President of Alsland

President of the United Provinces of Alsland
Foarsitter fan de Feriene Provinsjes Aalslân Präsident der Vereinigten Provinzen von Aalslanden Foresitter af þe Gadorsċiras af Ẹlsland Alsmaa Ühendatud Provintside President
Incumbent Hepke Veltman since 25 April 2020
Style	His Excellency (in international relations only)
Status	Head of State
Residence	Mareikehûs (Yndyk)
Appointer	Popular vote
Term length	Four years
Inaugural holder	Siemen Hartmann
Formation	31 October 1919
Salary	€100,000 annually
Website	www.foarsitter.as

The President of the United Provinces of Alsland (Dellish: Foarsitter fan de Feriene Provinsjes Aalslân, Weranian: Präsident der Vereinigten Provinzen von Aalslanden, Swathish: Foresitter af þe Gadorsċiras af Ẹlsland, Kirenian: Alsmaa Ühendatud Provintside President) is the head of state of Alsland.

The President of Alsland has considerably less power than it's counterparts in Gaullica but unlike the Azmaran Presidency, the Alslandic Presidency still exercises considerable powers in political affairs such as the ability to veto laws which could be seen as violating the constitution of Alsland and representing Alsland internationally. However most of the President's powers have been given to the Folkssenaat and Premier making the role of the Presidency little more than a Figurehead.

Selection process

Eligibility

A Presidential candidate must be a citizen of Alsland who is at least 30 years old, has resided within Alsland for the last 10 years and doesn't currently hold any foreign citizenship. A Presidential candidate must also have gained at least 70,000 signatures of registered voters or any Alslandic citizen who is 16 or over or have been nominated by any political party with Federal or Provincial representation.

Historically, a candidate must have been a member of the Folkssenaat to be eligible for the Presidency however this was removed after the 1937 Constitution was adopted. A candidate also had to have served in the Alslandic Armed Forces to be eligible, Senators who served in the Kirenian Army before Alslandic Independence such as Villem Mand and Kei Holwerda were also eligible for the Presidency before the adoption of the 1937 constitution removed this criteria.

The Alslandic constitution limits a President to two five year terms in office. Previously, there was no limit to how many terms a President could seek but following the 1937 Constitution, official term limits were introduced for Presidents. Efforts were made to remove term limits from the constitution most notably in 1999 and again in 2017.

Election

Candidates in a Presidential Election can be nominated by any political party with Federal or Provincial representation in the most recent election. A candidate can also be nominated if they receive 70,000 registered voters. Direct elections for the Presidency were introduced in 1940, previously the President was appointed by Senators and needed a plurality of Senators to vote for them to be appointed.

If no nominated candidate can secure a majority in the election, a second round will be held between the two candidates with the most votes. The candidate that secures the most votes in the second round is elected as President. If a candidate withdraws during the second round, the other candidate is the winner by default.

If only one candidate is nominated they will become President without an election being held. This has only occurred once when in 1940 Villem Mand was declared winner by default after no other nominees were put forward. The Functionalist candidate was disqualified and their signatures were discarded despite having enough signatures to be placed on the official ballot.
Results of the second round of the 2020 presidential election:

Candidate		Party
				Votes	%
	Hepke Veltman	Liveable Delland		X	50.3
	Sjearp Groeneveld	Green - Alternative Choice		X	49.7
Source: Department of Justice

Inauguration

The President-elect, along with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Speaker of the Folkssenaat and the outgoing President assumes office on the TBD of TBD by taking the Presidential oath in the Chamber of the Folkssenaat in Dellish or Weranian or Swathish and in some cases Estmerish or Kirenian.

"I, (First Name, Surname) elected by the people of the United Provinces of Alsland as President of Alsland, hereby affirm my duties as stated in the constitution to uphold the Constitution of the Republic and the Laws of the Republic, and to work for the wellbeing of the citizens of the Alslandic state."

The term of the President-Elect begins after the swearing in, usually at mid-day. Following the inauguration the new President will deliver a speech to a session of the Folkssenaat before then being accompanied to inspect a guard of honour outside the Folkssenaat building. This is usually followed by a ceremonial wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier in Yndyk to commemorate those who gave their lives in the defence of Alsland.

Duties and functions

Foreign relations

Hepke Veltman in Estmere in 2019

Political affiliation

Most Alslandic Presidents are members of a political party and many have been former or current leaders or high ranking members of a party. The only exceptions to this were Tys Jonker between 1950-1960, Jimte Gorter who was appointed President following the death of X and served from 1989-1990 and Gwen Ritter who was appointed as President following the resignation and served between 2008-2010.

Efforts have been made to make the Presidency a non-partisan position but all attempts have failed due to a lack of support and interest. The Presidency was intended to become a non-partisan position following the Liberation of Alsland but President Liuwke Talsma and Premier Villem Mand both objected to the proposal which subsequently was not included in the 1937 Constitution.

Succession

The current Speaker of the Folkssenaat is Arved Levandi.

There is no office of Vice-President in Alsland, instead the Speaker of the Folkssenaat is designated as the official deputy of the President. If the office of President becomes vacant through resignation, death, illness or impeachment the Speaker of the Folkssenaat will become President and will serve the remainder of the former President's term or until they are able to fulfil their constitutional duties.

A President may temporarily hand over powers to the Speaker of the Folkssenaat. This has several times. The first instance was when President Liuwke Talsma delegated his powers as President to Vinzenz Lux shortly after the Liberation of Alsland when it was still unclear if Talsma was eligible for the position as President due to the period of time that had passed during the occupation of Alsland. The most recent instance of this was in 2020 when President Hepke Veltman delegated his powers to Arved Levandi whilst he was undergoing surgery after Veltman was injured after crashing his bicycle in a public park in Yndyk.

There are two cases of this happening in Alslandic history. On 1 December 1989, President X suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead when Paramedics arrived. The speaker of the Folkssenaat was Jimte Gorter who was sworn in an hour following X's death. Gorter fulfilled the rest of X's term until a successor could be chosen.

Impeachment and removal

While in office, the president is not immune to prosecution. The only mechanism for a President to be removed from office by the Folkssenaat is by impeachment for any perceived act of breaking Alslandic law. In the event of a vote of impeachment, a session of the Folkssenaat will occur and all members must vote whether to remove the President from Office or to vote to keep a President in office. A 2/3rds majority is needed to impeach a President. If this is reached a President will be impeached and ineligible to run for any political office in Alsland unless the motion of impeachment is repealed by an act of the Folkssenaat. The impeachment case will then be passed onto the Alslandic supreme court which will decide if a President should be removed from office. If a majority on the supreme court decide to remove a President from office they will be removed immediately and the Speaker of the Folkssenaat will become President until the next election.

Attempts at impeachment have occurred historically. Liuwke Talsma was impeached as President in 1930 after the 19XX Alslandic Coup. Talsma who along with Villem Mand was leading the Alslandic government in exile dismissed the impeachment and called the Folkssenaat: "illegitimate in it's current form." Upon the liberation of Alsland the impeachment was declared illegitimate by the supreme court alongside any other acts passed by the functionalist government.

In 1979, President Hinne Jorritsma faced an impeachment attempt after an affair with his secretary was revealed to the public. The impeachment attempt failed to gain much support and was defeated with a plurality of Senators abstaining on the vote.

Presidential office and symbols

Transportation

The Alslandic Government use a modified TBD for official government flights.