Parliament of Craftia

The Parliament of the Republic of Craftia, variously referred to as the Craftian Parliament, the Federal Parliament or the Republic Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Craftia. It consists of three elements: the President of Craftia, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The combination of two elected houses, in which the members of the Senate represent the ten states and one self-governing territory while the members of the House represent electoral divisions according to population, is modelled on the United States Congress. Through both houses, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster System.

The lower house, the House of Representatives, currently consists of 150 members, of which 100 are each elected from single member constituencies, known as electoral divisions (commonly referred to as "electorates" or "seats") using compulsory preferential voting, and the remaining 50 are elected from a closed-party list via proportional representation. This tends to lead to the chamber being dominated by three parties, the National United Party, the Craftian Conservative Party and the Liberal Party of Craftia. The government of the day must achieve the confidence of this House in order to gain and remain in power.

The upper house, the Senate, consists of 76 members: twelve for each of the six state-based electoral regions (the four most populous states – Jebsten, Addams, Meyang and Berhardsson, and two regions comprising multiple states with smaller populations – the Southern Region consisting of Jagsland and Wintaro, and Western Region consisting of Western Craftia, Kagstron and Lumina), and four for the Bankera Capital Territory (which includes the Craftian Island Territories). Senators are elected using the Single Transferable Vote proportional representation system and as a result, the chamber features a multitude of parties vying for power. The governing party or coalition rarely has a majority in the Senate and usually needs to negotiate with other parties and Independents to get legislation passed.

Although elections can be called early under rare circumstances, laws regarding fixed election dates are in place and each 3 years the full House of Representatives and half of the Senate is dissolved and goes up for reelection. A deadlock breaking mechanism known as a double dissolution can be used to dissolve the full Senate as well as the House in the event that the Upper House refuses to pass a piece of legislation twice. Although there are provisions for it in the constitution, the double dissolution mechanism has never been used by any federal government.

The two Houses meet in separate chambers of Parliament House (except in a rare joint sitting) on Capital Island in Bankera, Bankera Capital Territory.