Citizens' Council Arises From Its Slumber

This week should finally see the Citizens’ Council jumping into action for the first time since the institutions’ creation. The idea of the Council originally came about in the manifesto of the Tománn Social Democratic Party (TSDP) not long after the beginning of Talamthom’s life as a Republic.

Despite a great deal of support from all sides for the idea nothing actually happened, and the idea remained well and truly on the drawing board. It wasn’t until the start of the Constitutional Convention that the idea re-emerged from the depths of Tománn Politics. At the Convention Alex Garine (LPT at-large) stepped forward and championed the idea of the Council. He formulated both the TSDP’s original ideas along with some of his own to create a strong constitutional article. The article was adopted into the constitution without opposition.

Following the national referendum on the Constitution, and the President formally bringing it into being, there were elections held for the President’s Office and the Dáil Tománn. Nothing though was heard of the Council, and fears were beginning to circulate amongst Tománnachs that the people’s legislature may die once more of a lack of passion.

A month after the elections interest in the Council began to rise once more and power political figureheads called for the President to find a home for it. It took the President only an hour to find the perfect home for it. This perfect home is a place known to all Tománnachs as the Garden. The Garden is a place that only Tománnachs can see and was originally created to protect the views of citizens from the prying eyes of some malicious foreign parties. This protected forum had been closed when Talamthom had slumped into a major activity crisis, but seemed the ideal location for the Council to convene.

With everything in place for the commencement of activity the council still lacked one thing, a leader. So it was that a new citizen, Christos Loutrado, had made his way to the shores of Talamthom after departing Babkha. Loutrado joined Garine’s Labour Party and straight away began demanding more direct democracy; in fact he was chanting it like a mantra. He seemed a natural choice for the role of the Head of the Council and so when he put his name forward he ascended unopposed to position.

His first mission as the head was to formulate rules of procedure for the Council, something which he did with great haste. This brings us right up to the present. For the first time the rules of procedure and the Citizens’ Council as a real legislative body are to be tested to the full. It is believed that within the next few days that the Citizens Council will deal with its first bill. If all goes to plan, the bill will be voted on by citizens on whether or not to pass it forward to the Dáil, the main legislative body. The Dáil will then ultimately decide on whether to reject it or pass it on for the President to sign.

One thing is for sure it will be an interesting time as the current activity boom in Talamthom continues. It will also be interesting to see one of the oldest ideas in the Republic finally wake from its slumber. Hopefully it will be the first of many times we shall see 'The Peoples Legislature' in action.