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House Of Assembly Of Bermuda
The House of Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. The house has 36 Members of Parliament (MPs), elected for a term of five years in single seat constituencies using first-past-the-post voting. Bermuda now has universal voting with a voting age of 18 years. Voting is non-compulsory. The presiding officer of the House is called the Speaker. Term and election date Under section 49(2) of the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, the Parliament of Bermuda must be dissolved by the Governor five years after its first meeting following the previous elections (unless the Premier advises the Governor to dissolve parliament sooner). Under section 51(1) of the Constitution, a general election must be held no later than three months after a dissolution. The House can force the resignation of the government by passing a vote of no-confidence in the government. History The House of Assembly was originally the only house of Bermuda's Parl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Lower House
A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise exert significant political influence. Common attributes In comparison with the upper house, lower houses frequently display certain characteristics (though they vary by jurisdiction). Powers In a parliamentary system, the lower house: * In the modern era, has much more power, usually due to restrictions on the upper house. ** Exceptions to this are Australia, Italy, and Romania, where the upper and lower houses have similar power. * Is able to override the upper house in some ways. * Can vote a motion of no confidence against the government, as well as vote for or against any proposed candidate for head of government at the beginning of the parliamentary term. In a presidential system, the lower house: * Generally has less power th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Parliament Of Bermuda
The Parliament of Bermuda is the bicameral legislative body of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. Based on the Westminster system, one of the two chambers (lower house) is elected, the other (upper house), appointed. The two chambers are: * House of Assembly (36 members; elected for a five-year term in single seat constituencies) * Senate (11 appointed members) Originally, the House of Assembly was the only house in the legislature. It held its first session in 1620, making Bermuda's Parliament amongst the world's oldest legislatures and the oldest extant legislature in the Americas. An appointed Privy Council originally performed roles similar to those of an upper house and of a cabinet. A major constitutional change took place in 1968. The Legislative Council was replaced with an appointed Senate as part of a reorganisation of the Parliament of Bermuda into a bicameral system; Bermuda is the only British Overseas Territory to have such system. Political parties were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Somers Isles Company
The Somers Isles Company (fully, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles or the Company of The Somers Isles) was formed in 1615 to operate the English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as Bermuda, as a commercial venture. It held a royal charter for Bermuda until 1684, when it was dissolved, and the Crown assumed responsibility for the administration of Bermuda as a royal colony. Bermuda under the Virginia Company Bermuda had been settled, inadvertently, in 1609 by the Virginia Company when its flagship, '' Sea Venture'', was wrecked on the reefs to its east. The Admiral of the company, Sir George Somers, was at the helm as the ship fought a storm that had broken apart a relief fleet destined for Jamestown, the Virginian settlement established by the Company two years earlier. Somers had deliberately driven the ship onto the reefs to prevent its foundering, thereby saving all aboard. The settlers and seamen spent ten months in Bermuda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
State House, Bermuda
The State House (1620) in St. George's was the first purpose-built home of the House of Assembly, which then constituted the only chamber of the Parliament of Bermuda. Other than fortifications, it was Bermuda's first stone building. It is the oldest surviving Bermudian building, again excepting some fortifications, and has been used since 1815 as a Masonic lodge. Bermuda was settled, unintentionally, in 1609, by the Virginia Company, when its flagship '' Sea Venture'' was driven onto the reefs off St. George's Island to prevent her foundering. The survivors, 150 human settlers and crew members and one dog, spent most of the next year on St. George's, before most resumed their voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in two newly constructed ships ''Deliverance'' and ''Patience''. The archipelago was officially settled in 1612, when the Virginia Company's ''Third Charter'' extended the boundaries of Virginia far enough across the Atlantic to include Bermuda. Settlers and Governor Richard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Vote Of No-confidence
A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit to continue to occupy their office. The no-confidence vote is a defining constitutional element of a parliamentary system, in which the government's/executive's mandate rests upon the continued support (or at least non-opposition) of the majority in the legislature. Systems differ in whether such a motion may be directed against the prime minister, against the government (this could be a majority government or a minority government/coalition government), against individual cabinet ministers, against the cabinet as a whole, or some combination of the above. A censure motion is different from a no-confidence motion. In a parliamentary system, a vote of no confidence leads to the resignation of the prime minister and cabinet, or, depending ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Governor Of Bermuda
The governor of Bermuda (officially Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Somers Isles (alias the Islands of Bermuda)) is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda. For the purposes of this article, ''Governor of Bermuda'' refers to the local office, although this was originally a ''Lieutenant-Governorship'' (''"Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Our Islands in America commonly called or known by the name of the Bermuda or Summer (Sic#Conventional use, sic) Islands"''; the ''Lieutenant-Governor of Bermuda'' was re-titled ''Governor of Bermuda'' in 1738), which – like the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Jamestown colony – was subordinate to the actual Governor located in England. For a period following the 1783 independence of those continental colonies that were to become the United States of America, the remaining continental colonies, Bermuda and the Bahamas were grouped together as British North America, and the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dissolution Of Parliament
The dissolution of a legislative assembly (or parliament) is the simultaneous termination of service of all of its members, in anticipation that a successive legislative assembly will reconvene later with possibly different members. In a democracy, the new assembly is chosen by a general election. Dissolution is distinct on the one hand from abolition of the assembly, and on the other hand from its adjournment or prorogation, or the ending of a legislative session, any of which begins a period of inactivity after which it is anticipated that the same members will reassemble. For example, the "second session of the fifth parliament" could be followed by the "third session of the fifth parliament" after a prorogation, but would be followed by the "first session of the sixth parliament" after a dissolution. In most Continental European countries, dissolution does not have immediate effect – that is, a dissolution merely triggers an election, but the old assembly itself continues its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Politics Of Bermuda
Bermuda is the oldest British Overseas Territory, and the oldest self-governing British Overseas Territory, and has a great degree of internal autonomy through authority and roles of governance delegated to it by the national Government (the British Government, which is ultimately responsible for the governance of all British territory). Its parliament held its first session in 1620, making it the third-oldest continuous parliament in the world. As part of the British realm, King Charles III is head of state and is represented in Bermuda by a Governor, whom he appoints on the advice of the British Government. The Governor has special responsibilities in four areas: external affairs, defence, internal security, and policing. Internally, Bermuda is a parliamentary representative democratic dependency. The premier is the head of government, and there is a multi-party system. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Military defence is officially the re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Voting Age
A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to Voting, vote in a democracy, democratic process. For General election, general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 years of age as their voting age, but for other countries their voting age ranges between 16 and 21 (with the sole exception of the United Arab Emirates where the voting age is 25). A nation's voting age may therefore coincide with the country's age of majority, but in many cases the two are not tied. History In 1890, the South African Republic, commonly known as the Transvaal Republic, set a voting age of 18 years. The effort was, like later legislation expanding voting rights Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930, for women and Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, impoverished whites, in part an attempt to skew the electorate further in favor of Afrikaner interests against uitlanders. Prior to the Second World War of 1939–1945, the voting ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Universal Voting
Compulsory voting, also called universal civic duty voting or mandatory voting, is the requirement that registered voters participate in an election. As of January 2023, 21 countries have compulsory voting laws. Law enforcement in those countries varies considerably, and the penalty for not casting a ballot without a proper justification ranges from severe to non-existent. History Antiquity Athenian democracy held that it was every Athenian citizen's duty to participate in decision-making, but attendance at the assembly was voluntary. Sometimes there was some form of social opprobrium to those not participating, particularly if they were engaging in other public activity at the time of the assembly. For example, Aristophanes's comedy ''Acharnians'' 17–22, in the 5th century BC, shows public slaves herding citizens from the agora into the assembly meeting place (''Pnyx'') with a red-stained rope. Those with red on their clothes were fined. This usually happens if fewer than 6, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
First-past-the-post Voting
First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first-preference votes than any other candidate (a ''plurality'') is elected, even if they do not have more than half of votes (a '' majority''). FPP has been used to elect part of the British House of Commons since the Middle Ages before spreading throughout the British Empire. Throughout the 20th century, many countries that previously used FPP have abandoned it in favor of other electoral systems, including the former British colonies of Australia and New Zealand. FPP is still officially used in the majority of US states for most elections. However, the combination of partisan primaries and a two-party system in these jurisdictions means that most American elections behave effectively like two-round systems, in which the first round ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
