President of Kelssek

The President of Kelssek is Kelssek's head of state and is vested with executive power and is the commander-in-chief of the military, although in practice, the prime minister is the most powerful person in the government and the President usually exercises powers such as dissolving Parliament and calling elections at the Prime Minister's request.

The President is expected to be politically neutral and is viewed mainly as the holder of reserve powers in the case of a national emergency or constitutional crisis. Since the 1990s, however, presidents have had some influence on government policy. Joseph Sutter used veto power twice against legislation passed under George Marlin's premiership.

The President is elected by popular vote for a five year term and while there is no limit on how many terms one can serve, no one can serve more than two terms consecutively and after serving two terms must wait three years before being eligible for election again. Any citizen of Kelssek above the voting age of 17 can become President. The election is conducted by a multi-round runoff system eliminating all but the top few candidates until one wins a majority of votes cast; typically no more than three rounds are needed.

History