The National Forum of Deltaria

The composition and powers of the Forum are established in Article One of the Constitution of Deltaria. The major power of the Forum is to pass federal legislation that affects the entire country. although its bills must also be agreed by the President before becoming law (unless both the Forum re-pass the legislation or it has with a two-thirds majority), and must be verified as Constitutional before being ratified by the Judicial Branch. Each state receives representation in the Forum in proportion to its population but is entitled to at least one representative. . The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 200. Each representative serves for a six-year term. The Chief Secretariat,the leader of the majority party, is the presiding officer of the chamber,chosen at the beggining of the congressional year.

Redistricting and Elections
Provinces that are entitled to more than one Representative are divided into districts. This has been a federal statutory requirement since 2057. Prior to that law, general ticket representation was used by some provinces. Typically, provinces redraw these district lines (see redistricting) after each census, though they may do so at other times, to keep every district having similar population. Each province determines its own district boundaries, either through legislation or through non-partisan panels. "Malapportionment" is unconstitutional, and each district should be given a similar population number. The Voting Rights Act prohibits provinces from "gerrymandering" districts to reduce racial minorities' voting power, or giving more power to one party. The number of districts and the size of them will be determined by each Province's population and the number of senators required from the Province, since it is required that each district give one senator to the National Forum, and thus more or fewer districts may be needed.

Each District will produce a number of Forum delegates for their Provincial Forum with the exact amount depending on the population of the district. The Provincial Forum is where national laws can be tweaked slightly for each province, and where individual provincial laws are made. Elections for the Provincial Forum will come at a different time than elections for the National Forum. Each of the Provinces will hold elections in its districts with the number of ditsricts in each of the Provinces being 40, as each Provinces has similar population. The number of senators in a Provincial Forum is determined by Provincial Law, and each district will yield at least one representative.r

Elections to the National Forum will take place right after the elections for President of the Federal Republic, with each Province yielding 40 delegates as of 3300. Each Province is broken up into districts according to the number of delegates needed to go to the National Forum (the size and population of a district is determined by the population of the Province), with each district giving one delegate to the National Forum. The party that one the elections in that district will choose a party member to be a senator in the National Forum.

Qualifications
Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for representatives. Each representative must: (1) be at least twenty years old; (2) have been a citizen of the Federal Republic of Deltaria for the past seven years; and (3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the province they represent.

The constitutional requirements of Article I, Section 2 for election to Forum are the maximum requirements that can be imposed on a candidate. Therefore, Article I, Section 5, which permits Forum to be the judge of the qualifications of its own members.

The Forum Chamber and Operation, and History


The National Forum Legislative is very new, and can hold about 300 people, with 198 seats for standard Forum Senators, two for the Majority and Minority Senators, 1 for the Chief Secretariat, and four for the leaders of the four next largest parties. There is also a podium for those who wish to adress the Forum, but only with permision of the Chief Secretariat. If their is a tie in the Forum, the Premier is supposed to come to the Forum and break the tie by voting ofr or against the bill. When the bill passes, the President may veto it, but not if there is a two thirds majority voting for it, or in the case of a Constitutional Ammendment if there is a 75% majority. The same goes for repealing treaties as well as passing them.

The Forum has been around for a long time, ever since its predeccessor, the Deltarian Parliment, fell into chaos during the First Deltarian Civil War. After the fall of the Parliment, the Forum, which was at first just a small area for civilians to come and apeal to the parliment, was incorporated into the assembly. At first it was the lower house of a bicameral legislature, and was known as the Civil Forum. The upper house ( the successor to the Parliment) continued to be ineffectual, however, and soon it was disolved into the Forum. For many years the Forum held 325 seats, as was traditional, but with the construction of a new National Forum (still in the Varnassus District). It was decided that only 200 Senators would be is session, but if it was decided later that more would be needed, balconies were created, which serve as civilian platforms now but if more space is required can be turned into seats for the Forum.

The 3299 Elections and Forum Composition
As of 3299, the Forum has been perfectly devided into two camps, the coservatives and social democrats. The conservatives consist of the Deltarian Union for Conservative Economy and the Whig Party, which control 50% of the National Forum, while the social democrats are made up of the Social Anarchy Party and Deltarian Liberal Party, who also control 50% of the National Forum. This is sure to produce gridlock, as the DUCE Premier, who normally breaks ties, has pledged neutrality in the Forum, therefore no new legislation cna be passed without one member of the coalition breaking its alliance.