28-02-2025, 12:20 AM
Tropica Today
Tropican Constitution Drafting - Outlines released by National Council
Nikutabi - October 5622 - Today, after a meeting in Nikutabi, the Tropican National Council has announced a formal outline of the country’s new constitution, alongside information about the electoral process for the election currently scheduled for mid-5623.The Council’s proposal has opted for a constitution that removes the now untraceable Monarchy’s power, and replaces it with a President elected for a 5 year term by a three-fifths majority of the Lower House, which can be lowered to a plurality after 5 ballots. The President will have the same limited powers of the Monarchy, where they will have the power to appoint the Prime Minister, formally sign bills passed by both houses into law, and appoint Judges to the Federal Judiciary on advice of the Prime Minister.
The Legislative Branch has also been reformed in structure. The National Assembly will be elected by the people for 5 year terms, and the Prime Minister will be the leader of the group with a majority of seats, or, in cases where a majority is unable to be formed, the largest group in the Assembly. Then, the current National Council will become an indirectly-elected upper house, consisting of a representative of each of the 35 regions, elected for 5 year terms by each respective regional legislature, rather than consisting of the regional leaders themselves. The council will not have power to take down a government in the Assembly, either by a no-confidence motion or blocking supply, but can amend supply and other bills as it wishes.
Other inclusions in the constitution include a strong federal structure, creating a national forum of the President, Prime Minister and regional leaders that will meet at least twice a year, a judicial branch completely independent from the legislative and executive branches and a bill of rights.
Also today, the Council released details of the first election for the new National Assembly. Although the voting system hasn’t been decided, it is between either First Past the Post with some supplementary seats allocated using votes that didn’t elect a constituency MNA, or a region-based form of Parallel Voting with no at-large component or threshold, and pure PR in regions with under 4 seats. The election will be conducted by the Tropican Electoral Commission, an independent entity that cannot be influenced by the Executive. The National Assembly will initially consist of 400 MNAs (300 Constituency and 100 compensatory in the FPTP-Supplementary system, or ‘as close as possible to’ 200 Constituency and 200 List seats under the parallel voting proposal).