news Collective Bureau of Communication of the Central Government of Dazhdinia

[Walneria]

The Collective Bureau of Communication of the Central Government of Dazhdinia (Dazhdin: Kolektıvneje Byro Razgъląsov Strědnaje Vlady Federacje Daẑinıja/Колективнеѥ Быро Разгълꙙсов Стрєднаѥ Влады Федерацје Даҗіния) is the official press office of the Central Government of Dazhdinia merged with a news network that is meant to pass on the news reports produced by public companies on the regional and state levels onto the federal level. It is a semi-independent body with parallel system where press activity of the organization itself is controlled by the government, but its reporting on activities of other news agencies is completely independent, making it a strange mix of independent media conglomerate, a government media office and a press office.

The following thread will share some of the programming shared by this network, most of which is mandatory based on federal laws of Dazhdinia.

[Walneria]

From a Ustokan TV late night show “Water distribution plant and lefthandies” (In Ustokan “Hydrocentrála a levoruce”, a parody name of the former communist slogan “Internacionála a revoluce”, literally meaning “The Internationale and the Revolution”); broadcast from November 19th, 2023:

[Excerpt from minute 19 of air time, previous topic was failing federal policy of economic integration]

TV Host: “Today, we will be focusing on Walneria, that capitalist devil and apparently our best friend now.”

Laughter

TV Host: “One can not think about Walneria without considering it a sort of anti-Dazhdinia. They have a good economy, we don't. They were democratic, we were communist. They don't fall to pieces because they have guns, we don't fall to pieces because we don't have any…”

Laughter

TV Host: “But sometimes, even them fail to get a grasp on what they are doing. Their main weakness is, that they often misjudge the character of their immediate neighborhood. For example: They still think that we eat their sausages voluntarily…”

Laughter

TV Host: “… When in fact we eat it because it's a level up from our papier-mâché meat to at least something that is barely edible. At most, that is.”

Laughter

TV Host: “But with that said, the biggest blunder they had was with Velaheria. I believe you all remember the economic war that Walneria stated between Velaheria and Velaheria…”

Laughter

TV Host: “But for those which might've forgotten, here is a quick rundown in poetic personifications. Please welcome, Lady Walneria and Comrade Velaheria!”

Clapping; Walneria is a young woman with brightly pink dyed hair in a business casual dress and a phone with an absurdly large keychain on which a money bill hangs in one hand and a beer-flavoured smoothie in the other; Velaheria is dressed in a unfitting military uniform and has a visibly very old pistol in the right hand

Velaheria: “Walneria, check this cool thing I just invented!”

Laughter as Velaheria swings the gun with a complete disregard for safety in Walneria's face, pointing it at her

Walneria: “I would rather you didn't”

Velaheria: “Oh YEAH? Since when do Walnerians dictate is what to do, I can point wherever I want!”

Walneria: “Ok I but please sober up. Have you found a job yet, or do you still need my money? When are you paying me back?”

Velaheria: “Oh, don't tell me what to do! You want to destroy me. You want to shoot me? You want to shoot me? You want this???”

Velaheria shoots himself in the foot, followed by laughter

Velaheria (towards audience): See what Walneria did to me? I'm being repressed!

Laughter

TV Host: “Now, with this said, let's focus on how our fellow Ustokans are doing across the Granite Mountains in the Blanov Valley.”

[Excerpt ends]

[Walneria]

New Year, New Parliament

On January 1st, a new amendment to the Constitution of Dazhdinia passed. With this amendment, the Senate of Dazhdinia and the Control House of Dazhdinia were mostly integrated into a single new chamber — the House of States — consisting of 133 popularly elected representatives.

The House of States (official name starting from January 1st) can trace its history from the “Formal Article 89 Reconciliation Plenary Session”. The Control House and the Senate held joint sessions to resolve a dispute between the two chambers, in case the Senate accepted a proposal, but the Control House vetoed it. While the formal joint session was held only formally and was itself not an official body, the new House of States has assumed most of the responsibilities of the two chambers. Furthermore, it will carry out the duties of the two chambers in the day-to-day control and legislative process.

“What was implemented is a sort of bicameral structure in all but a few specific cases,” remarks a Pikolan minister for Federal policies, “the new chamber solves the ills many had with the tricameral system while in fact keeping the old benefits, such as nominations, intact. It also provides for a more fair electoral system with ensuring degressive proportionality in the new semi-official upper house”.

While a de facto chamber, the House of States remains only a permanent Joint Session, with the Senate and the Control House remaining as separate bodies; however, only a few specific tasks were left to separate sittings of those two chambers. These include the right of legislative initiative, where both of the chambers retain full right to propose legislation on their own and some nominations — the Control House retains the right to appoint a Governor Pro Tempore of the states within the Federation if the position is vacated until elections can be held while the Senate holds the exclusive right to appoint some federal judges.

Moreover, the electoral law saw a complete overhaul. The two round system was abolished for the Senate and the Control House's election system, which was criticized for a long time, was brought into sync with that of the Senate and reformed to supplement that of the Senate.

“These changes were long overdue,” suggests the Syranik Governor, “and I like the way they were implemented in conjunction with the electoral law into the new Parliamentary Assembly of CDANA. The new system is more fair towards independent candidates, saves money by abolishing second rounds to the voting and introduces a compensation program for candidates with large support which failed to get elected, something that was often exploited in both the two-round system of the Senate and the cumulative voting system of the Control House.”

First elections are scheduled to be held on May 4th, 2024, along with the House of Representatives, the third, and the most prominent house of the Parliament. In these elections, the 18 seats of the Control House are to be elected using single transferrable vote, a same system that is to be used for the election into the CDANA Parliamentary Assembly. However, this system is to be used only once for the House of States — it serves to split the terms of the Control Commissioners into three groups; with those elected on the first place serving 5 years, those on the second place 3 years and those on the third only a single year to discontinue the terms of the Control House and bring the commissioner's terms in sync with that of the Senate.

After that, next elections will always be held in single member districts using instant run-off voting, abolishing the second round. Every 2 years (elections being held in May of every odd year), one third of the seats are to be elected, with 38 members being elected in single member districts and 6 more members being elected as compensatory seats, those being the Control Commissioners. Compensatory seats, one per each state of the Dazhdin federation, are to be awarded to the most successful candidate that failed to win in their constituency, using Dowdall Count as a score on which the candidates are to be ranked. Because of this, of the 133 seats of the House of States, 44 seats would be elected every 2 years for 6 year terms. The last seat of the 133 seats would be elected using instant run-off voting by the Dazhdins living in diaspora, and elections for this position would always be held in conjunction with the elections into the Sojem of Dazhdin diaspora, a consular assembly meant for representing Dazhdins living abroad.