Elections in Khusqaikama

Geopoeia
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Every year on the first Sunday of April there is an election in Khusqaikama. For the upper house on even years, and for the lower house or district councils on odd years. There are no other elections, and there have been no deviations from this scheme since 1962.

The Khusqaian parliament consists of two chambers, the 'lower house' 下會 (qaxŭei) and the 'upper house' 上會 (sĭaŋxŭei). The upper house cannot be disbanded, and the same is the case for the district councils 郡會 (kĭuŋ-xŭei). The lower house can in principle disband itself, but that has never happened. (And even if the lower house would disband itself, the term of the newly elected lower house would just be the remainder of the original term, hence until the next regularly scheduled lower house election.) This is the reason why Khusqaian elections follow this strict pattern. The only major change since 1962 when the system was implemented is that since 1991 elections are free, while before that only members of the Communist Party of Khusqaikama (CPK) could be elected.

The lower house (qaxŭei) is the legislative chamber. The upper house (sĭaŋxŭei) only convenes to elect a government, to decide on a proposed change in the constitution after that change has been approved by the lower house (which happened last in 1993), and in case fundamental disagreement between government and lower house leads to a (near) crisis (which happens all too frequently). The chairman of the upper house is president of the republic, but has effectively no other duties than chairing the occasional upper house meetings. The prime minister (like the rest of the cabinet and the president elected by the upper house) or a minister (usually the minister of foreign affairs) represents the country internationally.


lower house (qaxŭei)

There are 49 seats in the lower house, elected every 4 years by means of a proportional representation system (remaining seats distributed according to highest number of remaining votes). The following table shows the number of seats won per party.

lower house seats
1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011
CPK 4
DSP 10 12 8 7 11
CPKR 1 2 1 2 3
Alliance P. 3 1 1 1 1 1
KPP 1 3 1 1 1
MPP 21 15 15 15 20 18
PPP 5 3 3 3 3 3
Liberal P. 10 8 6
SEP 3 5 4
FMP 2 1
NLP 11 5 4
Särkaĭ 5 8 6
Prosperity P. 1 3 2 3 1 1
WHP 1 1 1 1 1

Before 1991 all seats in the lower house were occupied by the ruling Communist Party (CPK). (See also: 1962 reforms.)

legislative procedure

Any proposal for a law (both the lower house and the government have right of initiative) has to pass the lower house to become law. Discussion in the lower house can take many years, and often additional research on consequences of a law or policy is requested.

A law passes if it gets a majority of the votes, not necessarily a majority in the house. Usually that difference does not matter, but the spring 2011 proposal by Särkaĭ to legalize same-sex marriage passed with only 14 votes in favor (a record low) because as many as 26 members abstained, including the complete factions of the MPP and PPP (being not in favor, but having no decisive reason to vote against either).

upper house (sĭaŋxŭei)

The number of seats in the upper house depends on population size. Members are elected for a 4-year term, but every two years (approximately) half of the members is elected. Two thirds of those are elected in the districts; one third nationally. (Both district seats and national seats are elected by means of a proportional representation system.) Additionally, there are 3 'special members', representatives of the Buddhist clergy, of the University of Qĭancĭeŋ, and of the judges' union. These three are 'special' only in the way they are elected, not in their rights or duties as members of the upper house. The number of seats per district depends on population size. Akaŋqammaŋkamakĭuŋ has only 1 seat, while Ammuusĭaamakĭuŋ has 9; the other districts are in between.

Because of this system, the upper house is extremely stable. The two largest parties are almost guaranteed to win at least as many seats as there are districts (11) plus a few in the nationally elected segment; and because every two year only half is elected, any changes and electoral trends are (in addition to the district system effects) further spread out and moderated. (For example, the extremely bad results for the Communist Party (CPK) in the first free elections for the lower house in 1991 are not visible at all in the results to the upper house.) This moderating effect is not by design, but if the system would be designed anew, it might turn out exactly the same.

The upper house elects/appoints the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet, which always happens by forming a coalition followed by block voting. (Coalition parties are marked by blue cells in the table below.) However, not all parties that are not part of the coalition are part of the 'against' bloc (and some members abstain), and because of that, minority governments can sometimes be formed, as was the case in 2010. Ministers that where elected in the Upper House keep their seats. (The prime minister has always been an Upper House member, and on average half the ministers are also Upper House members.)

Because of the stability of the upper house, Khusqaikama is probably the only formerly communist country where the former Communist Part (now restyled as the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP)) did not lose power immediately after democratization, although it had to share power with the moderately conservative Buddhist Middle Path Party (MPP) in the coalition government, and the Liberal Party in the lower house, the legislative branch of parliament. (In fact, from April 1991 to April 1992, the Communist Party still was the only party involved in the cabinet, while it had only 4 out of 49 seats in the lower house, and because of that effectively had very little say in the reforms it had to implement.)

The following table shows election results since 1990. The white columns are newly elected members, the grayish columns are the total number of seats per party. The blue cells, as mentioned, are parties in the ruling coalition. The 3 'special members' are included in the totals in the bottom row, but are not (officially) affiliated to any party and therefore not included in any other number.

upper house seats
1990 total 1992 total 1994 total 1996 total 1998 total 2000 total 2002 total 2004 total 2006 total 2008 total 2010 total 2012 total 2014 total
CPK 57 113 57
DSP 15 15 14 29 13 27 15 28 13 28 12 25 13 25 13 26 16 29 16 32 13 29 13 26
CPKR 2 2 2 4 2 4 1 3 1 2 2 3 3 5 3 6 3 6 4 7 5 9
Alliance P. 4 4 2 6 2 4 2 4 1 3 2 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 2 3 1 3 1
KPP 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 3 2 4 1 3 3 4 1 4
MPP 19 19 19 38 19 38 19 38 17 36 19 36 19 38 19 38 15 34 17 32 13 30 11 24
PPP 2 2 3 5 1 4 1 2 2 3 2 4 1 3 2 3 1 3 1 2 3 4 7 10
Liberal P. 8 8 4 12 5 9 3 8 3
SEP 6 6 6 12 6 12 6 12 6
NLP 10 10 9 19 8 17 8 16 9 17 10 19 9 19 9 18
Särkaĭ 4 4 6 10 7 13 6 13 6 12 5 11 7 12 6 13
Prosperity P. 3 3 3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6 2 5 3 5 2 5
WHP 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 3 2 4 2 4 1 3 1
Tĭānraĭ 2 2
Ammuusĭaamadaŋ 1 1 1
Ammaƥuxasataŋ 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 3 1 3 3 4 3 6
Akaŋqammaŋkamadaŋ 1 1 1 2
Cekentyryntaŋ 1 1
total 116 115 112 111 111 112 115 117 120 123 123 124 125

Before 1991 members of the upper house were (elected) representatives of Communist Party committees in factories, farming and fishing cooperatives, villages and neighborhoods, and so forth. (See also: 1962 reforms.)

nationally elected members

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
DSP 3 4 3 4 3 4 4 3 5 6 4 4
CPKR 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
Alliance P. 1
KPP 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
MPP 8 7 8 8 7 7 6 7 5 6 4 3
PPP 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2
Liberal P. 4 2 2 1
SEP 1 2 1 1
NLP 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 3
Särkaĭ 2 2 3 3 3 2 3 2
Prosperity P. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
WHP 1
Tĭānraĭ 1
Ammaƥuxasataŋ 1 1
total 18 18 18 18 18 19 19 20 20 20 20 20

district councils (kĭuŋ-xŭei)

For district council election results, see the pages of the different districts:

Districts (Kĭuŋ) of Khusqaikama
Ŋiśriŋicyykĭyŋ (西二㞲郡) · Niśkitanaĭkĭyŋ (鳬湖郡) · Ammuusĭaamakĭuŋ (棡垚郡) · Cattaƥuxasakĭuŋ (松島郡) · Ammaƥuxasakĭuŋ (大島郡) · Sĭemƥeikĭyŋ (千樺郡)
Inaŋkĭyŋ (南郡) · Akaŋqammaŋkamakĭuŋ (阿杭鵬山郡) · Ŋiśricekentyryŋkĭyŋ (西黑水郡) · Sikaścekentyryŋkĭyŋ (東黑水郡) · Kĭeŋkĭyŋ (京郡)


The following table shows the number of districts (of max. 11) in which a party won seats, participated in the local ruling coalition, and provided the mayor. (For example, the DSP was represented in 1993 in all 11 district councils, in 2 local coalitions, and in 1 of those two the mayor belonged to the DSP.)

regional election success
1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013
DSP 11/2/1 11/2/1 11/3/1 11/6/4 11/8/4 11/6/5
CPKR 8/1 7 7 8 10/1 10/2
Alliance P. 4 2 2 3/1 3 1
KPP 9/1 9 9 9 8
MPP 11/10/9 11/10/8 11/11/7 11/10/4 11/7/3 11/9/1
PPP 10/1 11/1 11/3/1 10/5 10/3 11/3
Liberal P. 6/3 8/4
SEP 8/5/1 8/5/2
FMP 2 3
NLP 11/6/3 11/3/2 11/5/2 11/5/2
Särkaĭ 9/1 10/1 9/2 10/3/1
Prosperity P. 8/3 6/1 6/2 6/3 6/3 7/2
WHP 2 2 2 3 1
regional parties 3/2 4/1 9/3 6/2/1 6/3/2 7/4/2

see also