Sejm
| This page was copied from http://steen.free.fr/rtc/sejm.html and serves primarily as a notebook for it. |
With its 714 members, the Republic of the Two Crowns has the largest parliament of the world. It reflects not only the R.T.C.'s characteristic preference for complicated, baroque constructions, but also the national spirit: everybody wants to have his say about everything. Thus, the Sejm consists of five chambers and twelve additional members.
- The Kębra Wenedór (Chamber of the Veneds) and the Kębra Litwanór (Chamber of the Lithuanians) are elected every four years according to a proportional system with national lists. There is no threshold, and therefore, many small parties are represented here. The Kębra Wenedór consists of 243 members, the Kębra Litwanór of 81.
- The Kębra Rzejeni (Chamber of Regions) is elected simultaneously with the two national chambers, and thus its term lasts four years. It consists of 243 members. Each member is elected in one of the 243 electoral districts, into which the RTC is divided. 187 of these districts are located in the Kingdom of Veneda (including 43 in Galicia), 56 in the Kingdom of Lithuania. Because only the candidate who takes most votes in a district is elected, minor parties are usually underrepresented or not represented at all in this chamber.
- The Kębra Prowięczar (Chamber of Provinces) consists of 36 members, two from each of the 18 provinces. They are elected by the provincial councils, immediately after the provincial elections, which take place every four years, but not simultaneously to the general elections. The last provincial elections took place in March 2003, and therefore the next Kębra Prowięczar is scheduled to be installed in March or April 2007.
- The Senat is the House of Nobles. Its 99 members are representatives of the major noble families of the R.T.C., who are elected for life by a diet. Although some of the members of the Senate belong to a political party, they are listed as non-aligned, because they do not belong to any parliamentary caucus.
- The Kuziel Rzeże (the King's Council) is not a real chamber. It consists of twelve members, who are appointed directly by the king. Usually it consists "very important people", whose knowledge and/or presence can be considered of value for state affairs, like for example former prime ministers, the prime ministers of Veneda and Lithuania, nobel-prize winners, famous experts in certain fields, etc. However, it has happened that former kings used their prerogative differently. For example, king Marcin I the Snorist filled the Kuziel almost entirely with members of his own family, while his successor, August VI the Henpecked, evoked quite a scandal when he first appointed his driver, subsequently his cook, and at last three of his mistresses members of the Kuziel.
Currently, the Sejm consists of no less than 48 different parties, the 120 non-aligned members not included. This huge number of polical parties is not only due to the aforementioned national spirit, but also to the Republic's multinational character: almost every possible space in the matrix of nationality and political orientation is representated by one or more parties. As a result, every Sejm consists of at least 25 and sometimes (in 1937) up to 61 parties. Because it is particularly hard to build a parliamentary majority, most governments are occasional coalitions of many parties (at least four, sometimes up to fifteen), and they rarely last longer than a year; by fulfilling its four-year term, the previous government of prime minister Jan Sacz has established a post-war record. At several occasions, projects have been launched to introduce an electional barrier of 1, 2, 2½, 5 or even 10 % in order to achieve more political stability, but the majority necessary for such a law was never found.
Composition of the current Sejm
On September 25, 2005, general elections took place, with the following result:
| Party name | Kębra Wenedór | Kębra Litwanór | Kębra Rzejeni | Kębra Prowięczar seats |
Senat seats |
Kuziel Rzeże seats |
total seats |
Sejm 2001 seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | seats | % | seats | seats (Ven.) |
seats (Lit.) | |||||||
| ŻŻŻ | Justice, Justice, Justice | 13.46 | 35 | – | – | 47 | – | – | – | – | 82 | 22 |
| UNDO | Ukrainian National–Democratic Movement | 9.96 | 25 | – | – | 24 | – | 5 | – | – | 54 | 41 |
| BR | Republican Bloc | 8.62 | 22 | – | – | 19 | – | 3 | – | – | 44 | 53 |
| DN | National Democracy | 7.67 | 19 | – | – | 11 | – | 4 | – | – | 34 | 49 |
| UD–DS | Democratic Union | 6.15 | 15 | ? | 4 | 7 | 0 | 8 | – | – | 34 | 88 |
| SKW | Self–Defense of Venedic Peasants | 6.84 | 17 | – | – | 16 | – | – | – | – | 33 | – |
| WPP | Venedic Peasants' Party | 6.28 | 16 | – | – | 7 | – | 3 | – | – | 26 | 29 |
| OLD | Alliance of Democratic Left | 5.05 | 13 | – | – | 11 | – | – | – | – | 24 | 27 |
| LSDDP | Lithuanian Social–Democratic Workers' Party | – | – | ? | 10 | – | 14 | – | – | – | 24 | 11 |
| Resp. | Republicans | – | – | ? | 9 | – | 7 | 4 | – | – | 20 | 28 |
| WWPS | Venedic United Socialist Party | 4.79 | 12 | – | – | 4 | – | 2 | – | – | 18 | 51 |
| VS | Farmers' Union | – | – | ? | 7 | – | 9 | 2 | – | – | 18 | 22 |
| NDS | New Democratic Union | – | – | ? | 10 | – | 8 | – | – | – | 18 | 3 |
| SVP | Saxon People's Party | 3.36 | 8 | – | – | 7 | – | 3 | – | – | 18 | 10 |
| Taut. | Nationalists | – | – | ? | 6 | – | 6 | 1 | – | – | 13 | 14 |
| SDPH | Social–Democratic Party of Galicia | 2.48 | 6 | – | – | 6 | – | – | – | – | 12 | 6 |
| NG | Our Galicia | 1.98 | 5 | – | – | 7 | – | – | – | – | 12 | 9 |
| ORVIL | Organisation of Rusyns in Veneda and Lithuania | 1.62 | 4 | – | – | 5 | – | 1 | – | – | 10 | 5 |
| RWU | Movement of Volhynian Ukrainians | – | – | ? | 5 | – | 4 | – | – | – | 9 | 3 |
| PKDRK | Communist Party of the RTC | 3.05 | 7 | ? | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | 8 | 18 |
| UŁ | Labour Union | 3.02 | 7 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 7 | 8 |
| DKRS | Social–Democracy of the RTC | – | – | ? | 6 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 7 | 3 |
| KRN | Confederation for an Independent Republic | 2.52 | 6 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 6 | 12 |
| LiD | Freedom and Democracy | 2.45 | 6 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 6 | 10 |
| NKCz | New Civil Coalition | 1.94 | 5 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 6 | – |
| LLDP | Lithuanian Liberal–Democratic Party | – | – | ? | 4 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 5 | 7 |
| LDJ | Lithuanian Democratic Movement | – | – | ? | 4 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 5 | 3 |
| DPWiL | Democratic Party of Veneda and Lithuania | 1.10 | 2 | ? | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | 5 | 10 |
| DSEP | German–Saxon Unity Party | 1.06 | 2 | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | 5 | – |
| BNSP | Neutral Bloc for the Support of Reforms | 1.81 | 4 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 4 | 15 |
| SPB | Society of Baltic Prussians | 0.68 | 1 | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | 4 | 2 |
| ZBRDK | Union of Belarussians in the RTC | – | – | ? | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 3 | 3 |
| CS | Centre Union | – | – | ? | 3 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 3 | 5 |
| KDS | Christian–Democratic Union | – | – | ? | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 3 | 1 |
| Wierdzi | The Greens | 1.01 | 2 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 2 | 2 |
| FUN | Front of Ukrainian Nationalists | 0.87 | 2 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 2 | 4 |
| PROB | Republic Party of Beer Friends | 0.74 | 1 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 4 |
| WFN | Venedic National Front | 0.49 | 1 | – | – | 0 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| UPG | United Party of Grand–Veneds | 0.34 | 0 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| DMŚ | Democratic Movement of Silesians | 0.29 | 0 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| FP | Free Premaria | 0.21 | 0 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| LSLP | Lithuanian Socialist Workers' Party | – | – | ? | 1 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | 3 |
| LŽP | Lithuanian Green Party | – | – | ? | 1 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| LKL | Lithuanian Conservative League | – | – | ? | 1 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| TS | Party of the True Believers | – | – | ? | 1 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | – |
| S"LAV" | Movement "Lithuania Above Everything" | – | – | ? | 1 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | – |
| ŽLP | Samogitian People's Party | – | – | ? | 0 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | – |
| SLOB | Slavic Brotherhood | – | – | ? | 0 | – | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | 1 |
| nieolegaci | Non–aligned | – | – | – | – | 6 | 2 | – | 99 | 12 | 119 | 120 |
| Total | 100.00 | 243 | 100.00 | 81 | 187 | 56 | 36 | 99 | 12 | 714 | 714 | |
