Mandatory Ecclesia

Part of the government series of articles.

The Mandatory Ecclesia is the federal chamber of Vekllei, comprising 83 delegates, one from each republic, who together confirm State Secretary appointments, review inter-ministerial federal legislation and arbitrate constitutional questions. It is called the chamber of mandates because most of its business is the commissions of State Secretaries, and it has no power to make a law of its own.

Political parties have been outlawed in the Commonwealth since the Atlantic Conference of 1965, and so the chamber has no government or opposition, and its delegates vote for their republics. Most Commonwealth people meet politics in their municipality and their republic, not in the federal chamber, and outside the confirmation of a large commission its sittings at Comet draw fairly little attention.

The chamber was set up in the Constitutional Settlement after independence, and has sat at Comet since the city was established in 1966. Under the same settlement it constituted the first three mandatory services, and a new mandatory service still needs an equal vote of the chamber. The Consilia preside over it. Their candidates are nominated through the Ecclesia, usually as pairs, and their terms follow what is known as the whale calendar.

Each republic has one delegate, who sits for its First Secretary. Appointments are decided by an equal vote of the republics and legislation by a vote weighted by population, and so the small republics have the most say over who is commissioned and on what terms.

Powers of the Mandatory Ecclesia include:

• Confirmation of State Secretary appointments and outlining commission scope
• Review and passage of inter-ministerial federal legislation
• Constitutional arbitration between federal and republic governments
• Formal closure of commissions upon civil service certification of completion
• Petitioning for constitutional referendums on federal matters

Federal legislation crossing ministerial boundaries may be introduced only by a commissioned State Secretary; the Ecclesia reviews, amends and passes or rejects such legislation but may not introduce it.