Politics of Candelaria And Marquez

From its establishment as a semi-autonomous state in 1885, the Candelarias’ legislative chamber was the House of Representatives. The number of seats varied wildly throughout the country’s early history, from around fifty seats to four-hundred; the current figure of 260 not settled upon until 1960. Seats were first-past-the-post constituencies, with as equal a population in each as possible.

The British monarch’s official representative on the islands invited the leader of the largest party to form a government as Prime Minister, the PM having a maximum of five years in a term, though a new Parliament could be called at any time.

The situation changed little following the granting of full independence in 1947; the only major addition being the creation of a 100-member Senate, with around half the seats given on a proportional representation basis, reflecting the actual vote count of the General Election for the House, the others appointed by the PM from judicial, religious and minority socio-cultural sources. The Senate Leader acted as President, replacing the British monarch.

The first set of major changes to this easy-to-follow picture occurred following the brief but nasty Civil War of 1959-60. In the temporary government following the end of the War, the frankly rather awful Second Constitution allowed for the creation of a dual executive, with a popularly-elected President acting alongside the Prime Minister. However in 1964, the election of David Clarke to the office of President, and the success of his Clarke Unionist Party in the House polls effectively allowed him to take both rolls. Subsequently, in 1968, Clarke banned the Presidential election on rather spurious grounds, a situation which has remained in place ever since. The House elections however still follow the pattern of Presidential elections, meaning that all terms of Parliament last four years exactly, which elections on May 12th.

Since ’68, the leader of the largest party in the House is immediately appointed President, an office he retains for the next four years except in cases of death, resignation or forced removal by the Senate. Indeed, he can retain the position regardless of party support, as was the case in the first half of 1983 when President E.H. Kyle, having been deposed as leader of the Unionist Party by George Nikolov, continued as an Independent premier, with only half a dozen parliamentary supporters.

As should be apparent, the four-year parliamentary system can lead to horrendous political deadlock, particularly now that C&M has several political parties, none commanding overwhelming support at any one time. In does however force a certain amount of consensus and cooperation among otherwise conflicting parties. Although Presidents are under no obligation to; it is clearly necessary on most occasions to form a coalition government. These have varied over the years in their make-up, often including by necessity one or more parties of wildly different political outlooks than the President’s, as witnessed by the current alliance of the economically socialist, socially conservative Unionist Party of President James Anderson with the Conservative Party and the UP’s almost diametric opposite, the Libertarians.

For the record, the office of Prime Minister is still retained, being usually combined with that of the Speaker of the House and/or the largely ceremonial Minister for Candelaria. Usually, either the job of PM or Vice-President (and sometimes both) are given to coalition partners.

In 1992, the House underwent its most dramatic change in years, when the constituency seats were reduced to just sixty, with a bias in favour of mid-sized towns for tedious political reasons, with the remaining twenty appointed on a PR basis. As a result, C&M citizens now have two votes at a General Election, one for their constituency and one for the 200 seats (the incongruously-named ‘Presidential Vote’). In the Presidential Vote, parties must provide a list of two hundred members. There is no threshold for representation, potentially allowing parties with as little as 0.3% of the popular vote to gain a seat.

The President must appoint his ministers from the House, usually from the 200 party-list seats though President Anderson has also chosen widely from the Unionists’ constituency members.

In 1994, the Senate was wound-up and replaced by a largely advisory, 12 member, National Council.

Traditionally, local government was organised by population size, with evenly sized councils in the same way as the House. Today, however, they reflect the size of settlements, with both the largest cities and smallest villages having their own councils.

Exceptions are the Outlying Islands, who supply ⅛ of the country’s population. The largest of these (Green, Fallon, Sloane, Knee, Pranschke and Blackwell) followed the country’s second island of Marquez in declaring independence from the civil war-era government on the island that has become known as Candelaria. Although in practise they are an integral part of modern Candelaria And Marquez, are governed from the national capital Albrecht, and return members to the House; each also retains its own Island Government with a Prime Minister.

Officially, cabinet-level minister are reffered to as, for example, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In practice however this title is rarely used. Instead, the senior minister of a government department is reffered to as Minister for Foreign Affairs, John Doe; while other ministers in that department drawn from the House would be Foreign Affairs Minister Jane Smith. Equally, current or former cabinet ministers should carry the term The Right Honourable (Rt. Hon.). Again in practice, this is avoided.

Cabinet of Candelaria And Marquez

Political Parties of Candelaria And Marquez

Current Parties in the House

National Elections of the Second Republic Era

Election 1964

Election 1968

Election 1972

Election 1976

Election 1980

Election 1984

Election 1988

Election 1992

Election 1996

Election 2000

Election 2004

See Candelaria And Marquez House of Representatives

Election 2008

In 2006, Ariadne Jefferson beat Luciano Mello and Cathy Jones in the race to succed Sol McPhee as the SG&G's parliamentary leader and 2008 presidential candidate. Initial comments suggested she would consider entering into a coalition with Anderson in the event of a successive Unionist victory in 2008, however, more recently she has begun to critisize the President with increasing strength, focusing on the apparent lack of concern for the environment, the continuing Uranium mining and the negative attitude towards Rushmori immigration.

In Februrary 2007, Robyn Morton triumphed over the left-wingers Patrick Bellard and Warren Bengtsson to lead the Modern Liberal party. The party's subsequant lurch to the right appears to be paying off, with the MLP leading opinion polls as of May this year, though Morton herself fairs less well, consistantly rated only third in regards to the popularity of C&M party leaders.

In May 2007, Unionist leadership candidate of 2003, Thomas ffinch, told a newspaper he would 'probably' challenge President Anderson again for party leadership prior to the 2008 election.