Chamber of Deputies

The Chamber of Deputies(: Die Kammer, : Kamer van Afgevaardigden, : Chambre des Députés), shorted as the Chamber, is the legislature of Ripuaria.

The Chamber of Deputies is made up of sixty seats. Deputies are elected for terms of five years by single transferable vote in six districts. Voters may rank their candidates in order of preference.

Functions
The function of the Chamber of Deputies is detailed in the Ripuarian Constitution. The purpose of the Chamber of Deputies is to represent the people in the legislative process. Ripuaria is a parliamentary democracy, in which the Chamber is elected by universal suffrage.

All laws must pass the Chamber of Deputies. Laws are passed by absolute majority as long as a quorum of half the deputies are present. Each bill must be submitted to three votes in the Chamber for it to pass as a law. Bills submitted by the executive coalition are allowed to be pass through only two votes. Votes on bills are separated by intervals of one month unless they have been approved in the preliminary vote for a fast passage in which case the interval is reduced to a single day.

Composition
The chamber is composed of sixty members, called deputies. They represent one of the six districts. Each district elects deputies proportional to its population. The largest, Center District elects 24 deputies and the smallest three, Jenaer See District, Ost District and Westen District each elect 5 deputies.

Electoral system
Deputies are elected every five years by universal suffrage with the latest election being held in July 21 2020. Deputies are elected by open-list proportional representation with a single transferable vote ballot, whereby electors rank in their ballots their order of preference for each candidate for the district. Seats are allocated to party candidates by the order of ranked votes each candidate received.

Current Composition
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the current Chamber of Deputies:

Government parties are denoted with the letter G, with the Democratic Party holding the office of Prime Minister (Timo Peter). O stands for opposition.