Chapter 225 The General Election is
Coming. After dealing with this crisis, the attention of Australasian political circles has returned to the cabinet election two months later.
This cabinet election is very attractive to major political parties and individuals.
According to the system inherited from Australia in Australasia, after the Prime Minister has been successfully re-elected for two terms, without Arthur's special permission, Prime Minister Evan will temporarily bid farewell to the position of Prime Minister of the government, or condescend to become a minister of the department, or can only wait. It’s time for the next election.
But will Prime Minister Evan, who has experienced the power and status of the Prime Minister, really put down his dignity and become a department minister?
The people who are most looking forward to this cabinet election are actually the several ministers with real power in the cabinet government.
If Prime Minister Evan cannot be re-elected, they will be the most likely candidates to become the new Prime Minister.
Even though the power of the Prime Minister of Australasia has been greatly restricted, it is still a position that is lower than one person and higher than ten thousand people in politics, and it is impossible for these cabinet ministers not to be tempted.
In fact, after entering 1907, the atmosphere for the Australasian cabinet election had gradually begun to intensify.
As the time comes to the end of April, the atmosphere for the general election has become even more heated, and the major political parties that have been patiently preparing for four years are gearing up to launch an attack on the highest political arena in Australasia.
The election of Minister Willie in the previous government was a surprise to the party, but this time they are ready.
In particular, the United Party (the merger of the Independence Party and the Endeavor Party), which currently occupies a relatively large number of seats in the House of Representatives, is also one of the parties most likely to obtain ministerial positions.
Elections in Australasia are not like elections in other countries. In Australasian politics, the powers of the Prime Minister are fully limited by Cabinet Ministers and possess only executive powers.
The power of the prime minister, which is huge like other countries, is actually divided among the entire cabinet members.
If Australasia were a democracy, such a system would have many shortcomings.
The first is the problem of inconsistent orders. Cabinet ministers can unite to resist the rule of the prime minister, and fundamentally the cabinet ministers and the prime minister are not on the same page.
Because all cabinet positions are independently elected, this means that cabinet members may be enemies or friends of each other, or they may be complete strangers.
This also reflects the importance of Arthur. The cabinet was accountable to Arthur and the Royal Parliament, which in turn was completely controlled by Arthur.
This means that Arthur has complete control over the cabinet, and Arthur is the highest point of national administration.
The current cabinet government can be divided into three factions. The first faction is the prime ministers of the previous colonial period. Relying on their prestige from the previous colonial period, they occupy several important departments in Australasia and are one of the most powerful factions in the cabinet government.
The second faction is those cabinet members elected by the civilian class. Including Agriculture Minister Henris, Transportation Minister Conlett, and Medical Minister Willie.
Most of these people have higher loyalty to Arthur, and are down-to-earth pragmatists who really want to make some political achievements.
The third faction is the cabinet ministers appointed by Arthur and completely loyal to Arthur.
In fact, the number of people in this faction is not large, and it only controls the two departments of defense and finance.
But these two departments are precisely the most important in the Australasian cabinet government. One represents military power and the other represents financial power.
Although Kent, as Minister of Defense, and Roger, Minister of Finance, are not keen on competing for power, no one can deny their status in the cabinet government.
Even Prime Minister Evan is unwilling to conflict with Minister Kent and Minister Roger. After all, these two also represent Arthur in the cabinet government.
Compared with other countries, political party rights in Australasia are also much smaller. First, all legal political parties in Australasia are subject to the supervision of the Royal House of Representatives.
This supervision is not just a name. The Royal House of Representatives has the power to supervise and punish political parties, declare them legal and established, declare them illegal and forcibly dissolve them.
This also means that the Royal House of Representatives has the power of life and death over all political parties, and political parties cannot make a big splash in Australasia.
Secondly, disguised bribery such as political donations is not allowed.
Australasia has an Electoral Federation that oversees all elections, established and run by the Royal House of Representatives and the House of Representatives.
The members of the Electoral Federation are composed of the royal family, the cabinet government, the Royal House of Representatives, and the House of Representatives. They are directly responsible to the royal family and accept the supervision of the Royal House of Representatives and the House of Representatives.
The only way for political parties to obtain legitimate development funds is to call on voters to donate to electoral federations.
70% of all funds received by the electoral federation will be distributed according to the proportion of seats occupied by political parties in the House of Representatives, and the remaining 30% will be equally divided among all legal political parties.
You know, because political parties have little power, even the United Party, which currently occupies the most seats in the House of Representatives, only accounts for 24%.
This means that bribery by capitalists is basically impossible.
While political parties may receive a large share of donor funds, it will never exceed 25 percent.
This also allows political donations that are common in other countries to become common development in Australasia. While developing itself, it is also funding its enemies.
This provision makes all the major political parties uncomfortable, but because the election is subject to the supervision of the Royal Parliament and the election is subject to intervention by the Electoral Federation, they can only grit their teeth and accept it.
As for accepting bribes privately, political parties do not have the guts to do so.
Don’t underestimate the degree of supervision by the Royal Council and the Electoral Federation. Coupled with the promulgation of the electoral law and the political party law, strict laws have been used to put an end to this behavior.
Arthur's punishment for electoral bribery is quite severe. Once discovered, not only will all illegal gains be confiscated, but the political party involved will be directly declared illegal and forcibly disbanded. Its main members will not be allowed to participate in any scale of elections in Australasia, and will have a thorough and political career. bid farewell.
This is just a political punishment. For a person, he has to be tried based on the amount of remittance collected, which can range from imprisonment to life imprisonment or even death.
In addition, the current capital in Australasia is still very weak. Apart from the royal family consortium, there is no capital to challenge the government, or even the courage.
Due to various restrictions, the major political parties in Australasia currently do not have much election funding, most of which comes from voluntary political donations from Australasians.
However, although such donations are relatively frequent, the amount is indeed not very large. The accumulated donations every year are only less than 500,000 Australian dollars. Even the most popular Unionist Party has an annual budget of no more than 100,000 Australian dollars. .
Although it looks like a lot, one hundred thousand Australian dollars of it comes from Arthur's support.
Without Arthur's 100,000 Australian dollars, the financial situation faced by the major political parties would be even worse.
Of course, Australasia's current booming development prospects are also one reason why political parties are limited in size.
The speed of development in Australasia makes Australasian people very satisfied. The civilian class is satisfied with their own lives and naturally has no idea of participating in politics.
The lack of support from more lower-class civilians is the main reason why the current major political parties are not large in scale and have low support.
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(End of chapter)