The Layout of the Diet
The floor of the Diet is arranged in an ampitheatre, with three distinct sections, shown below by different colours. The Diet has 632 ordinary seats plus the Duke's Throne/Speaker's Chair. The seats in each section are covered with their respective coloured leather.
- The blue area denotes the 'Inner House' (210 seats + Speaker's chair). This area is reserved for parties most loyal to the Duchal and Imperial Governments, and they are noted for their conservatism and appreciation of tradition. The red area denotes the the 'Middle House' (211 seats), where centrist parties and non-radical local parties are found. The green area denotes the 'Outer House' (211 seats), originally the preserve of YAC-affiliated parties but now merely home to generally anti-government or progressive parties. There is some blurring between these three Houses and their political affiliations, but they are generally accurate.
- The black seat in the centre is the Duke's Throne, which is ceremonially empty but at the foot of which lies the Speaker's chair. The closer Inner House parties have better access to the Duke-appointed Speaker, are more familiar to him and have certain procedural advantages over their Middle and Outer colleagues. On the other hand, the doors to the floor are located at the far end of the room, which means that Outer House members have a greater ability to shout things without Speaker censure. They also have the ability to lock the doors, trap their colleagues and massacre them, but this has only happened twice in the history of the august assembly, and is generally considered to be bad parliamentary form.
- The red seat on its own at the top of the 'Middle House' is usually reserved for the youngest and bravest members of centrist parties, and is referred to semi-informally by the Inner House as the 'Last Sane Seat' and its holder, the 'Last Sane Man.'
- Seating is strictly enforced but when parties differ in size compared to the usual arrangements - e.g. the conservative parties occupying the Inner House achieve more than 210 seats, at the expense of the Middle and Outer Houses - the seats closest to the existing colours are used, and MDs sitting on the 'wrong' colour usually bring either a drape or cushion of the appropriate colour for the duration of the session.
Political movements and their associated parties rise and fall but the current electoral rules specify that there is a maximum of twelve political parties which may be represented in the Diet - four in each House - and they must be registered and recognised by the Speaker, on a first-come-first-served basis at the start of the session, which has resulted in the development of a solemn dash by party representatives from the moment the doors of the chamber open at the start of every session. Parties which campaign, win seats but are not recognised must affiliate with a party that is recognised, although in practice this does not happen very often. The twelve parties recognised for this session are listed below, in an extract from a well-regarded political textbook:
The Results - 5336 ASCLong & Boringhams, 12th edn. wrote:Inner House
Imperial Party: The party of Imperial Shireroth, love of the Kaiser, high taxes and medals.
Yardy Duchy Party: Those most loyal to the Dukes of Yardistan.
Militant Crypto Party: They only stand up to promote investment in the military and jingoism.
Cedrist Democrats: The deeply religious, traditionally moral wing of the Diet, representing uprightedness.
Middle House
Horjinites: A local niche party which has got 100% of the vote from Naudia'Diva for many years, representing the Hunters of the Stag and other followers of the Cedrist deity, Horjin.
Saran Union Party: A pan-Saran nationalist party, but with centrist economic and social values.
Prudence Party: The good-guys-since-we'll-never-get-in-government party.
Socialist Party of Yardistan: A relatively new addition to the Diet, they sympathise most with the social values of the Yardistani Annexation Corps while disagreeing with their anarchistic methods.
Outer House
Jesa Jitesa: Yardistani for 'We Ourselves', this is the political wing of the YAC, one of the oldest political organisations in Shireroth.
Amarrese Nationalist Party: With the annexation of Amarr to Yardistan, many residents of Amarr put aside their differences to send a party to the Diet which represented their regional interests, which it does with some distinction, often working with Jesa Jitesa to filibuster government policy.
Unreal Y.A.C.: A more radical political vision from YAC members, which believes in non-violent protest.
Visceral Y.A.C.: The hardcore of the YAC - what's theirs is theirs and what's yours is negotiable.
The coronation of the new Kaiser notwithstanding, the Inner House has found itself unable to regain the dominating position it has held for centuries before the establishment of the new Charter.
INNER HOUSE: 184 seats (Yardy Duchy Party 118, Imperial Party 42, Cedrist Democrats 22, Militant Crypto Party 2)
MIDDLE HOUSE: 216 seats (Saran Union Party 133, Prudence Party 77, Horjinites 3, Socialist Party of Yardistan 3)
OUTER HOUSE: 232 seats (Jesa Jitesa 113, Amarrese Nationalist Party 96, Visceral Y.A.C. 13, Unreal Y.A.C. 10)
The turnout was usual: low turnout in Naudia'Diva, where only certain priests vote, and across the County of Mirioth, Amity and So-Sara where it is restricted to the nobility; relatively good turnout elsewhere, especially the conscious Amarr. Sub-county regions are identified separately.
The voting figures themselves hold few surprises.