Politics of Iboma: Difference between revisions

The legislative branch of the government of Iboma consists of the Queen-in-Assembly and the National Assembly. The term Queen-in-Assembly refers to the royal prerogatives that the Crown has with respect to legislative functions. Almost all bills must originate i.e., be first proposed for discussion and first voted upon, in the Council of the People (which is the nominally lower house of the National Assembly) and any bill can originate from the Council of the People. The Council of the People has no restriction on its legislative mandate. Bills which may originate in the Council of Peers (which is the nominally upper house) are normally related to aristocratic, royal, heritage and religious affairs. No bill can be presented to the monarch for royal assent unless it has received a simple majority of a quorate sitting of the Council of the People however all bills must be read at least once in the Council of Peers before being presented to the monarch. Although the Council of Peers can vote on legislation to signal their approval, when the Council of the People passes a bill, it is legally considered as if the entire National Assembly has passed the bill.

The official responsible for presenting bills to the Queen for her royal assent is the Speaker of the National Assembly who sits in and is the chairwoman of the Council of Peers. The Queen cannot refuse to grant royal assent unless advised to withhold it by the Chancellor of Iboma. As such, because most bills would have been passed by a majority of the National Assembly which is normally supported by the largest party or coalition in the Council of the People of which the Chancellor is the head, it is exceptionally rare for the Chancellor to advise the Queen to withhold royal assent. The Queen cannot refuse the Chancellor's request to withhold royal assent, the Chancellor's advice is considered binding the moment it is conveyed and no other evidence is required of the Queen's assent other than the request by the Chancellor i.e., her assent is assumed. Nevertheless, the Queen will sign all acts physically by tradition. The Lady Keeper of the Privy Seal is responsible for stamping the bill with the Royal Seal when the Queen grants royal assent and publishing it in the Royal Gazette.

The Council of the People is elected by the voting age registered and eligible adult citizenry of Iboma every four years. The Council of the People consists of 300 members. Each member holds one seat and as such each member has one vote. Members may not transfer votes between them or delegate their votes to a proxy thus members must be in attendance themselves digitally or physically for their vote to be valid. Each member represents a constituency. The voting population of each constituency vote for the candidates registered for that constituency. Each constituency is required to have roughly the same population however the actual borders of the constituencies are drawn and determined by the Elections Committee of the Council of the People.

The Royal Electoral Commission is responsible for administering the elections and actually making sure that they are free and fair. No private or public body may interfere with its work i.e., interfering in an election unlawfully is considered a crime and is punishable by a fine or detention in one of Her Majesty's prisons. The Chancellor is responsible for advising the Queen on when she should designate the election to be held. The term of sitting of the Council of the People is exactly 1461 calendar days long (which is 4 years plus one day for a leap year). But the Queen can order the election to be held up to and not exceeding 90 calendar days after the term ends. The Royal Electoral Commission will automatically hold the election on the 90th day after the end of the Council of the People's term if the Queen has not issued an Order-in-Council by at latest 30 calendar days after the end of the Council of the People's term.

The Council of Peers is appointed by the Queen-in-Assembly. It must consist of Ladies Temporal and Ladies Spiritual. Ladies Spiritual are members thereof who are members of the clergy of Iboma. The clergy of Iboma consists only of the Akronist Church of Iboma. When the Council of Peers was founded 500 years ago, the Priestesses and Diviners of the Cults of the Goddesses Amira, Nashiya, Thula and Bast were allowed to be appointed to the Council of Peers as Ladies Spiritual however the ''Church (Amendment) Act of 1680'' restricted Ladies Spiritual to the Akronist Church of Iboma. The Queen normally appoints all the Elders of the Church and at most 10 High Priestesses giving a maximum membership of 15 clerics. A threat by the Queen not to appoint or to remove an Elder as a member of the Council of Peers is normally a de facto trigger for them to resign from their ecclesiastical positions and represents the Crown (by extension the government's) disapproval.

Ladies Temporal are holders of aristocratic titles. The Queen appoints a peerage or more specifically a title to the Council of Peers not a person. Once a peerage has been appointed to the Council of Peers, the seat occupied by that title can be inherited by the holder of the title to which the seat is attached. The Queen can remove a peerage from the Council of Peers. Titles which cannot be inherited i.e., life peerages, immediately fall vacant upon their extinction which happens when the holder dies. There are 50 Ladies Temporal who are members of the Council of Peers. The peerages held by the heads of the Houses of Mujaji, Nandi, Zwaditu, Makeda, Asantwa, and Ndzinga have never been removed since 1721.

Thus, the Council of Peers has 66 members including its chairwoman, the Lady President of the Council of Peers. She is elected by the members of the Council of Peers. The sessions of the Council of Peers must coincide with the Council of the People and each sitting is given ordinal numbers corresponding to the ordinal numbers of the tenure of the Council of the People. The Queen is required to follow the advise of the Chancellor when appointing and removing members of the Council of Peers.

Members of the National Assembly are immune from prosecution for actions carried out in respect of their work as members and may speak freely. The time that they may speak and their conduct in the house is determined by the Standing Rules passed by each house's Rules and Privileges Committee which is always chaired by the presiding officer. Members may also be elected to one or more committees. The committees deliberate on legislation before it is presented to the plenary of that house to be read and voted upon. Some committees have specific functions such as the Judicial, Elections and Rules and Privileges Committees of the Council of the People as mandated by statute. Members receive a monthly salary, offices and staff as determined by the Civil List and paid for by the government. Depending on whether a member occupies a certain position e.g., Leader and Members of Her Majesty's Government, Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, Chairwoman of Committees, Members of Her Majesty's Shadow Council, Whips etc., they receive different salaries and other emoluments. Thus technically, State Councillors do not receive salaries for their executive roles but for their legislative roles.

The National Assembly is responsible for holding the executive branch accountable. The Council of the People can summon members of the executive branch for Questions which the executive branch is required to answers. Committees can also issue legally binding summons and subpoenas for which people can be arrested or fined if they show contempt. The two houses can issue non-binding Resolutions and conduct investigations and publish reports on any matter of their choosing. If the Council of the People passes a vote of no-confidence in the Chancellor, the entire Council of Ministers is required to resign from their positions, however the Chancellor can advise the Queen to dissolve the Council of the People and call a new election instead of resigning and hope that the new Council of the People will be more favourable.