The Senate was created by the 1997 Organic Law. Before the promulgation of that document, the Ziu consisted only of a single house (now termed the "lower house"), the Cosa. Therefore, the first Senate was the Senate for the 23rd Cosa. The first (and so far only) change in the number of Senators was in 2012, when a seat was added to represent Fiôvâ following Reunision.
Ever since changes ratified after the 35th Cosa, the King has been Organically barred from holding a place in the Senate, and indeed from entering the Senate chamber unless summoned there to provide testimony to a Senate commission. The consort of the King, and any regent during his or her regency also is forbidden from holding a seat in the Senate. Furthermore, no Senator may hold seats in the Cosa.
Even though the Government does not require to mantain the Confidence of the Senate, there have historically been only a few times when the Senate has not been controlled by the Government:
- the 32nd term's first Clark, when a Carbonel MN-ZPT Cosa majority was balanced by a 2-5 Senate minority;
- the 46th term, where the Senate was split 4-4 between the governing coalition and the opposition RUMP caucus.
All of the other terms have seen Government parties hold majorities of varying magnitudes in the Senate; this, though, doesn't take into account that, for different reasons, there wasn't a meaningful distinction between parliamentary majorities and oppositions for most of the pre-Reunision period.
The powers of the Senate are equal to those of the Cosa, except that no bill appropriating revenue may have a Senator as its primary sponsor, and the Senate does not participate in the Vote of Confidence in the government; this means that the Senate is typically less partisan than the lower house.
The approval of a majority of the Senate to all legislation is required before royal assent can be sought. The number of seats being very small means that ties are relatively more likely than in the Cosa; however, no tiebreaker exists. In the case of bills recommending referenda for the ratification of Organic amendments affecting those articles concerning the Senate itself, the process of amending Organic Law, or the territorial subdivisions of the Kingdom, a super-majority of two-thirds vote in the Senate is required.
The Senate also may pass resolutions without involvement of the Cosa, to commemorate events, create Senatorial commissions or honours, or grant those honours to specific persons. Two typical "Resolutions of the Senate" (RS) are the recommendation of a Chancellor of the Royal Talossan Bar to the King, and the awarding of the Senatorial Medal of Honour.
The Senate is led by a ceremonial "Lord President" or Mençei, elected by the Chamber from among its own members, who may resign or be removed by vote of the Chamber.
|L. da Schir||1 Oct 2014|
|S. Pinatsch||1 Jul 2015|
|M. la Mha||1 Feb 2017|
|G. Valcadac'h (Mençei)||1 Feb 2017|
|G. da Dhi||15 Sep 2017|
|C. Siervicul||23 Oct 2017|
|T. Betiñeir||12 Feb 2018|
|I. Plätschisch||27 Apr 2018|
The Senator for Benito, Lüc da Schir, is the current longest tenured Senator, having served since October 2014. He is holding the title alone since the sixth Clark of the 51st Cosa; previously, he and former Senator Magniloqueu da Lhiun were the joint longest tenured Senators, and before the resignations of Vuode Senator Eovart Grischun, the three held the distinction concurrently.
During the 50th Cosa, Senator Tresplet had the longest tenure, joined by Senator d'Auribuerg during the 48th and 49th; and from the 41st to the 47th Cosas, corresponding to approximately five years, the title was held by Senator Holmes of Atatürk, who still is the senator with the largest number of Cosas served.
The Senate for the 51st Cosa consists of eight members. Seven were returned from the previous Senate, while Sir Cresti Siervicül was appointed to the Maricopan seat after Béneditsch Ardpresteir chose to keep serving in the Uppermost Court.
Furthermore, after the Second Clark the Senator for Vuode Éovart Grischun resigned his office, and during the subsequent recess former Senator Trotxâ Betiñéir was appointed to the post by King John, due to the absence of an elected provincial government. This will ultimately mean that, in addition to regularly scheduled elections in Benito, Maritiimi-Maxhestic and Fiôvâ, Maricopa and Vuode will both hold special elections for the remainder of the terms of Ardpresteir and Grischun, which is respectively two and one more Cosas.
Another change in composition happened after the Fifth Clark as M-M Senator and Mençei Magniloqueu Épiqeu da Lhiun lost his seat by striking out. This appears to be the first time a sitting Mençei lost his seat by not voting, the first time a Senator lost his seat by striking out mid-Cosa since the 42nd Cosa (Senators Roibeardescu and Xheraltescu having both lost their seat at the end of the last Clark) and will mark the first time the Senate sees at least two Senators resign or strike out in the same term since the 35th Cosa.
This will not result in a special election, as da Lhiun's term would have expired after the Sixth Clark. A further consequence of the Mençei striking out is that Senator Lüc da Schir is left as the lone longest tenured Senator, serving since October 2014.
Since Maritiimi-Maxhestic has an executive in place, this was the first time that a governor appointed an interim Senator since the 45th Cosa, when Lüc da Schir appointed Tric'hard Carschaleir after Iason Taiwos's resignation. Grand General Secretary Cresti da Ion Nouacastra therefore appointed four-term MC Ian Plätschisch to the seat.
The Cézembrean race was conducted by Provincial Lord Warden Election Conducting Officer Ián Anglatzarâ, himself being the outcoming Senator, having announced he would be retiring from the Senate after a single term. The only candidate for the seat being former Seneschal and two-term Senator Glüc da Dhi, he was declared the winner without a vote taking place.
This will be his third term in the Senate, returning after a hiatus of three Cosas.
|Cézembre Senate Election|
|Glüc da Dhi||unopposed|
|MRPT gain from IND|
Ma la Mha won a handy reelection to a first term in his own right (not counting two one-Cosa stints in other provinces) with no declared opposition, aside from two write-in votes.
| Florencia Senate Election|
IRV/RCV Single Round
|Ma la Mha||8|
In Maricopa, the first election conducted with Instant Runoff Vote saw RUMP candidate Justice Béneditsch Ardpresteir winning against Moderate Radical Txoteu Davinescu. The open seat was vacated by Munditenens Tresplet's decision to run for the Cosa instead.
| Maricopa Senate Election|
IRV/RCV First and Second Round
|Txoteu É. Davinescu||4|
|Cresti M. Siervicül||3|
|write-ins with no second preference||2|
|The race advances to a third round.|
| Maricopa Senate Election|
IRV/RCV Final Round
|Txoteu É. Davinescu||4|
|RUMP gain from FreeDem|
Eventually, Justice Ardpresteir renounced to his seat as he would have been ineligible to hold it concurrently with his Uppermost Court duties; the Lord President of the Senate, Magniloqueu Épiqeu da Lhiun, had earlier blocked him from claiming his seat. Sir Cresti Siervicül was then appointed to the seat; he would have won the race by countback.
This additionally marks the first time the RUMP gained back a Senate seat from another party since the 47th Cosa, when Vuode Senator Eovart Grischun switched affiliation from the PP to the RUMP, two Clarks after unseating RUMP incumbent Trotxâ Betiñéir.
This will be Siervicül's first term as a Senator.
The members of the Senate for the 51st Cosa, listed in the order of the scheduled expiration of their terms, are:
|Province||Senator||Senate Seat Contested|
|Fiôvâ||Gödafrïeu Válcadác'h||for 52nd Cosa|
|Maritiimi-Maxhestic||Magniloqueu Épiqeu da Lhiun||Ian Plätschisch||for 52nd Cosa|
|Benito||Lüc da Schir||for 52nd Cosa|
|Vuode||Éovart Grischun||Trotxâ Betiñéir||for 53rd Cosa (*)|
|Atatürk||Sevastáin Pinátsch||for 53rd Cosa|
|Cézembre||Glüc da Dhi||for 54th Cosa|
|Florencia||Ma la Mha||for 54th Cosa|
|Maricopa||Cresti Siervicül||for 54th Cosa (*)|
(*): Will face special election
As reflected by the table below, at each general election, three Senators (out of the eight) are elected. This means that the term of office for each Senate seat is three Cosa-elections two times and two-Cosa-elections the third, repeating. That’s more-or-less 16 or 24 months to each Senatorial term. However, a Senator’s term may be shortened by early dissolutions of the Cosa or lengthened by no-business months inserted between Clarks [For full details, see the Organic Law Article IV: Election to the Senäts and Article V: Composition of the Senäts].
|Cosa||Senate Seat Contested|
|52||Fiova, Maritiimi-Maxhestic, Benito|
|53||Vuode, Atatürk, Cézembre|
|54||Florencia, Maricopa, Fiova|
|55||Maritiimi-Maxhestic, Benito, Vuode|
|56||Atatürk, Cézembre, Florencia|
|57||Maricopa, Fiova, Maritiimi-Maxhestic|
|58||Benito, Vuode, Atatürk|
|59||Cézembre, Florencia, Maricopa|
(The Election Cycle Then Repeats)