Haifan Democratic Party
| Haifan Democratic Party | |
| Leader | Benjamin Meir |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1614 AN |
| Merger of | |
| Headquarters | Abeis |
| Seats in the National Parliament | 4 / 6 |
The Haifan Democratic Party was a political party in the Free State of Haifa and the republic's governing party in its final years. It was formed in 1614 AN by Benjamin Meir, who merged the Federation of the Natives with an earlier Democratic Alliance ahead of the republic's last general election, and it campaigned on a platform it called the Open Opportunity Society for All. The party took four of the six seats in the general election of 1614 AN, against two for the Social Democratic Party, and the Parliament ratified Meir as Prime Minister in 1615 AN. Meir resigned the premiership the following year over the Treaty of St. Andre, no successor was chosen, and the party left no further record before the republic dissolved itself in 1620 AN.
History
Meir returned to Haifan politics shortly before the general election of 1614 AN. He was re-elected City Official of Abeis with 67 percent of the vote on a turnout of 78 percent, and then merged the Federation of the Natives, which had been the party of the republic's founder Ismael Todochev, with an earlier Democratic Alliance at a two-day convention in the capital. The resulting party contested the election on a platform it called the Open Opportunity Society for All.
The general election of 1614 AN filled six seats in the National Parliament by proportional representation under the d'Hondt method. The Haifan Democratic Party nominated Meir at the head of its list, followed by Donovan Graham, Joachim Demsky, Ava Palmieri, Adlai Garfinkle, and Eliza Hirst. An Imperial Party was announced during the nomination period but registered no list, so the party and the Social Democratic Party of the interim premier Erlo Sinders were the only lists on the ballot. The party took four of the six seats to the Social Democrats' two, the seats falling under the ordered list to Meir, Graham, Demsky, and Palmieri. No vote totals were published for the parliamentary count, and the Governor-General, Joseph Fauxan, announced only the allocation of seats. The Parliament ratified Meir as Prime Minister in 1615 AN on a motion setting his term at six years, which its four members carried.
Meir formed a government in which Fauxan continued as head of state and Foreign Minister, and Sinders took the interior ministry. At the outset of his ministry Meir drafted a federal reform constitution, whose public reading was broadcast to more than ninety thousand viewers but which was never put to a vote. The ministry's principal act was the Treaty of St. Andre of 1616 AN with Natopia, which traded the principality of Walstadt for the port city of Port St. Andre. The treaty divided the government: Sinders judged that it undervalued Haifan holdings and had pressed instead for territory in the Skerry Isles; he opposed the exchange in debate but voted for ratification. Meir attached his premiership to the treaty and resigned both the office and his Haifan citizenship within the month of its passage. No successor was chosen, and the premiership stood vacant until the republic concluded its Agreement of Dissolution in 1620 AN.
Ideology and platform
The party's platform in the 1614 AN election was the Open Opportunity Society for All. Its program in office was the reform constitution Meir drafted the following year, which would have abolished the Governor-Generalship, made the prime minister head of state, shortened the ministerial term to four years, and placed justice under a supreme court led by a chief justice. The reformed republic was to carry the motto Unity makes strength. Neither the platform nor the reform was carried into law.
