies not only one of the few legislatures in the world to have more upper house members than lower house members, but also one of the largest legislatures by total amount of members.
Because the General Assemblies is seen as the continuation of the Emeritan legislature and not a successor, the year of its establishment is said to be the year 178 BC, which was when the Emeritan Republic was formed. Initially a tetracameral legislature, the two lowest houses, that being the Tributary and Common Assemblies, were merged in the 1970s to form the Popular Assembly as Lucrecia moved towards decentralisation and linguistic segregation which necessitated a move away from the traditional Caphiric Republic-based form of government. It is also because of these changes that the party system presently consists of many small linguistically-segregated parties, which in turn practically requires that coalition governments must be negotiated and formed, although conventionally the two main parties of each ideology that is linguistically segregated often caucus with each other as it is constitutionally impossible for incompatible languages to run in an incompatible community (A Pelaxian-speaking candidate would not be able to run in the Isurian Generality, although an Isurian-speaking candidate would be able to run in the bilingual Emerida-Presidential Canton). Case in point, the current composition of the Popular Assembly has made it so that a grand coalition had to be arranged between the establishment parties so as to prevent the far-right PXI from taking control of the Curia.
Composition
Historically, the amount of members of each of the houses was not fixed, although there was an average range for each house. The Senatorial House held roughly 400-700 senators, the Centuriate Assembly held roughly 200-300 centurions, the Tributary Assembly held roughly 50-100 tributaries, and the Common Assembly held roughly 100-150 popular representatives. This was the approximate composition from the founding of the Emeritan Republic until the establishment of Lucrecia in the 16th Century. The then-new constitution would attempt to implement a fixed minimum for each house. The Senatorial House required a quorum of 600 senators, the Centuriate Assembly required a quorum of 250 centurions, the Tributary Assembly required a quorum of 90 tributaries, and the Common Assembly required a quorum of 120 popular representatives.
Under the old system, asides from the Senatorial House which retains to this day the old method of being appointed for life by the Consuls, the Centuriate and Tributary Assemblies were elected by the senators, who often elected wealthy merchants and prominent military leaders for the former and prominent local leaders for the latter. The Common Assembly was the one legislative house in which the common people directly elected its members. During the early years of Lucrecia, there were many attempts to relegate power away from the Senatorial House towards the lower houses. Of these attempts, the only significant changes up until the 1970s were in how the centurions and tributaries were elected. Instead of being elected by the senators, the centurions were elected by the very Pelaxianised leadership of the two main islands, and the tributaries became the heads of the nation's municipal collectivities, who themselves were elected by the mayors and other local leaders within these collectivities.
It would not be until the Popular Amendments of the 1970s when the current arrangement of the General Assemblies came to be what it is to this day. The Senatorial House was given a fixed number of 500 senators, the Centuriate Assembly was given a fixed number of 150 centurions who were initially to be elected by the provincial assemblies until the 1980s when the linguistic communities and cantons were given their own legislative assemblies, the Tributary and Common Assemblies were merged into the Popular Assembly with a fixed number of 400 members, 200 tributaries and 200 popular representatives, and were originally to be representative of the municipal collectivities and the municipalities until the former was abolished in the 1990s and the tributaries instead became representative of the provinces with each holding a certain amount of tributes while the popular representatives became representative of the people directly.
The current voting age is eighteen years of age, which is the nation's age of majority. However, each of the legislative houses may set their own age of candidacy as needed. On average, the Popular Assembly has the youngest age of candidacy while the higher legislative houses have older ages since they are seen as the logical next step in the careers of many politicians (and members of the judiciary for the Senatorial House).
Functions
Legislative procedures
Uniquely, the houses of the General Assemblies are presided over not by a speaker, but rather by a select few whose roles include acting as speaker for the duration of their term and mandate.
The Senatorial House is presided over by the Prince of the Senate, a unique aristocratic title designated to whichever senator was given the most votes in support of their designation from amongst their fellow senators. Despite the title calling them a "prince", the Prince of the Senate may not be confused for a member of the royal family in Lucrecia, nor are they of a higher rank than their fellow senators. Indeed, the Prince of the Senate is considered to be "first among equals", conveying the idea that all senators are of the same rank regardless of their aristocratic titles or tenures in the judiciary.
The Centuriate Assembly is presided over by the Consuls, with one centurion designated as the Proconsul of the Centuriate who may be asked to preside over the Centuriate Assembly in the event that neither Consuls are able to preside over the assembly at any given moment. Both positions require the approval by a majority of the assembly in order for one to be officially designated as such, the election of both roles are carried out on 15 March every two years. The Consuls serve as Lucrecia's heads of state during those two years, and the Proconsul of the Centuriate serves a quasi-vice presidential role in that they, alongside the head of the royal family, are the first in line to serve as acting Consuls should one or both Consuls be deemed unfit to serve on a temporary or permanent basis. Otherwise, the proconsul is primarily ceremonial and serves no other purpose under normal circumstances.
The Popular Assembly is presided over by the Edile, either a tributary or a popular representative designated by the Popular Assembly to serve as not only Lucrecia's head of government, but to also serve as the chairman of the Curia. Because of the nature of the election of an Edile, the Edile is often in command of at least a simple majority of the Popular Assembly, that being 201 members, and was subsequently approved by the Consuls, whose approval may be rescinded at any given time. However, because the Edile is the head of government, they are often unable to preside over the Popular Assembly, and thus they designate any tributary or a popular representative to serve as a "proedile" to fulfill these roles as needed.
All three houses regularly decide based on a form of voice vote, that being by shouting at one another. The side with the most and loudest of these shouts is declared the winner by the relevant presiding officer. However, because voice voting can often be manipulated, some of the more nationally-important votes are done by other methods. The elections of the Consuls and Ediles are, for example, done via a roll call vote to ensure that the results are properly recorded while the Senatorial House makes use of a rising vote for matters such as determining the constitutionality of a bill and whether or not the Senatorial House should formally request the Supreme Court of Lucrecia to conduct an investigation of either the Consuls or the Curia.
The Edile, being a partisan figure, is expected to almost always cast their vote in support of the ruling party or coalition. The Consuls, on the other hand, are expected to be non-partisan, and thus are unable to cast a vote except when required to break a tie. The Prince of the Senate votes alongside the other senators.
All three houses conduct their businesses in public, allowing visitors to sit in the galleries during sessions. On a regular basis, each of the three houses have their proceedings televised, allowing additional members of the general public to watch the legislative process. This highly transparent attitude towards members of the general public watching their nation's public affairs has always been considered a major part of the Lucrecian political culture since the founding of the Emeritan Republic.
Constitutional amendments
Exclusive senatorial functions
The Senatorial House, despite having had its powers greatly diminished throughout the latter quarter of the 20th Century, still retains certain functions that are deemed to be exclusive to it. The most notable of which being it being the sole legislative house that can ultimately propose bills}, though to make up for this, the lower legislative houses are allowed to draft and submit bills to the Senatorial House where a simple majority vote determines whether or not the bill should be formally proposed by the Senatorial House. The only other way for bills to be formally proposed is through the Curia, these bills are not subject to the approval of the Senatorial House in order to be formally proposed.
Another exclusive function of the Senatorial House is its relationship to the Supreme Court. Because the senatorial membership comprises almost entirely of former pretors and propretors, the Senatorial House is given a unique position where it can act as the legislative extensive of the judiciary. What this means in practice is that the Senatorial House can request the Supreme Court to formally investigate either the Consuls or the Curia, and it can veto any law as required (though in most modern cases, the Senatorial House generally does not veto laws unless they are deemed to be in violation of the constitution or an existing law).
The Senatorial House also holds the exclusive right to nominate candidates for the consulship.
Exclusive centuriate functions
One of the major aspects of the Centuriate Assembly is its relationship to the consulship. The Consuls are recognised as leaders of the Centuriate Assembly, and thus have the right to serve as the presiding officers when the Centuriate Assembly is in session. The Centuriate Assembly also elects the Consuls on 15 March every two years based on the lists of nominees drafted by the Senatorial House. The pair of nominees who gain the most amount of votes from the centurions become the next Consuls after an inauguration ceremony. Pretors are also elected by the Centuriate Assembly.
Because the Centuriate Assembly is intended to be the main meeting place for the cantons and linguistic communities, any proposed laws pertaining to the cantons and linguistic communities must be passed by a two-thirds majority in all centuriate groups. This relationship to these federated entities also gives it final say in disputes pertaining to federalism. It is also the sole legislative house that can draw up information reports discussing about certain topics that the Curia may want to be notified on.
Supplying and maintaining the Curia's confidence
The Popular Assembly is the sole legislative house whose confidence and supply is needed to ensure the continuation of the current Curia. Indeed, the Curia, and the Edile who heads it, requires that they command the confidence of a simple majority of the Popular Assembly. As such, if a Curia were to lose the confidence of the Popular Assembly, then the Consuls may either dissolve the Popular Assembly for a special legislative election, or dismiss the Curia. If the latter case, or in the case of a regular legislative election, the Popular Assembly will need to hold an election to determine who should be the new Edile while the Consuls are in charge of appointing the Curia ministers and approving the Edile-designate. In the case of a special election, the new term in session is considered to be an "acting government" and only lasts until after the new "regular government" comes into power to serve the full three-year term.
Privileges
Legislative immunity
Electoral systems
Centuriate Assembly
The Centuriate Assembly comprises of 150 members allocated amongst the cantons and linguistic communities, and are thus elected by the assemblies of the cantons and linguistic communities. Each canton and linguistic community is given a set amount of centurions proportionate to the population of each canton and linguistic community. What this means is that the Centuriate Assembly consists of 77 Isurian centurions, and 73 Emeritan centurions, each groups being distributed amongst the relevant cantons and linguistic communities that elect them:
- The Isurian Community elects 32 centurions;
- The Isurian Generality elects 21 centurions;
- The Toledo-Administrative Canton elects 24 centurions (16 Isurian, and 8 Emeritan);
- The Pelaxian Community elects 29 centurions;
- The Emeritan Republic elects 20 centurions;
- The Emerida-Presidential Canton elects 24 centurions (8 Isurian, and 16 Emeritan).
The political parties that these centurions belong to is somewhat dependent on the partisan composition of the each of the cantonal and linguistic assemblies, but the composition is ultimately skewed in favour of the establishment centuriate groups.
Popular Assembly
The Popular Assembly comprises of 400 members split evenly between the Tributary and Common Assemblies, and are directly elected by citizens 18 or older by universal suffrage.
Tributary Assembly
As the Tributary Assembly represents the provinces of Lucrecia, the voting system is that of first-past-the-post where each tribute is a single-member district. What this means is that a tributary candidate must be elected by at least a plurality of voters in order to become a tributary. The tendency towards victories by a plurality has been harshly criticised by some as being very undemocratic and that it makes the system particularly vulnerable to extremist candidates, something which has become more and more relevant as the far-right Party for an Independent Generality has been able to gain at least three-quarters of their seats through these pluralities, thus leading to calls for electoral reform to ensure fairer results while at the same time retaining the fundamental characteristics of the Tributary Assembly.
Tributes
Common Assembly
The Common Assembly represents the people directly regardless of geographical location or linguistic status. The 200 representatives are elected by a proportional representation system where the amount of seats allocated is more or less proportional to the percentage of voters who have voted for specific party. This means that if 27% of voters voted for a particular party, that party would be entitled to approximately 27% of the seats in the Common Assembly, even if said party has been unable to win a seat in the Tributary Assembly. There also exists a 5% electoral threshold designed to hamper extremist parties from taking advantage of the voting system unless they are able to clear the threshold.
Membership
Centuriate Assembly
| Centuriate Group | Seats | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courtiers' Centuriate Group | 62 | 41.3 | |
| Countrymen's Centuriate Group | 58 | 38.6 | |
| Workers' Centuriate Group | 19 | 12.7 | |
| United Isurian Centuriate Group | 7 | 4.7 | |
| Margarita Centuriate Group | 4 | 2.7 | |
| Total | 150 | 100 | |
Popular Assembly
| Coalition | Party | Seats | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Courtiers' Caucus | PCP | 41 | 10.3 | ||
| PSD | 22 | 5.5 | |||
| UDC | 6 | 1.5 | |||
| PDX | 5 | 1.3 | |||
| AUP | 3 | 0.7 | |||
| MCR | 1 | 0.2 | |||
| Total seats | 78 | 19.5 | |||
| Countrymen's Caucus | LDI | 39 | 9.8 | ||
| PPD | 36 | 9.0 | |||
| Total seats | 75 | 18.8 | |||
| Workers' Caucus | PDR | 19 | 4.7 | ||
| PSX | 6 | 1.5 | |||
| PDP | 5 | 1.3 | |||
| PIUS | 2 | 0.5 | |||
| Total seats | 32 | 8.0 | |||
| United Isurian Caucus | PXI | 102 | 25.5 | ||
| ILUCED | 3 | 0.7 | |||
| Total seats | 105 | 26.2 | |||
| Emeritan National Party | 62 | 15.5 | |||
| JMM | 17 | 4.2 | |||
| The Margarita Movement | 12 | 3.0 | |||
| Six Star Movement | 11 | 2.8 | |||
| DAL | 8 | 2.0 | |||
| Total | 400 | 100 | |||