Valruzia

[Aethan]

Valruzia elects members of its Constitutional Convention

The 200-member assembly will now be tasked with a draft of a new Valruzian Constitution

May 5715

Constitutional Convention on its first official meeting

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40 delegates per Voivodeship. 200 members elected. These people are now tasked with the mission of drafting the most comprehensive reform of the Valruzian Constitution after special elections were called by the goverment of Chancellor Zenon Golas with the aim to reform not only Valruzia's executive power in order to merge the Presidency and the Chancellery, but also to create a third parliamentary chamber and modify the functions of the Parliament of the Regions, Valruzia's upper chamber. 

With a turnout of 86%, official parties were banned from running candidates, and instead ad hoc lists had to be made to run:

Walruzja Pierwsza (Valruzia First) – 68 delegates

Razem Naprzód (Forward Together) – 53 delegates

Dla Przyszłości (For the Future) – 47 delegates

Obrona Narodowa (National Defence) – 19 delegates

Odbudowa (Rebuild) – 13 delegates

The Constitutional Convention held its inaugural session on the 12th May, 5715, in the Grand Hall of the Sejm of Valruzia with its 200 delegates arriving to represent the divergent visions of what Valruzia should become. 

From the outset, it became clear the night of the results that no single bloc will dominate the proceedings. Walruzja Pierwsza, the largest group with 68 delegates and the one who managed to elect the President of the Constitutional Convention, lawyer Agata Zuba, advocates for a strong, unified executive under a President-Chancellor, arguing that the current dual structure is "not functional". It is largely associated with Sovereign Valruzia, although the Communist Party of Valruzia has also campaigned for some of its members to be elected.

Razem Naprzód, with 53 delegates, has positioned itself as a support for executive merger in principle but insisted on robust parliamentary oversight mechanisms and an elected and not appointed third chamber that would not significantly alter the "delicate equilibrium" of Valruzia's economic structure, while Dla Przyszłości, despite holding 47 seats, is perhaps the most internally divided group, as its delegates range from federalist reformers who want to dramatically expand the powers of the Parliament of the Regions to more cautious voices wary of any reform that might weaken the Voivodeships' autonomy.

For this Constitutional Conventions, three major questions are expected to dominate its work over the coming months, as proposed by the national government:

• The Executive merger: The government's original mandate calls for the fusion of the Presidency and the Chancellery into a single office, directly elected by the population following the same mechanism as the current President, and therefore not being elected by the Sejm. 
  

• The Third chamber: Perhaps the most controversial of the proposals of the government, its idea is to create a third chamber of functional popular representation. Unlike the Sejm, elected by universal suffrage, or the Parliament of Regions, composed of territorial delegates, the new chamber, provisionally called by the government as the Rada Ludowa (People's Council), would be made up not of individual citizens, but of organizations representing collective interests, such as labor unions, peasant federations, cooperatives, professional associations, youth organizations and public sector unions. This idea, championed most enthusiastically by the left wing of Walruzja Pierwsza and several independent delegates linked to the labor movement, comes from a simple premise: that universal suffrage alone is insufficient to represent the structural interests of working society.
  
  According to the preliminary draft already circulated by its promoters, the Ludowa Rada would have between 120 and 150 seats distributed among large representative blocc, including a Labor Bloc (industrial, service and public sector unions), Agricultural Bloc (peasant federations, agricultural cooperatives), Professional Bloc (associations of doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers...), Cooperative Bloc (collectively owned enterprises, mutual societies and housing associations) and Youth and Community Bloc (student, neighborhood and social action organizations). Its powers would be deliberative and review-based, with the capacity to temporarily veto labor, tax and social legislation, forcing a second reading in the Sejm with a supermajority for its final approval.
  

• The Parliament of the Regions. The current upper chamber might be transformed into an official chamber where the Voivodeships' governments would be able to meet and discuss regional matters, therefore replacing the Conference of Marshalls in a broad sense.
  

However, this are only the proposals of the government and now that the box is open, the Convention is free to draft their own proposals and conclusions, independent from the ideas and thoughts of the Valruzian government. Now, the Convention has been given a formal mandate of eighteen months to produce a draft constitution, which will then be submitted to a national referendum.