Tamwull Government

The Tamwull Government is a republic governmental system that runs at a federal and state/province level. It allows citizens of Tamwull to vote for their elected officials every 4 years. It was created by Henrik Eklund after the Erstal Rebellion.

## Original

Immediately after his victory in the Erstal Rebellion, Henrik Eklund needed to enforce a general governance on the freed slaves while he designed another system that would be more applicable and fair. In the end he proposed a council system that would be led by a president, though all positions were to be elected.

The council was comprised of 6 members and a president that would vote on various laws and decisions. The members would be used by the president to focus or specialise on certain governing tasks.

With such a high level of popularity, Henrik was elected president, along with 6 other former slaves. To rebuild, he began giving tasks to the 6 members of the council, construction of the city, defence/military, trade, finances, health and education. He would take over certain areas when required but in general, the council was effective.

## Current

Now that the council was running effectively, Henrik had time to create a plan for a functioning and democratic government system.

### Structure

The Tamwull Government is legally enforced and created from the Tamwull Constitution. Section 1 of the  constitution creates a democratic legislature through a bicameral government consisting of an Upper and Lower house where legislation is voted on. Section 2 provides the Tamwull Government its legislative powers, allocation certain powers and responsibilities to the Federal Government, giving the rest to the states (which did not exist at the time but Henrik believed that Tamwull would eventually expand and required a legal document to deal with such matters of leadership). Each state that is created will have its own constitution, similar to the Federal level, enforcing their right to the powers and responsibilities given to them by the Tamwull Constitution. Any issues are dealt with by the Tallian Supreme Court.

Any changes to the Constitution must be voted on with 90% favour from both the Lower and Upper House before presented to the people where a 75% approval rate is needed, if states are included by this stage, they must have a majority of states with a 70% approval. The process of changing the Constitution is called a referendum.

In Section 40 of the Tamwull Constitution, states can unanimously agree to refer any of their powers to the Federal level of Government. This requires an amendment of their state-level Constitution via a state referendum (60% approval in the house and people), or it can be done with an act of legislation.

Section 3 of the Constitution sets up the three branches of Tamwull Government, the legislature, consisting of the Upper and Lower House, the executive, the President and their council and the judiciary which is the Tallian Supreme Court.

Section 4 outlines the structure of the Lower House. Until states have been created, the populace is to be split equally into 100 sections, each voting out of a selection for their minister of parliament. After states have been created, the states will be equally split into 12 sections, unless all states sections do not equal 100 in which case more sections are added until it does, where they vote on their minister of parliament. The ministers voted are expected to pass legislation that is beneficial to their state. Currently there are 10 states that vote in 12 members each.

Section 5 outlines the structure of the Upper House, which is almost identical to the Lower House except that it only has 50 members originally, or 6 per state.

Section 6 outlines the position of Executive Head, they act similar to where a monarch would in a constitutional monarchy, giving the right to the political party leader that holds the support of the majority of members in the Lower House, this position was made to avoid two parties claiming victory and forming government at the same time. The Executive Head must always remain neutral and can only be elected from the Capital. If they are found to have ties with any political party that aren’t all equal, they are to be trialled at the Tallian Supreme Court and can be imprisoned for 20-40 years for breaking the trust of the Constitution.

### Legislature

*See: Tallian Federal Parliament*

The Legislature body makes the laws and supervises the activities of the other two branches of government, changing the laws when appropriate. It currently consists of 120 members in the Lower House and 60 in the Upper House, only a slight increase since its initial creation.

Senators from each state are elected for four-year terms, using a first-past-the-post voting system. Meaning, that whatever official reaches a certain number first is elected and the count is stopped. They are elected in different years than the Lower House, ensuring there is always good stability.

Members from the Lower House are elected differently, using a majority-preferential system. They too are elected for four-year terms. The leader of the political party that holds the support of a majority of members in the Lower House can form government and is named President.

The President must be a member of the Lower House, along with 80% of his members in Cabinet, the remaining 20% can be from either the Lower or Upper House. General elections are held at least once every four years. The President is able to advise the Executive Head to call the election at any time between the months of Asunak and Septim.

The next highest voted party form the Opposition, with their own Shadow Cabinet, consisting of the same restrictions.

### Executive

#### Head of State

The Head of State is the Executive Head, though they have little power in this regard. Simply they independently exercise many of their important powers, such as approving laws, under advice from the current President.

If they believe that the government is unable to function properly, such as if they are no longer able to pass laws, the Executive Watcher can call for a dissolution of the Lower House, and Upper House if required. Simply put, this puts everything back up for an election again until the clog of legislation is no longer there.

In extreme cases, the Executive Head can give the right to either the opposition or another party to form a government if the current government is unsuitable for the task.

#### Cabinet

The Tallian Cabinet consists of several ministers that are responsible to the Tallian Federal Parliament. They are appointed by the Executive Head on the advice of the President. The Cabinet is similar to the Council that Henrik originally created, with each minister leading a department that specialises in a certain field but all are answerable to the President. The departments are currently:

* Attorney General
* Agriculture and Water
* Defence
* Education
* Finance
* Foreign Affairs and Trade
* Health
* Home Affairs
* Industry, Science and Resources
* Infrastructure, Transport and Communications
* Magic
* Social Services
* Treasury

### Judiciary

In Tamwull there are two levels of courts that exercise the Judiciary power. The first is the Tallian Supreme Court, which deals with all Federal and Constitutional matters while the second is held by the states, having their own 3 levels of court in a hierarchy.

At each level of the judiciary system there is a right to appeal, but only once, in order to avoid a log-jam of court cases. If the appeal is made in the highest state court, then the appeal is made to the Tallian Supreme Court of Appeals instead.