Valruzia

[Aethan]

Sejm approves electoral reform and new Chamber

The Parliament of the Regions ("Parlament Regionów") will be located in Brzansk, Ruzia

August 5693

Building of the Sejm in Nowogard (left) and new building for the Parliament of the Regions in Brzansk, Ruzia (right)

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Late last night, the Valrucian Sejm finally approved a comprehensive electoral reform that will come into effect in time for the next elections in 5695.

In two separate votes, the SW-NW coalition government scored two points by securing the necessary support for the two new constitutional reforms relating to the elections, with 428 votes in favor of the first (SW, NW, RA, NO and SWA) and 447 in favour of the second (including the votes of GiP in this case). The KPW voted against both reforms, and its leader, Roksana Parzych, justified her negative vote by arguing that, in her opinion, these reforms undermine representativeness and seek to favour the government's allies and penalise the KPW.

Despite this, both reforms have now been passed and President Pawlik is expected to sign them into law, making them part of the Constitution of Valruzia.

The first reform, which modifies the electoral system, changes the way seats are distributed so that, starting with the next elections, seats will be allocated based on the national vote percentage, among parties that exceed the 3% threshold at the national level. This reform mainly favors parties that in certain regions, such as Our Homeland in Kampania or Dignity and Progress in more conservative regions, did not exceed the 3% regional threshold and therefore lost seats. In this way, the Voivodeships will no longer allocate seats, making this the most profound electoral reform since the transition to democracy. The marshall of Campania, Anton Sajdak (KPW), has spoken critically of the reform, accusing Krystian Barela's central government of harming smaller regions, such as Kampania and Chynberg, by diminishing and diluting their representation, as "Deputies lose focus on who they represent and gain greater impunity for their actions".

On the other hand, the Parliament of the Regions, which will now be based in what was the former presidential residence of Szczepan Morawski in Brzansk, will also elect its first members in the upcoming elections. And what will this election ultimately look like? According to the text finally approved, the Parliament of the Regions will be made up of 50 representatives, 10 per region, who must be elected indirectly from among the national representatives in a distribution proportional to the results in each Voivodeship of the results at national level. The government justifies this change on the grounds that the equal distribution of parliamentarians among Voivodeships – who are expected to be called regional senators – will compensate for the difference in representation in the Sejm and give all regions the same political weight in future discussion.

The functions of this new chamber will relieve the Sejm of regional debates, which will be held exclusively in the new chamber. In this way, it will not meet as regularly as the Sejm does, but only when it is necessary to discuss regional issues with those representatives selected from the Sejm.

"Today, thanks to the cooperation and vision of the vast majority of representatives in this chamber, we are passing new electoral legislation that looks to the future, benefits our country and will improve the quality of political debate among us all. I would like to thank all the parliamentary groups that voted in favor for their generosity and their contribution to the passage of this new laws, and I hope that this will set a precedent for further work during the remainder of the legislative term" said Chancellor Krystian Barela at the close of the parliamentary session, after midnight. With only a year and a half before the next elections, it will not be long before we see how this reform will affect the new parliamentary composition, and how will parties handle it.

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