Parliament of Ceciliana

The Parliament of Ceciliana (Lashagah: Qapraqakumu Zpi·zakixajnyur·fi; : Parlement de Ceciliane) is the unicameral legislature of Ceciliana, which is located in the national capital, R·yurirukawumu (Golden Lake Head). It is the sole federal legislative body in Ceciliana.

History
The legislative body was first established in 1805, upon the whole of the Colony of Ceciliane being given home-rule as the Dominion of Ceciliana. Upon its establishment, it was known as the Parliament of the Dominion of Ceciliana, its name having been changed to the current one when Ceciliana was given full independence from Umbrellia in 1899.

From 1805 through 1877, only land-owning men could vote, unfairly favouring the colonial Umber population, as a larger portion of people of Umber descent owned property than those of native Lashagan descent. In 1877, the voting laws were changed to allow any man over the age of 25 to vote, at the same time as were introduced.

In 1933, the right to vote was extended to women after movements had campaigned for the  since the late 19th century. In 1969, the voting age was lowered to 21, and then again to 19 in 1995.

The number of seats in the Parliament has fluctuated throughout its existence, for the most part closely following the cube root of the population of the whole country, with seats being added or removed based on the population of the country after each decennial census. Before 1978, the Parliament followed a, or "winner take all" system of voting, with one geographical constituency returning one Member of Parliament (MP). Since 1978, the Parliament has been elected in a system.

Elections
Elections are scheduled regularly on the first Friday in December, four years from the previous election. This date was originally chosen explicitly to limit voter participation by the more remote areas of the country, a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise native people. However, shortly after Ceciliana achieved independence, the was invented, making remote locations much more accessible in the winter, in some cases even more so than the summer. If the government in power loses a, however, an election may be called at any time preceding the fixed election date. If a different party is chosen to form government after a snap election, they serve the remaining term until the regularly scheduled December election.

All citizens of Ceciliana over the age of 19 are eligible to vote in all elections, provided they are registered with the Cecilian Federal Elections Bureau on or before election day. Candidates in elections need only qualify to vote to be able to stand for election, however independent candidates are quite rarely elected in Ceciliana. This is due to the voting system in place since 1978, wherein 60% of seats (currently 106 of 176) are allocated proportionally to provinces, with the remaining 40% of seats being filled at the national level by popular vote percentages. Each party creates a list of candidates, and the seats allocated to the party on the national level are filled top-down by this list. The vote percentage cutoff for filling a national proportional list seat is currently 1%. In such a system, an independent candidate would either have to receive enough votes in a single province to gain a seat, or at least 1% of votes nationally, an exceptionally rare occurrence.

As such, the vast majority of candidates in elections are registered with a federal political party, of which 7 currently have representation in Parliament. To register a new political party, a petition with more than 10,000 signatures in support of the formation of the new party must be registered with the Elections Bureau. Candidates may stand for a provincial allocated seat, for a national list seat, or both. If the candidate is registered for both, and gets elected in the provincial allocated seat, their name is voided from the party list and those underneath them are moved up. If the candidate fails to win a provincial allocated seat, they may still be elected to Parliament if their name is high enough on the party list on the national level, provided the party also qualifies for enough seats there.

Each voter is given two ballots, one for the national level, and multiple votes for the provincial seats. The provincial allocated seats are elected in a system of, where voters are given the same number of votes as the number of seats to be filled for the province, where voters may choose to use all their votes across multiple candidates or they may not use some of their votes. Voting for a candidate more than once per voter is not allowed. The total number of votes for each candidate is aggregated, and the seats are filled with the top candidates relative to the number of seats allocated. In this way, a party may run multiple candidates in a province and win multiple seats.

Ceciliana's relatively low population makes it relatively easy to certify results on the night of the election, although the new session of Parliament does not begin until the Wednesday one and one-half weeks after the election, to provide time for coalition talks, if it is necessary to form one.

Composition
The current composition of the Parliament of Ceciliana follows the results of the 2016 Cecilian federal election, held on the scheduled mandated date, the first Friday in December, 4 years after the previous election. The Labour Party of Ceciliana maintained their plurality of seats, and continued to govern with the Progressive Party of Ceciliana in a coalition majority government. The leader of the Labour Party, Psayruru Praju therefore continued serving as Prime Minister.