Chinasa: 1 year before federal elections are to be held the CDP government has managed to carry a final constitutional ammendment through the Senate which increases powers of the President and makes it a elected office, thus de-facto creating a semi-presidential system of government. The ammendment specifically changes the method of appointment for the Prime Minister, removes some of the Prime Minister's powers and increases the powers of the President. It also changes the method of election for the President to a one-round, FPTP popular vote election every 4 years, making the office a elected one rather then a appointed one. It was a long held ambition of the CDP to increase the powers of the executive, even during the monarchical period that only lasted some years. Now that ambition has been made into reality as the CDP, backed by a comfortable House majority, has managed to pass yet another piece of landmark legislation. Two years ago they passed a major economic package which is bearing fruit as the North Dovanian economy is picking up steam once more and showing signs of strong recovery after a decade of negative growth and stagnation. With this latest change, the CDP hopes to ensure that power is distributed more and at the same time the executive remains descisive.
The ammendment removes the powers of the Prime Minister to appoint High Court judges, to call an early election, to head the Armed Forces and to set out foreign policy directives, moving all these powers to the presidency. Additionally the President will have the "powers of appointment" allowing him to choose a Prime Minister without the need for a confidence vote in the House, appoint High Court judges, appoint nearly all top level government employees and appoint the Union Command Staff. Furthermore the President will be able to dissolve the House at any point for any reason, appoints or dismisses diplomats and handles consulates, embassies and other diplomatic missions, and is fully in charge of foreign and security policy. The Prime Minister retains the right to appoint Cabinet members, to set out domestic policy guidelines, still acts as head of government and serves as Chairman of the Cabinet. The Prime Minister may also not be removed by the President once appointed until his/her 4 year term runs out or a early election has been held. This thus creates a balance of power in which the duties of government are divided between the President and PM, allowing the President to wield more power if a PM is from the same party and less power when a PM comes from the oppossition. As the House retains its right to dismiss a government, it means that a PM can be dismissed if he or she holds no majority in the House, thus forcing the President to appoint someone that holds a majority in the lower chamber.
The CDP congress, ahead of next years first election under this new system, has furthermore passed several resolutions which seeks to reform the party and move further to the center-right. One such changes is the name change into the New Democratic Party. As the same suggests however, the CDP will merge with The Democrats to form this new party, which will retain (a somewhat lighter) blue color to be used in elections. While The Democrats had been in coalition with the Liberals before they had slowly crumbling influence, resulting in them looking to either dissolve or merge. As the Liberals did not look for a merge and move even further to the center the CDP saw its chance, proposing to merge into the New Democratic Party. Alongside the name change comes a newly adopted party platform which puts the party firmly on the center-right, becoming more center on social issues while advocating for low regulations, low taxes, a smaller federal government and strong security apparatus. This thus means that as things stand only two parties will compete in next years elections, the Liberals and the New Democratic Party. Current Prime Minister and Democratic leader Chinelo has already announced that he will seek the presidency next year, with the Liberals to choose their own candidate within the next few months.