Foraldn's Political System

Originally, Foraldn was a hereditary absolute monarchy with a sole ruler. Over time, as the monarch appointed advisers to help run the country, this developed into a parliamentary system. Foraldn still maintains a feudal system where localised districts or provinces have their own Lord who is the absolute authority for that region, a title that is inherited and passed on to descendants. However in more recent times, the power of Lords has weakened in favour of the central government. Titles of Lordship may be granted or revoked at the King's discretion.

The central government comprised of the Parliament (a unicameral body - which remains so to this day) which drafted legislation and the monarch would approve it through royal assent. The King's appointed ministers were then responsible for enforcing it and a judiciary existed with judges appointed by the King, to oversee, administer and interpret the law.

Centuries ago, elections were instituted by King Grewald. The Parliament would no longer consist of members appointed by the King, or the Lords or their representatives, but only members elected by the common folk of that district. The cause of this was apparently a plot against the King from within his government, and the unpopularity of the current system. A famine had caused general disdain by the peasantry for their lords and the government as a whole. Additionally, many rarely attended parliament. Anyone over the age of 21 years could vote and run for office, upon having registered as a resident of the district. Successful candidates would take up residence in the parliament building in the capital city, Ennington. Voting was done through a single transferrable vote preferential system.

After many years, the voting and candidacy ages were lowered to 18 in order to cater for a widely popular candidate. Decades later it would also be reduced to 16 years. A subsequent economic and population boom would see the voting age be reduced further to 14, then 12, then 10 and finally 5 by successive governments - to match the age at which children started school. Corruption became rampant in the government around this time, with large corporate interests dominating policy, and the selling of votes being legalised. During the reign of King Louis II, the system of districts was abolished in favour of nationwide proportional electoral representation.

Elections were abolished during the reign of King Jeremiah. The parliament, on advice from the King, voted to permanently dissolve the electoral system in favour of Sortition. Parliamentarians would now be randomly selected through a lottery of registered residents, one from each district, using the old district system. Among these members of parliament, they would elect a Speaker, while a separate Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are also chosen through a nationwide lottery. The Prime Minister is the leader of the government, assisted by their deputy, and they may choose to appoint anyone as ministers (even non-members of parliament).

In total there are 50 seats in parliament for the districts + 2 for the prime minister and deputy. If there is a tie in votes, the monarch has a tie-breaking vote (although can choose to veto anyway by withholding royal assent - but in practice this never happens). Custom dictates that during such a tie, the outcome is decided randomly, since the monarch doesn't take sides in politics. District boundaries are redistributed to be roughly equal in terms of population size, to ensure a fair representation of the population in parliament.

Members randomly selected for parliament have the option to choose not to serve (or can remove themselves from the registry if they choose, so they have no chance of being selected). In that case, another random selection is done. Members of parliament can be impeached (removed) only through a 2/3 majority vote of the parliament (with the Prime Minister's approval, and royal assent).

Under the old electoral voting system, members of parliament served for a term of 3 years. Now under sortition, they have a term of only 1 year.

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How the sortition process works:
Eligibility requirements: over 16 years of age, born and raised in Foraldn, current resident for at least 1 year, and no criminal history.

Each eligible resident who is registered, is given 2 unique ticket numbers for entrance to their district lottery and the nationwide lottery.
Every year on the 31st of December the parliamentary lottery is broadcast on nationwide TV at 8pm. Numbered balls from 0-9 are drawn randomly to create a ticket number. If the number is out of range, then it is drawn again. This is done for all 50 districts, then the Prime Minister and Deputy (it takes about 3 hours). The winners assume office the following morning (new year's day), are sworn in, and the Prime Minister gives a public speech.

In order to ensure integrity of the process, the registry database is made publicly available a month before the draw, so all the ticket numbers can be validated against the personal details of any entrant such as their name and age. (Their name is hashed however for privacy). Therefore, after the draw is conducted, the winner's personal details can be verified against the database to ensure they were the original holder of the winning ticket.