Re: Xsampa Daily Post
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 2:46 am
Royalists Elect New Leader
Choezom Gyaltsen becomes sixth consecutive Sikyong from the conservative party
Friday 22nd October, 4486
Desi Bhuchung II approved the formation of a new government this evening, following a change in leadership for the governing Royalist Party. Choezom Gyaltsen has been appointed as Sikyong, shortly after he was elected leader of the Royalists in a vote of the party's governing body. Gyaltsen's election makes him the sixth consecutive premier to come from the Royalist Party and they have now governed Xsampa for over twenty years since the collapse of the republican system in 4463.
Elections are scheduled to be held for the Legislative Assembly, the Parliament's lower house, next April but these are unlikely to impact the legislature's overall composition. The upper house, the Spiritual Assembly, is dominated by conservative religious delegates who are perceived as extremely loyal to the Desi. Consequently, they can be relied on to vote in favour of Royalist legislation on most occasions. Even so Gyaltsen spoke of his hope of increasing the party's majority.
Like his predecessors, the new Sikyong is an experienced politician. A former lawyer, he spent half a decade as the Desi's most senior legal adviser prior to his election to Parliament. Unlike his predecessors, however, Gyaltsen is identified with the ultra-conservative wing of the party and has promised that his priority for governance will be restoring traditional Xsampan values to society. Critics in the outlawed National Republican Party have argued that in reality, this will mean further curtailment of political freedom is to be expected.