Politics of Abayad

Political System of the Republic of Abayad

State type	Unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Abayad
Legislative branch
Name	National Assembly of the Abayadi Republic
Type	Bicameral
Meeting place	Abayadi Republican Palace
Presiding officer	Layla Qadir Prime Minister
Executive branch
Head of State
Title	Chancellor of the Republic of Abayad
Currently	Arun Salid
Appointer	Direct Popular Vote
Head of Government
Title	Prime Minister of Abayad
Currently	Layla Qadir
Appointer	Chancellor of the Republic of Abayad, confirmed by the National Assembly
Cabinet
Name	Cabinet of Governmental Ministries
Current cabinet	Qadir Cabinet
Leader	Prime Minister of Abayad
Deputy leader	Deputy Cabinet Leader, traditionally also Minister of Home Affairs
Appointer	Prime Minister, with advice and consent from National Assembly
Headquarters	Abayadi Republican Palace
Ministries	15
Judicial branch
Name	Supreme Court of Appeals Supreme Court of Commercial and Administrative Claims
Constitutional Court
Seat	Chief Justice

The Politics of Abayad take place in a framework of a Unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic whose government is based on a parliamentary system, whereby the Chancellor is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Politics in Abayad are divided into four primary branches: the Chancellor, the National Assembly, the government (used to refer to the Prime Minister and their Cabinet), and the Judiciary, as established by the Constitution. The structure of the constituent provinces of the republic is complex, multilayered, and non-uniform due to the country's history of fragmentation. Consequently, there is no common administrative unit encompassing the republic, although all ultimately remain subservient to the national government.

Executive power is shared by the Chancellor and Prime Minister, who is advised by the Cabinet of Ministers. Legislative power is vested within the National Assembly, a two-chambered legislature comprising the Chamber of Merchants and the People's Chamber. Judicial power is exercised by the judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Commercial and Administrative Claims, the Constitutional Court, and all unitary and provincial tribunals.

Politics in Abayad are dominated by two primary parties: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (IRP) (also called the Hamalism) and the Rally for Democracy Party (RDM). Both founded in 1906 following the lifting of the ban on political parties, they are the only parties to have Chancellors or Prime Ministers elected, or to have the control of majorities in the National Assembly. Minor parties include the Labor Party (LP), Party for National Understanding (PNU), Party for Abayadi Renewal (PAR), the Abayadi Social Republicanist Party (ASRP), and the Party for Solidarity and Urban Development (PSD). Most smaller parties formed in the late 20th century as a result of dissatisfaction with the two main parties, although they have remained in power.

According to a survey by the National University in 2019, 74 percent of Abayadis believe that the republic's electoral system is transparent and trust official results.

Political Culture

In the aftermath of the 1866 Revolution, the Constitution of the Republic of Abayad provided a legal framework for the new government. It banned all forms of political parties, as revolutionary leader Karom Fasan feared that sectarianism would lead to the republic's fracturing and dissolution. Nevertheless, two primary ideological factions arose early in Abayad's political history, the Populists and Drivers. Populists favored state intervention in the economy to promote income equality, whereas the Drivers preferred free market economic strategies. These groups do not translate perfectly to modern politics, and can be seen more as early wings of the IRP. Abayad's first Chancellor, Asraf Hamal, was a close ally of Fasan's from the days of the revolution, and played a crucial role in shaping what would become the IRP. In fact, hard-line members of the IRP today who subscribe to Hamal's ideas refer to themselves as Hamalists, cementing his legacy. The abolition of the ban on parties in 1906 came as part of a wave of political liberalization in Abayad that ended the proto-IRP's strangehold on politics, and beginning the two-party era. The Rally for Democracy Party, originally named the Liberal Party, became the other major force in Abayadi politics, with the IRP forming in response of legalization of party politics.

National Assembly

The Abayadi Republican Palace

Main article: National Assembly of the Republic of Abayad

The National Assembly of the Republic is the supreme legislative body in Abayad, and the nation's Government is drawn from it and answerable to it. The National Assembly is bicameral, consisting of the Chamber of Merchants and People's Chamber, formed as a compromise between the former ruling Merchant Class and the revolutionary victors of the 1866 Revolution.

Chamber of Merchants

Merchant's Deputies are elected from specially drawn electoral boundaries called Masras. Every ten years, masra lines are redrawn according to tax records to ensure that each one receives equal representation in the National Assembly. Each financial person/corporation of significant size receives votes based on their wealth to elect deputies. Constitutionally, there can not be more than 33% of the People's Chamber standing in the Chamber of Merchants. The Chamber of Merchants must ratify by simple majority any bill passed by the People's Chamber as well as the nominated Prime Minister, but not for a vote of no confidence.

People's Chamber

Abayad is divided into electoral constituencies by the National Electoral Boundary Commission. Each constituency elects People's Deputies to the People's Chamber at general elections, and, if required, at snap elections, in a proportional amount to its population. People's Deputies serve five year repeatable terms and generally are thought of as being the more powerful of the two houses, having more powers and wider authority to exercise them. The People's Chamber elects the Prime Minister, can pass a motion of no confidence to trigger a snap election, and proposes as well as voting on bills.

Prime Minister and Cabinet

The Prime Minister is symbolically appointed by the Chancellor following legislative elections, after having been elected by a majority from the National Assembly. Usually, the person named is the leader of the largest party in the previous election, but there have been exceptions over the years. As head of government, the Prime Minister appoints cabinet ministers and coordinates their actions, is accountable to the National Assembly, and keeps the Chancellor informed. The Prime Minister can hold the role of head of government while simultaneously overseeing a cabinet department, although this is rare. There is no limit to the number of terms a person can serve as Prime Minister.

The Council of Ministers is an executive body that is presided over and answers directly to the Prime Minister. Each Minister presides over an administrative agency making up Abayad's various civil departments and services. The Prime Minister appoints cabinet ministers with the advice and consent of the National Assembly, and may request their resignation or call for a vote of impeachment by the People's Chamber (but may not simply dismiss them). There are fourteen cabinet ministries in total, although one individual may be placed in charge of multiple ministries at the same time. The Minister of Home Affairs is the Prime Minister's formal second in command, and is designated to temporarily take over the post of Prime Minister if they are incapacitated for any reason. The cabinet ministries are:

Cabinet Ministry	Jurisdiction	Minister
Home Affairs	Manages state-owned lands, emergency management, national security, supervision of local government, registration, conducting elections, immigration.	Example
Justice	Oversees administration of justice, organization of justice system, overseeing the public prosecutor and national investigative agencies, maintaing legal system and public order, directing police departments.	Example
Finance	Oversees monetary policy, taxation, spending, currency, inter-bank interest rates, money supply.	Example
Commerce and Industry	Regulates external trade, promotes economic growth, makes decisions regarding utilities and electricity production, presiding over business mergers, sets national labor standards, labor dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, lobbies corporations to build facilities in Abayad.	Example
Education	Addresses concerns of quality of schools, standardization of curriculum, carries out official policy on education and vocational training.	Example
Health and Public Wellness	Develops national health policy, represents national interests of Abayad within international health organizations.	Example
Transportation and Highways	Oversees road and rail line safety, civil aviation, maritime transport, rail transport, develops government transportation policy, organizes public transport, maintains and directs infrastructural projects.	Example
Small Enterprises	Promotes and supports entrepreneurs and small business owners.	Example
Rural Development and Tribal Affairs	Promotes economic and infrastructural development of rural areas and looks after the affairs of Tinifghani tribal groups in Abayad.	Example
Consumer Affairs and Food Processing Standards	Carries out government policy on enforcement of corporate regulatory law and consumer protections and standards law, protects of intellectual property.	Example
Communications and Broadcasting	Formulates and administers rules, regulations, and laws in the areas of information, broadcasting, the press, and cinema, manages all state media.	Example
Petroleum and Natural Gas	Formulates and administers government policy regarding energy markets, production, conservation, energy-related resource, and electricity production.	Example
Agriculture, Forestry, Water Resources, Conservation, and Animal Husbandry	Develops and executes government policy relating to farming, forestry, resource management, conservation of endangered species, and food production.	Example
Heavy Industry, Mining, Coal, Steel, and Public Enterprises	Sets government policy regulating "public" corporations receiving partial public funding, assists public corporations in efforts to improve capacity utilization and increase profitability, generates resources and re-orients strategies to assist them in becoming more profitable.	Example

Chancellor

The Palace of the Chancellor

The Chancellor serves as the primary executive of the Abayadi government, being directly elected by popular vote and serving one six-year term. The Chancellor is the commander in chief of the military, as well as being the primary organ of conducting foreign affairs with other states. Technically, the Chancellor must select a Prime Minister from the majority party in the National Assembly to form a government, but historically they have always simply selected the party leader already put forward by the majority party, effectively confirming rather than appointing them directly. A Chancellor may also submit a bill of no confidence to the People's Chamber to dissolve the current government, and may also submit a bill of jurisdiction of call the Constitutional Court into session. The Chancellor nominates all federal judges, although they may defer this right to the Minister of Justice (normally done when they are of the same party). Whoever nominates them, they must be confirmed by the People's Chamber.

In their role as the primary organ of foreign affairs, the Chancellor appoints and receives all ambassadors from foreign nations, as well as Abayad's ambassadors to foreign entities as well.  The Chancellor signs all treaties on behalf of the nation, although any signature of a treaty that incurs diplomatic, economic, or defense implications on Abayad must be confirmed by a national referendum. The Chancellor technically retains the power to declare war via a Bill of Declaration of War or Siege, which must be passed by a majority of both houses of the National Assembly.

Judiciary

The national Supreme Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Commercial and Administrative Claims are the courts of last appeal in criminal or civil matters, respectively. Military are designated as separate, under the authority of the Chancellor. A thirteen-member Constitutional Court can be assembled if a Bill of Jurisdiction is passed by the People's Chamber, submitted either by the Chancellor, the Prime Minister, or People's Deputy. The Constitutional Court is normally assembled for novel cases that cannot be handled by conventional courts, often with considerable pressure from public backlash after an unpopular ruling at the highest level.

Provincial and Local Governments

Abayad's fragmented history means that the nation's administrative divisions and nonstandard and nonuniform in character. Prior to the founding the of Republic in 1866, most of the country was divided into multiple districts called masras, each ruled by a single or group of Merchant Families. Some regions remained outside of direct control of the Merchant families, retaining the ancient provincial divisions from the Qabli Empire. These for the most part were "royal cities," ostensibly ruled by a governor or steward but practically ruled by the Merchant Families still. These divisions got their names from the ancient imperial divisions, with cities contained within provinces called jahir, townships called balda, and rural areas called mawnisi. The majority of these old divisions that survived to the foundation of the Republic were jahir, but examples of all three remained.

Provincial Governments

With the creation of the Republic, the need arose for new divisions. The treaty ending the war preserved the masras, making their use to serve as constituencies to elect Merchant's Deputies in the National Assembly's Upper House. To facilitate elections for People's Chamber in the lower house, new divisions called hafaz were drawn. Originally, hafaz were meant to be equal in population to ensure equal representation, but this idea was scrapped and they were instead based on geography, with number of People's Deputies allotted to each based on population.  Feudal-era divisions were preserved as well, with the apportionment rules for allotment of representatives having the same rules as hafaz with each having a minimum of one. This leads to some unevenness in representation, with residents in rural mawnisi receiving the minimum one representative despite not meeting the apportionment requirement for them.

In the 1970s, new division lines were drawn to facilitate semi-autonomous status for Tinifghani tribes living in the inland Bula Mountains. The two new kinds of division made were qubila for individual "bands" or tribes of Tinifghani, and alahitanu or reserves for large groups. Qubilas receive non-voting observers to the People's Chamber of the National Assembly, whereas alahitanu receive a proportional amount of representatives according to population.

Local Governments

Further divisions exist for urban jahir as well as metropolitan hafaz. Jahir are further divided into mudakhin for administrative purposes, Abayadi for "chimneys" reflecting the ancient origins of the system. The more modern hafaz division are subdivided into mayhalin for administrative purposes as well, generally being equal in population at least inside the hafaz. Hafaz with larger populations are divided to a third level, awdar, to make governing and elections easier, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

Elections

Abayad's Constitution assures Universal Suffrage to all citizens above the age of nineteen, although individuals convicted of certain felonies have their suffrage right suspended during the time that they are imprisoned, and individuals that are mentally disabled and placed under the tutorship of another may not vote as well. Elections for Chancellor are held every six years, with candidates elected by a simple first-past-the-post system. When one reaches a simple majority of the national vote, they are declared winner. National Assembly elections are held every four years, instead employing a ranked system in which Abayadis vote for party rather than individual politicians. This reflects a dramatic change from the original ban on political parties from the republic's founding. The current system was established in the 1980s to prevent individual politicians from gaining too much power outside of the party apparatuses, forcing Deputies to follow the policies of their parties (and what their constituents voted for).

Political Parties

Abayad has two primary political parties: the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Rally for Democray! Party, as well as several smaller parties.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (IRP), also described as Hamalism, is the name that devotees of Abayad’s first Chancellor Asraf Hamal and his successors' philosophy took in the wake of the ban being lifted. Although parties were banned for the first forty years, Chancellors and governments matching the party's ideology controlled Abayad during this era. They associate themselves strongly with the republic’s founder Fason and other symbols/elements of the Abayadi Revolution, and represent the culmination of Hamal’s philosophy and support state intervention in the economy, as well as state mediation in labor disputes. Later, they would endorse syndicates to be created between workers and owners mediated by the state as well. They also commonly advocate for state funding of the arts. The IRP’s strongest voting blocs are the lower class, especially in rural areas, along with military and government employees. Above all, they believe the government should be a guiding hand in Abayad's prosperity.

The Rally for Democracy! Party, originally the Liberal Party, supports ideas such as loosening government restrictions on industry and scaling back the state’s role in the economy. The party got its new name when they rebranded themselves in the early 1970s, experiencing a wave of popularity in the face of lagging IRP support. They have historically fought for better voting rights and representation across Abayad's administrative districts, as well as for increasing the political rights of the Tinifghani peoples. Members of the RDP say the state should not prop up facilities that cannot be profitable on their own, even in the pursuit of preserving Abayadi culture. Most supporters are from Abayad's urban areas, and perhaps their most solid voting blocs are the middle class.

The Labor Party (Labor) is an offshoot of the IRP, breaking off around the 1960s, as workers began to become more and more conscious as a class. Affiliated with but not closely tied to the Socialist parties of other nations, the Labor Party has an increasingly high affinity with urban lower class voters as well as rural workers in certain trades, particularly miners.

Many other single-issue parties are represented in Abayad's National Assembly, such as the Party of National Understanding (PNU) formed in the 70s, a party that began with students in urban areas but has since spread, the Party for Abayadi Renewal (PAR) formed in the 50s, a fairly isolationist party with a religious base while supporting steep tariffs, the Abayadi Social Republicanist Party (ASRS), a leftist party based on Florencian politics, and the Party for Solidarity and Development (PSD), a coalition of rural Abayadis and Tinifghanis pushing for greater rural development in the nation founded in the late 80s.