My Wife is a Counsel

Chapter 167: The first sharp corners (above)

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The four major parties and their alliances hold an absolute majority of members of the Beiguan Parliament.

The most powerful of the four major parties is the Free Citizens Movement Alliance, whose former chief councillor, Baclo, is the leader of the North Gate branch.

The Free Citizens' Movement Union is an imperial-level party and one of the three major political parties in the entire empire. Over the past hundred years, the Free Citizens' Movement Union has been the ruling party or the ruling party alliance half of the time.

In Beiguan, the number of members of the Free Citizens' Union and its affiliated small parties and independent councillors often exceeds twenty.

In this election, he encountered some constraints, especially his important ally, independent councillor Cao Ying who broke away from the Justice Party, was defeated in the third constituency. This was a big blow to him, because Cao Ying, as a highly professional current affairs commentator and advocate of equal rights theory, had a special influence in the Beiguan Council.

However, the Citizens' Union and its staunch allies won 19 seats in this session.

It is still the undisputed largest party in Beiguan.

The Grand Ducal Party and its allies suddenly became the second largest party. Although the elder Qing retired, its seats in parliament increased instead of decreased, and it won 13 seats.

Wei Baozeng, who took over the Qinglao constituency, and the new parliamentary candidate who went to Wei Baozeng's constituency, both performed well. The original 11 constituencies were safely retained, and the two extra seats were occupied by Councillor Lu Qianxing in the third district and Councillor Wang Zili in the 49th district.

The third largest party is the Sunflower Party. Its original purpose was to fight for more political rights for the people of Central Asia and to demand the abolition of all aristocratic privileges. In some areas, the more radical Sunflower Party even launched independence movements. Of course, in Lu Ming's view, these independence movements are actually the same as those of the Catalans in Spain, the Corsicans in France, and so on in his previous life. Most of the people shouting independence slogans are demanding more autonomy, rather than really wanting to break away from the empire. The ultimate goal is naturally a completely independent political system, but continue to reap the dividends of the huge empire.

In the East China Sea, the Sunflower Party is still quite powerful. It is rumored that the Sunflower Party is preparing to launch a bill in a satellite town. The bill proposes that the chief judge of the town's circuit court be a Central Continental.

In fact, there are signs that the old custom in Donghai that the chief judges of courts at all levels must be Griffinni is already being shaken.

After all, the times are changing, and the East China Sea is a place with the most open and active ideas. Historically, many political and economic rights of the people of Central Asia were first won in the East China Sea.

The Sunflower Party seems to be taking advantage of the situation and is a booster of the times rather than a pioneer.

But no matter what, Lu Ming has a natural affinity for this party, which he cannot tell outsiders.

Of course, there has never been a clear law in the Empire or even in the East China Sea laws that requires the chief judges of courts at all levels to be Westerners. This is naturally a serious violation of the constitution.

However, given its chief judge nomination mechanism, it is inevitable that Judge Griffin will become the chief judge.

Today, there is a rumor that the Sunflower Party is preparing to directly propose a motion in a certain satellite town, which is to change the nomination mechanism for the town's chief judge so that Central Asian judges can have the opportunity to be nominated.

Lu Ming was also looking forward to it, and deep down, he hoped that the rumor was true.

However, it is expected that the proposal will not be launched in Beiguan.

Because the Sunflower Party and its allies are only the third party in Beiguan, they won 10 seats in this parliament.

The fourth party in the Beiguan Parliament is the Justice Party, which was originally the second largest party, but it has encountered too many setbacks in the past year. The former party leader retired, and some members even quit the party. All of this seems to be closely related to the new member Lu Qianxing.

The Justice Party and the Alliance, currently led by Gao Wang, have 9 seats in parliament.

The four major parties and their alliances have a total of 51 seats in parliament.

There are 57 seats in the Beiguan Council, and the remaining 6 are truly neutral members.

The Taihao Hotel near Beiguan City Hall is just a small three-story hotel, but it is always packed during parliamentary meetings, and many members of various parties stay here.

At this time, Room 306 of Taihao Hotel was full of people.

All 13 members of the Grand Ducal Party and the Alliance were present and were holding a secret meeting, or in other words, a preparatory meeting within the party.

Tomorrow is the first meeting of the new parliament. The main topic, naturally, is the election of a new seven-member committee.

All political parties naturally need to unify their thinking, and their ballot lists must be kept as consistent as possible.

In the election of the seven-member committee, except for the chief committee member who has a clear nominated candidate, the other six members are elected by a difference of votes from all members.

In addition to the special mechanism for the chief committee member, each councillor's vote can also select one or more people as municipal committee members at will, with a maximum of 6 people.

The format of the ballot is that there is only one item for the chief committee member, and there is one or more candidates on it. The candidate can tick the one they agree with. It is a single option.

Next is the list of 57 councillors. Each councillor can tick the boxes after up to 6 councillors, which means electing these 6 people as municipal commissioners.

Of course, you can choose your own.

Finally, the remaining six municipal commissioners will be elected based on the number of votes from highest to lowest.

Before the conference begins, each party naturally has to coordinate its position, and at the same time, it is inevitable to exchange interests with other political groups.

In the room were only party minister Du Jiahe and thirteen members of the alliance.

In addition, if the party whip Wei Baozeng is a non-member of parliament, he will also attend this preparatory meeting.

Lu Ming sat in a corner, and Wang Zili, dressed as a fisherman, sat next to him.

Party Minister Du Jiahe and Party Whip Wei Baozeng sat in the center.

Because they were still waiting for the letter from the Duke's Privy Council, which was the nominee for the Chief Municipal Councilor or the Mayor, they hadn't gotten down to business yet and were just chatting and talking about this and that.

Several congressmen who were not very familiar with Lu Ming came over and chatted with him.

Du Jiahe suddenly raised his voice: "My dear colleagues, last month, when the Privy Council's Office conducted a routine consultation survey on the political parties in various towns, it mentioned whether the town municipal committees could be streamlined. According to the news leaked by the Privy Council, it seems that this is not just a show. It is possible that the first proposal we vote on this time is the Privy Council's No. 1 proposal. The general content is to streamline the number of municipal committee members and hand over the decision-making power of more matters to the parliament for voting before it takes effect."

Lu Ming listened and nodded. When the city develops to a certain size, the city management committee system will gradually become outdated. In the past life, there were many development directions, and the transition to a council-mayor system was one of them.

It seems that the East China Sea has gradually reached this stage.

From the perspective of Donghai, it is a relatively routine and peaceful procedure for the Duke's Privy Council to propose such a major change, which should have been approved by most of the upper political groups. Otherwise, such changes would become drastic and chaotic.

However, it seems that it will only be implemented in satellite towns now, and should be used as a form of observation, a transition, or a test field.

Moreover, there will certainly be satellite town councils that will veto the proposal. It all depends on how the more powerful political party groups in the local council perceive the change, and whether it harms or benefits the group's interests.

Over there, Du Jiahe smiled and said, "If the seven-member committee really needs to be streamlined, can you tell me the pros and cons?!"

Everyone started talking about it. Of course, most people thought that if there was such a proposal, it would depend on the specific content. For example, would the seven-member committee be reduced to five? Or three? What powers of the original committee would be restricted? How much power would be delegated to the plenary session of the parliament

If it is reduced to three people, the whole party should firmly oppose it no matter what.

etc.

There was a gentle knock on the outer door, and a civil servant in black uniform came in and handed Du Jiahe a large letter with both hands. The pattern on it was the giant bear emblem of the Duke's Privy Council.

Du Jiahe solemnly opened the seal of the letter, took out a few pages of very gorgeous paper, and slowly flipped through them.

There was no expression on his face. After reading it, he handed it to Wei Baozeng first.

After reading it, Wei Baozeng passed it on to the people around him.

Ten minutes later, the news reached Lu Ming.

The first three pages were indeed the Privy Council's No. 1 proposal to the town councils.

The general content is that the municipal management committees of towns with a population of more than 300,000 will be streamlined from seven members to five members of the municipal committee. The chief member (mayor) will lead the daily work of the municipal committee, and the remaining four municipal members will carry out relevant division of labor for the work of the city hall.

The number of municipal council members in municipalities with a population of less than 300,000 will be reduced from seven to three.

All municipal management committees will abolish the three votes of the chief committee member.

In addition, the appointment of heads and deputy heads of various administrative agencies, the financial budget, public affairs, etc., all need the approval of the parliament.

etc.

According to the proposal, the North Gate Committee will be reduced from a seven-member committee to a five-member committee.

Moreover, the power of the chief commissioner has been greatly reduced. Originally, the chief commissioner had three votes in the municipal committee, but now it is only one vote.

The other municipal commissioners also have to share the responsibilities of the city hall supervisor. It is no longer the case that they will only be summoned by the chief commissioner when the municipal committee meets and vote by raising their hands.

The expansion of parliamentary power can be ignored. After all, basically, what the municipal committee decides can itself represent the result of the game between political groups in parliament.

After reading the nomination, there is another very gorgeous piece of paper below, which is the candidate for the chief member of the Beiguan Municipal Committee nominated by the Public Reserve.

As expected, the nominee was once again Dale Bucklow, aka Old Bucklow.

But when he looked down, Lu Ming was slightly stunned. The nominee was Christine Charles de Donghai

Christine

Although I had heard that the position of the crown prince was unstable, I never thought that Charles IX would set his sights on his daughter.

Of course, the nomination of the chief municipal councillor of a town does not confirm the nominee’s status as a public reserve, it is only a default.

In other words, it is the children that Archduke Charles values most today who are likely to be his successors.

But until the day Archduke Charles dies or abdicates, anything is possible.

After all, Christine's elder brother Hans has been the crown prince for many years, but he has been sidelined.

Lu Ming pondered over something randomly, with an expressionless face, and handed the letter to Wang Zilii beside him.