Parliament of Caputia
| Parliament of Caputia | |
 Royal Arms of Caputia | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1654 AN |
| Disbanded | 1668 AN |
| Leadership | |
First Speaker |
|
Last Speaker |
Elizabeth Palmerston |
| Seats | 422 (250 before 1660 AN) |
| Meeting place | |
| Zalae | |
The Parliament of Caputia was the unicameral national legislature of the Kingdom of the Union of Caputia from 1654 AN until the end of the kingdom in 1668 AN. Established under the Constitution Act, 2017, it sat at the capital, Zalae, and was styled in its own acts as the Lords and Burgesses in Parliament assembled. The chamber elected the Prime Minister of Caputia and recommended the appointment to the Crown. Every government held office on the chamber's confidence.
Three Parliaments sat during the kingdom's existence. The First Parliament was an appointed chamber of 250 members carried over from the constitutional convention and was never put to a general vote. The Second and Third Parliaments, each of 422 members, were returned at the general elections of 1660 AN and 1665 AN, the only such elections held before the kingdom came to an end.
Constitutional basis
The Parliament was created by the Constitution Act, 2017, the kingdom's founding instrument, ratified by referendum and given Royal Assent by proclamation in 1654 AN. The Act vested legislative power in a single chamber, though its enacting formula preserved the older distinction between Lords and Burgesses. The Standing Orders contemplated the two estates meeting as separate Houses, a provision that was never used. Every act of the Parliament was made "by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Burgesses in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same".
The franchise and the size of the chamber were governed by the Elections Act, 1657, which established the Royal Electoral Commission, fixed parliamentary terms at five years, and provided for a house of 440 members. Each state received a minimum of four seats, with the remainder apportioned by the Jefferson method following a census of population. The Elections Amendment Act, 1659 abolished the minimum-seat floor in favor of pure population apportionment, which yielded the 422-seat chamber returned at both general elections. Members sat for single-member districts drawn by the states, while the Crown Dependencies of Santa Melusina and Elizabeth Isle returned members through the multi-member Dependencies' Electoral District.
History
Three Parliaments were summoned over the kingdom's history, each called to Zalae by a Writ of Summons and opened by the Queen with a Gracious Speech that set out the government's program. The First was an appointed chamber; the Second and Third were elected.
First Parliament (1654 to 1659)
The First Parliament was summoned by an Open Writ of Summons in 1654 AN and opened by Queen Elizabeth I with the first Gracious Speech, which set national revival after the Hammish Civil War as the program of the new state. Its 250 members were the deputies of the constitutional convention that had founded the kingdom, who continued to sit for constituencies across the states without a general election. The National Unity Party was the largest bloc with 128 members, alongside 61 for the National Salvation Party, 20 for the Liberal League, 10 for Hatnuah, and 31 independents. Christophe Landry, an independent, had already been appointed Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government, and the chamber expressed its confidence through the vote on the address in reply.
Once organized, the chamber legislated the institutional framework of the kingdom. Its Standing Orders were adopted by 244 votes to none, with six independent abstentions, and its output included the Judiciary Act, 2017, the Truth and Reconciliation Act, 2017, the Caputian Nationality Act, 2017, the Elections Act, 1657, the Royal Succession Act, 1658, the Local Government Act, 1658, the Neutrality Act, 1658, and the Caputian Code of Law Act, 1658, which established the Codex Faciendum as the kingdom's code of law. Its most divided votes fell on questions of conscience: the Rights and Privileges Act, 1658 first passed by 153 votes to 97 and was passed again by 185 to 64 after the National Unity Party split evenly and the government declared a free vote to head off an early election, while the Oaths of Office Act, 1658 carried by 132 votes to 108, with two cabinet ministers voting against. The Elections Amendment Act, 1659 ordered the First Parliament dissolved by 14 Dankember (14.XIV) 1659 AN, and writs were issued for the first general election.
Second Parliament (1660 to 1665)
The Second Parliament was returned at the general election of 13 to 15 Liebluary (13 - 15.II) 1660 AN, the first general vote in the kingdom. The National Salvation Party of Royston Merrick took 191 seats against 144 for the National Unity Party, 47 for the Liberal League, 15 for Hatnuah, and 25 independents. Merrick was nominated for Prime Minister from the floor by the independent member Claudia Balladur of Northpass, and the Woolsack announced his confirmation by 250 votes to none, a total at variance with the recorded party positions in a chamber of 422. He was appointed on 3 Bulltober (03.X) 1660 AN at the head of a coalition with the National Unity Party.
The chamber legislated through the defining controversies of the kingdom's middle years. It passed the Haifa Referendum Act, 1661 by 419 votes to 3, authorizing the first Haifan independence referendum, and the Second Haifa Referendum Act, 1664 by 359 to 15 with 48 abstentions, with Hatnuah casting the only bloc of votes against and the National Unity Party splitting 96 to 48. It approved the Neo Patrova & Monovia Resettlement Act, 1661, which dissolved the state of Neo Patrova and erected Morovian-Patrovia, and admitted San Pedro as the eleventh state by a unanimous division of 422 in 1663 AN. Other measures included the Judicial Proceedings Act, 1663 and the Civil Defense Act, 1663.
Third Parliament (1665 to 1668)
The Third Parliament was returned at the general election of 1 to 3 Natopuary (01 - 03.VIII) 1665 AN, with six parties represented for the first time: 172 members for the National Unity Party, 156 for the National Salvation Party, 36 for the Liberal League, 34 independents, 14 for Hatnuah, and 10 for the Haifan unionist party Yesh Atid. No party held a majority, and the chamber did not choose a Prime Minister until Tasneber (XIII), five months after the poll. Carrie Fitzwater moved the nomination of Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz of the National Unity Party, while the rebel wing of the National Salvation Party nominated the Governor of Morovian-Patrovia, Augustus Strong, from the back benches. Seydlitz was recommended by 263 votes to 83, with 75 abstentions, a return of 421 in a chamber of 422; the missing vote was that of the Foreign Minister, George Blakeslee, who had not voted when the count closed. The First Seydlitz Government was proclaimed on 12 Tasneber (12.XIII) 1665 AN, and Seydlitz took office the following day.
The chamber codified the transition of power it had just conducted, passing the Government Formation and Transition Act, 1665 by 408 votes to none with 14 abstentions, Hatnuah abstaining as a bloc, as it did on every recorded division of the Third Parliament. The International Cooperation Act, 1665 passed by 372 to 36 over the opposition of the Liberal League, the only bloc of votes cast against a government bill in the Third Parliament's record. The parliamentary record thinned in the kingdom's final years: the National Finance Act and the MTO Membership Act were passed but never entered in the Law Book, and the Courts Organization Act was abandoned in mid-debate. No further general election was held. The White Plague overtook the kingdom in the years that followed, and the Kingdom of the Union of Caputia came to an end on 30 Geburtsber (30.XV) 1668 AN, taking its Parliament with it.
Officers
The presiding officer was the Speaker, who sat on, and was styled, the Woolsack. The Speaker enforced order, ruled on points of order, could suspend a sitting for up to forty-eight hours, and could name a disorderly member to the chamber. Members addressed the chair as My Lord where the Speaker was a peer and as Mr. or Madam Speaker otherwise. Aristotle Shrivenham, known as Lord Bagehot, was the inaugural Speaker and presided over the First and Second Parliaments; by the Third Parliament the chair had passed to the Lady Speaker, Elizabeth Palmerston. The Clerk of the Parliaments tallied ballots for the premiership with the Woolsack and read bills to the chamber on request, and the ceremonial officer Blackrod announced the Sovereign at each State Opening.
No member could speak, vote, or move any business before making the Affirmation of Loyalty. The Oaths of Office Act, 1658 prescribed its text, by which each member affirmed to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I, Her heirs and successors according to law". The Prime Minister sat in the chamber as a member and held the great office of Lord High Steward ex officio, surrendering it with the premiership.
Procedure
The Parliament operated under Standing Orders adopted as a resolution of the First Parliament, introduced by the Landry government and amended on the motion of Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz before passing by 244 votes to none. On the meeting of a new Parliament the previous Speaker took the Woolsack, members made their affirmations, and no legislation could be taken up until a government had been appointed; the incoming Prime Minister's legislative agenda was then debated and voted as a motion of confidence.
The Prime Minister was chosen by ballot of the affirmed members. Nominations opened before the State Opening, a majority was required on the first two ballots, and a plurality sufficed on a third; the Woolsack then recommended the successful candidate to the Queen for appointment. After three failed ballots the Queen could invite any member to form a government. A motion of no confidence was privileged but could be moved only within sixty days of a scheduled dissolution, and passage obliged the government to advise dissolution within ten days; none was ever moved.
Government bills had priority over private members' bills, though a private bill could be taken first by the leave of the government or the unanimous consent of the house. General debate ran for at least forty-eight hours and amendments for at least twenty-four, though the Woolsack often set longer periods of seventy-two or ninety-six hours for bills of constitutional weight; second-degree amendments were in order while third-degree ones were not, and in practice most amendments were accepted as friendly. Members voted aye, no, or present, divisions remained open for twenty-four hours, a quorum was one quarter of the affirmed membership, and a tie failed. The Legislative Committee Act, 2017 created a committee of the whole membership for scrutiny of drafts before introduction, with a waiting list of pending bills known as the Hopper.
The chamber also ratified the Crown's treaties by resolution, at times passing omnibus resolutions to clear an overflow of treaties from the Hopper. Such resolutions carried by simple majority and required no Royal Assent. Passed resolutions were posted in Hansard, statutes of record were entered in the Law Book, and royal proclamations and assent notices were gazetted in the Zalae Gazette.
