ROXANNA FEDERAL WIZENGAMOT
GOVERNENCE
The Roxanna Federal Wizengamot the legislative assembly of the United Federation of Roxanna. It is an elected body consisting of 79 councillors elected based on the single transferable vote form of proportional representation, and will serve a term of 3 years. The Wizengamot is led by the Speaker, assisted by the Secretary General.
As per the constitution of Roxanna, the Wizengamot exercises supreme decision-making authority. It passes legislation, including the budget and oversees the activities of the executive. All three branches of the government are subject to stringent separation of powers: No person can be a member of more than one branch concurrently, e.g. a councillor who is actively serving cannot hold a position in the judiciary or executive.
Candidacy
All 79 councillors are elected directly by ballot on the basis of proportional representation, with an expected term length of 3 years. Every Roxannan citizen who is at least 16 years of age on the election date is entitled to vote, and aside from certain exceptions, any voter may also stand as a candidate for the Wizengamot. Since the Wizengamot elections always occur after the executive and judicial elections, those elected to the aforementioned duties are automatically disqualified as well.
Each councillor represents a specific constituency or district. A certain number of districts will make up a borough, though there are districts that stand alone as a borough as well. Each councillor has a shadow counterpart, usually the first runner up in the polls. Though permitted to attend Wizengamot sessions, they are barred from debates and voting on the general assembly floor.
Although each borough is led by a speaker among the councillors of the borough, and a speaker is recognized as the de facto leader of a borough, decisions made by individual councillors are rarely influenced by the speaker’s own. Each councillor has to be fully accountable to his/her constituents, and will meet them every Wednesday in a borough council assembly to listen and address their concerns.
If at any point of time a significant proportion of the constituents feel dissatisfied with their councillor, district level flash elections can be called. Political parties though not outlawed, are frowned upon as they are perceived to negatively impact each councillor’s representation of his/her constituency.
The expected term for a councillor is 3 years. However, if a councillor dies, resigns, ceases to be qualified or is facing a vote of no confidence, the seat falls vacant and if there is a plenary session scheduled in between the time the seat fell vacant and a new district level election, the seat is usually filled in the interim by the councillor’s shadow counterpart.
Legislative Proceedings
Bills can be introduced by the executive or a councillor, and requires two other councillors to endorse it for it to proceed. Once the bill is endorsed, it is referred to the appropriate committee and the judiciary for review and consideration. If the bill is reviewed and considered legal, it is then formally introduced to the assembly floor, debated and a preliminary vote is taken. If preliminary support for the bill is less than 25%, it will be considered held and returned to the author for amendments, or dismissed after 3 days. If the bill passes the first vote, it will be further refined and usually amended before being debated and put up for a second vote. If passed, the bill is submitted to the executive and enforced as law. However, if the Wizengamot comes to a different conclusion in the second debate, a third and final debate will determine if the bill is passed or dismissed. The executive does not have veto powers to stop a bill, but can submit a proposal for repealing the bill.
The Wizengamot works on all weekdays, with plenary sessions meeting on every Tuesday and Friday, and with Wednesday reserved for the borough council assembly. Monday and Thursday are open to committee meetings. Any councillor or member of the executive, with sufficient support from both branches may approach the Speaker for an emergency Wizengamot session.
Just as the Wizengamot is held accountable by the people, the executive is held accountable by the Wizengamot. Members of the executive and their actions will be reviewed in the Friday session, where the Lord Mayor and his/her deputies will sit in front of the Wizengamot, though not as voting members.
Composition & Seating
The Wizengamot sits in the Quorum Hall in Firesycles, and adopts a hemicycle format. Members are seated according to their branch affiliation and councillors by their constituencies.
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Leaders of the Wizengamot sit on the central podium. The Speaker's seat is to the right and currently coloured yellow, as the incumbent Speaker Hermione Burns is the councillor for South Tome, an Outer Roxanna borough. To the left is the Secretary General, coloured cyan as per the incumbent's affiliation.
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The 12 seats of the Mayoral Team are coloured in grey, and are seated to the lower left, led by the Lord Mayor in the front seat. Directly opposite is the 10-seat Judicial Delegation led by the Chief Justice, with their seats in green. Seats held by the Mayoral Team and Judicial Delegation are non-voting seats.
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Councillors hold the 79 voting seats, which includes seats of the 2 leaders. The remaining 77 seats are divided into 3 geographical sectors
