Constitutional reform movement in Hurmu
The constitutional reform movement in Hurmu had its origins in growing popular discontent arising from the 1704 Hurmu political crisis, 1710 Hurmu government crisis, the 1716–1717 Hurmu political crisis, and finally the 1718 Hurmu general elections, which ultimately resulted in the formation of the Cabinet of Annika Raudsepp in the following year.
The resounding electoral victory of the Social and Democratic Party of Hurmu (SDP) had exposed a fundamental tension within the government between the part appointed by the Assembly, which derived its legitimacy from the popular franchise, and the positions controlled by appointees of the Senate, whose membership was drawn exclusively from the Order of the Holy Lakes. Hurmu therefore had a political system that was in effect part democratic and part oligarchic, and these two parts were now at variance with one-another as the senate remained dominated by the United Ayreonist–Traditionalist and Humanist (CDH) parties.
Moreover the senate proved to be an obstacle to reform as it had hitherto reserved to itself the right to interpret and amend the constitution of Hurmu. The main constitutional text remained the Vesüha Accords by which Hurmudan independence had been re-established in 1690 AN. It was the contention of the SDP that the senate had come into the habit of interpreting that document for its own advantage, and to claim for itself powers and prerogatives that did not exist. This stance was best expressed by Minister Krmpotić, who asserted at the first full cabinet session of the new administration that:
The Senate has set forth no constitutional document that justifies its jealous monopolisation of the right to interpret and amend the constitution. Instead, it is time to convoke a people's assembly in order to begin the work of drafting a new and fully codified foundational law with its roots in the sovereignty of the masses.
As Krmpotić was the minister who held the brief for constitutional reform, this was a clear declaration of intent by the new administration. Annika Raudsepp had previously challenged the senatorially appointed members of the executive to resign their offices by the last day of 1718 AN to permit their transfer into the hands of appointees of the Assembly. The senate, pointedly, had ignored this demand and confirmed the appointment of their own nominations for the various secretary of state positions.
The senate had also, paradoxically, confirmed the appointment of Annika Raudsepp, mainly as a result of the United Ayreonist–Traditionalists being fearful of being seen to oppose the popular will. As a consequence they were the authors of the visible tensions in government, that began from the very first cabinet session, and which would see the Assembly swiftly begin to make use of its democratic mandate and confirmed institutional powers to undo the oligarchic component of the constitution.
The new Prime Minister swiftly recognised the necessity of holding meetings of cabinet that would not feature the secretaries of state, and moreover began work on assuming control of those roles presently held by the senate. The first target was naturally the treasury, which the outgoing administration of Jamshid-e Osman had been most flagrant in transferring into senatorial control after the outcome of the 1718 general election had become evident. Here, unlike peace and foreign affairs, there was no precedent of a senatorial select committee to justify the creation of a secretary of state position - it had been a usurpation of a position which had been in the gift of the prime minister and therefore of the assembly, plain and simple. That the treasury had been placed in the hands of Rosamund, a creature of Constancia, the Honourable Company, and the Raspur Pact, made it easy for the SDP to depict the abuse of the constitution as a theft of Hurmu's gold by a disgraceful foreign cabal of looters.
