Chamber of Deputies of Lungary

The **Chamber of Deputies** (Lungarian: *Abgeordneterkammer Lüngard*, **AK**) is the lower house of the parliament of Lungary. It consists of 665 members who are elected through mixed-member proportional representation.

The Chamber of Deputies was founded in 1904, following the establishment of the Federal Kingdom of Lungary. The current President is David Schaumann, while there are six vice presidents who represent every other party in parliament. Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Lungarian: *Abgeordneter Lüngard*) are typically elected every four years by all adult Lungarian citizens, through a mix of constituency and party-list voting. Elections can occur earlier than expected if the Prime Minister loses a vote of no confidence or asks the Monarch to dissolve parliament early for whatever reason.

## Tasks

Along with the Pflescheskart, the Chamber of Deputies makes up the legislative branch of the Lungarian political system.

While most legislation is introduced in the executive branch, legislating is the most important responsibility of the Chamber of Deputies, with most of its time spent on assessing and amending the pieces of legislation proposed by the executive branch. The committees play a prominent role in this function, while debates are held almost daily to allow for members to discuss the legislative issues at hand; these debates typically have low attendances, but may be high-profile and well-attended when highly significant pieces of legislation are being debated.

Members of the Chamber of Deputies are the only directly elected office by the Lungarian public; the Chamber of Deputies then elects the Prime Minister, and exercises oversight of the executive branch on issues of both substantive policy and routine administration. This check on executive power can be employed through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, and direct questioning of the prime minister or cabinet officials. For example, the Chamber of Deputies can conduct a question hour, in which a government representative responds to a previously submitted written question from a member. Members can ask related questions during the question hour. The questions can concern anything from a major policy issue to a specific constituent's problem.

## Electoral term

Elections are held every four years, with federal elections being constitutionally mandated to be held between 46 to 48 months of each other. The constitution also allows for snap elections, which may occur any time when a prime minister requests the Monarchy to dissolve parliament for any reason. Should a prime minister lose a vote of no confidence, a snap election will also be declared. Snap elections will also occur should a prime minister resign or die in office.

If a prime minister loses a vote of no confidence, an interim prime minister will be appointed in their place by the Chamber of Deputies; this interim prime minister serves in a non-partisan position, and are given all the powers of a conventionally-elected prime minister, including the power to nominate an interim cabinet. If a prime minister resigns or dies in office, their cabinet will remain, and the Deputy Prime Minister will become the prime minister until the next election.

## Election

All candidates for the Chamber of Deputies must be at least 18 years old, a Lungarian citizen, and continued residence within Lungary for at least the past five years; there are no term limits.

Federal elections use a mixed-member proportional electoral system. In addition, there is a 5% electoral minority threshold for the party-list vote, while there is no threshold for the constituency vote.

### Distribution of seats

One-quarter of the members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected from 166 single-member electoral constituencies, using ranked-choice voting. The remaining three-quarters are elected through party-lists; each state party presents a list for their state, with no election being held on the federal-level. There is generally a difference between the responsibilities of members elected through the constituency vote and members elected through the party-list vote; those elected through the constituency vote tend to focus on issues regarding their constituencies rather than the entire nation, while those elected through the party-list vote tend to focus on national issues and typically are the ones seeking leadership positions in the party.

Due to these two separates methods of voting, each Lungarian voter has two votes in federal elections. The first vote allows them to elect their local representative, while the second vote allows them to cast their support behind an entire party and determines the relative strength of the party. Party-list seats are allocated through the Sainte-Laguë method.

## Organization

### Parliamentary groups

The most important structures within the Chamber of Deputies are parliamentary groups, which are formed by political parties who win representation in the Chamber of Deputies through the party-list vote. The size of a parliamentary group determines the size of its representation on legislative committees, the time slots allotted for speaking, the number of committee chairs it can hold, and its representation in executive bodies of the Chamber of Deputies.

Each parliamentary group consists of a parliamentary party leader, several deputy leaders, and an executive council. The leadership's responsibilities are to represent the party, enforce party discipline, and orchestrate party activities. Typically, the parliamentary party leader is also the national leader of the party; however, when the national leader is a member of the cabinet, someone else is typically elected parliamentary party leader. Each parliamentary group has weekly meetings in order to discuss policy and the party's positions on debated legislation.

Parties do not receive any seats through the party-list vote but win seats through constituency voting are not given the title parliamentary group, but may exist as a parliamentary faction. There currently are no such parties.

### Executive bodies

The Chamber of Deputies's executive bodies are the Presidium and the High Council. The Presidium consists of the President of the Chamber of Deputies and each vice president, while the High Council consists of the Presidium and the party leader and one deputy party leader of each party represented in the Chamber of Deputies. The Council determines daily legislative agendas and assigns committee chairpersons. The Council also serves as an important forum for interparty negotiations. The Presidium is responsible for the routine administration of the Chamber of Deputies, including its clerical and research activities.

### Committees

Most of the legislative work in the Chamber of Deputies exists in the form of standing committees. Standing committees are permanent committees in the Chamber of Deputies, each focusing on a different topic, which roughly corresponds to one or more of the ministries of the cabinet. The distribution of committee chairs and the membership of each committee reflect the relative strength of the various parliamentary groups in the chamber, while the High Council allocates members to councils and assigns chairpersons. Members of the opposition party can chair a significant number of standing committees.