Libirachi National Congress

Type
 Empress
 Seats
 Term
 Last Election

The **National Congress of the Libirachi Empire**, normally referred to as the **National Congress** (usually abbreviated **NC**), is the highest organ of state power and the national legislature of the Libirachi Empire. With 2,980 members in 2042, it is the largest parliamentary body in the world. The National Congress meets in full session for roughly two weeks each month and votes on important pieces of legislation. Members are considered to be full-time legislators and are allocated a state salary.

The Libirachi National Congress has a 100 member executive consisting of the chairman of the Congress, members of the Cabinet and government representatives. The chairman has executive control over the LNC and is directly elected by the congress after elections to the body; as such, the government is able to ensure control over the legislative agenda through the appointment of the chairperson. Members of the cabinet are required to attend sessions for the state opening of congress, presidential addresses and the introduction of legislation relevant to their departments; the congress executive has a reserved seating platform at the front of the Hall of Revolution.

Under the Libirachi Constitution, the Libirachi National Congress is structured as a unicameral legislature, with the *de jure* power to legislate and oversee the operations of the government, the supreme court, special committees, the supreme procuratorate, the central military commission and elect the major officers of state. Western media sources commonly describe the Libirachi National Congress as a *de facto* rubber stamping body for the President and the Empress, although the Congress was often the starting place for many of the economic liberalisation bills passed in the early 2000s, and the chamber has grown in importance following the introduction of proportional representation in 2042.

The NC is elected for a term of five years. It holds regular full member sessions twice a month, in the Hall of Revolution on the west side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Congress is also responsible for indirectly electing the president of the Libirachi Empire and elections for the role take place in the first session of congress following legislative elections - congress also retains the power to pass a vote of no-confidence in the government, in which the entire cabinet would be compelled to resign, or to make an impeachment motion against the incumbent president and to appoint a successor, as occurred in 2033 when Damien Salamander was removed from power during the COMPNOR self coup. The Libirachi National Congress is also able to make impeachment motions against any public figure appointed with the consent of congress, such as the vice president, supreme court justices, individual cabinet members and members of the central military commission.

According to the NC, its regular meetings provide an opportunity for the officers of state to review past policies and to present future plans to the nation. The Libirachi National Congress is made up of two distinct political blocs; the government coalition and the National Front coalition. The current government coalition consists of the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, the Revolutionary party and the Imperial Army Political Corps and has been the government since July 2033. The United Front is an alliance of government controlled opposition parties which provide only nominal opposition to the government; the current national front consists of the governing parties, the Socialist party, and the Kuomintang, as well as 12 independent congresspeople. The Coalition for Progress and the Progressive party make up a bloc of independent opposition.

## History

Following the Rebel Alliance's victory in the Libirachi War of Revolution in August 1852, the Imperial Republic of Libirachi was established as the government of the nation and a new form of republican governance was implemented under the leadership of Stanford Rightly, 17th Duke Rightly and Grand Marshal Ashford Longwood. On November 11, 1852, a gathering of 50 delegates from major regions of the nation gathered in Beijing to formally elect Rightly as president; following this election, the group of delegates began to form a legislative council with powers to pass acts of state in lieu of any formal legislature. On December 1, 1952, elections were held for the first Libirachi National Congress, with 2980 independent representatives taking up office as the first congress on January 1, 1853. Despite the first national constitution mandating regular presidential elections, in April 1856 president Stanford Rightly engaged in a vast re-writing of the constitution in a move known as the "Beijing Spring", which effectively allowed him to govern for life. In February 1867, during the third National Congress, the Kuomintang was formed as a political alliance between centre right conservatives within the congress, becoming the first political party to form; in the December 1867 elections, the Kuomintang won 1243 seats in congress. Following the death of President Rightly in 1870, the Kuomintang became a major faction in the ensuing civil war but would ultimately loose out to Ashford Longwood's "Loyalist" faction.

During the presidency of Ashford Longwood, the Libirachi National Congress was effectively abolished after being dissolved on October 15, 1871 and the establishment of the Imperial Ruling Council effectively supplanted the congress as a legislative body. In 1915, three years after the death of Ashford Longwood, President Pearce Longwood re-introduced the Libirachi National Congress and revived the tradition that the vice president simultaneously held the office of chairman of the congress. During the presidencies of A. Longwood, P. Longwood and Morgan, the Libirachi Revolutionary Party became the dominant party in the congress and effectively ruled the nation as a single-party dictatorship; in 1945, the Progressive party became militant in protest against the presidency of Eshter Morgan and initiated an uprising against the state which saw Morgan assassinated and her government crumble, with Progressive leader Xi Kanna assuming power in February 1950 as president. Within congress, the political power structures of the nation were vastly changed as president Xi attempted to entrench the Progressive party into all elements of political life; however following Xi's death in 1970, the Progressive party became embroiled in factional disputes over appointing a new leader, and in order to prevent the beginning of a civil war, the remnants of the Morgan government were invited to form a new government by Congress Chairman Zhou Enlai.

Having led the Revolutionary Socialist party to government in 1970, Jacob Zuma set about attempting a similar process to Xi Kanna's integration of his political party into the National Congress, although thanks to opposition from within the armed forces, the LRSP was never formally appraised as a "core institution" by the National Congress. In 2010, following the victory of Nathan Jackson in the presidential election, Congress was suspended and new elections were called to eliminate the Revolutionary Socialist majority and replace it with the Libirachi Revolutionary Party; during the Jackson presidency, the National Congress became a politically powerful institution as the armed forces attempted to end Jackson's democratisation process. Following the introduction of the Patriot Act (2019) in congress on September 1, 2019, the armed forces launched a coup d'état and installed education secretary Laura Fox as president.

Within months of Fox's appointment as president, the Libirachi National Congress passed the Assent Bill (2019) and a new constitution which formally abolished the Imperial Republic of Libirachi and replaced it with the Fox Dynasty, a monarchical system governed by an emperor with the power to appoint the president and dismiss congress at their whim. In 2022, following the assassination of Laura Fox, congress was dismissed and recalled under the new regent Penny Fox. Following Penny Fox's coronation as empress, a new constitution was passed through congress which once again strengthened the legislature and gave it the power to elect the president and vice president, as well as introducing a mechanism for the chairperson of congress and the president to seek dissolutions or recalls of the congress through the hierarchical system of government. Under this new constitution, congress equally became able to impeach the president, which occurred for the first time in 2033 with the impeachment of President Damien Salamander and the appointment of propaganda minister Karyn Voor in his place.

## Hierarchical System

Within the Fox Dynasty, there is a structured hierarchical system of government whereby lower tiers of government elect the tier above them in order to ultimately elect the president and their government. As the only form of direct election anywhere within the regime, Libirachi citizens elect representatives to town councils on a regular basis to serve a renewable 2 year term; elections are not standardised, nor are they held at the same time everywhere across the nation, leaving the election rules up to the local councils. From these town councils, approximately 20 members are selected to represent the town at a regional congress, typically consisting of 200-300 representatives from across the region/state who are elected to serve a renewable 3 year term in office. Regional congresses then select approximately 100 members to serve a 4 year term on a sector congress, representing around 10-15 different regions/states in the regime. In turn, the sector congresses elect approximately 200 members to serve in the Libirachi National Congress for a 5 year term in office, with the congress being a 2980 member body made up of representatives from all 15 sectors of the nation; in the LNC, representatives are responsible for passing legislation for the entire nation and select a 100-member executive to serve on bill drafting committees and legislation scrutiny bodies, as well as serving on the Central Military Commission. As the first act of each session of congress, a chairperson of the National Congress is elected to lead sessions of the congress - in election years, or the instance that an incumbent president has died, resigned or been impeached, the National Congress is also responsible for the selection and appointment of the president of the Libirachi Empire, who is elected to a fixed length term; in the case of a president being elected mid-term, then they are to complete the remainder of the current term before being eligible to see election to a term of their own. The incumbent president is able to appoint their own cabinet, with members typically being members of the National Congress' executive body. Due to the nature of the tier system, the leader of each tier of government is able to ask the tier below them to "reconsider" its choice of delegates, causing either a reselection of existing delegates or a new election to the congress; in either case, a new congress with a distinct number is formed unless a resolution of the congress explicitly states otherwise.