Chapter 240: Chapter 224: The Election Approaches

After dealing with this crisis, the focus of the Australasian political arena returned to the Cabinet elections in two months.

This Cabinet election is highly attractive for all major political parties and individuals.

According to the system inherited by Australasia from Australia, after Prime Minister Evan successfully serves two terms, if he doesn’t have Arthur’s special permission, he will have to temporarily bid farewell to the position of Prime Minister of the Government, either become a department Minister or wait for the next election.

But having experienced the power and status of Prime Minister, would Evan really be willing to step down and become a department Minister?

Actually, those most looking forward to this Cabinet election are a few influential Cabinet Ministers of the government.

If Prime Minister Evan cannot continue his term, they will be the ones most likely to become the new Prime Minister.

Even though the power of Australasia’s Prime Minister is greatly limited, it is still a position in politics where one is second only to the highest and above everyone else. These Cabinet Ministers cannot resist the temptation.

Actually, after entering 1907, the atmosphere of the Australasian Cabinet elections has gradually intensified.

As time goes by, towards late April, the election atmosphere has become even hotter. Parties have been patiently preparing for four years, and they have started to gear up, ready to attack the highest political stage of Australasia.

Minister Willy’s victory in the last government was unexpected for the political parties, but this time they are prepared.

Especially the Unity Party (a merger of Independent Party and Progressive Party), which currently holds a large number of seats in the House of Representatives and is one of the parties most likely to receive Minister positions.

Australasia’s elections are different from those in other countries. In Australasia’s political arena, the Prime Minister’s power is severely restricted by Cabinet Ministers, and they only hold administrative power.

The enormous power of the Prime Minister in other countries is actually divided among the entire Cabinet members.

If Australasia were a democratic country, such a system would have many drawbacks.

The first issue is the inconsistency in issuing orders. Cabinet Ministers can unite to resist the Prime Minister’s rule, and fundamentally, Cabinet Ministers and the Prime Minister are not on the same side.

As all Cabinet positions are elected independently, it means that Cabinet members might be enemies or friends, or even total strangers who don’t know each other at all.

This also reflects Arthur’s importance. The Cabinet is responsible to Arthur and the Royal Parliament, while Arthur completely controls the Royal Parliament.

This means that Arthur has complete control over the Cabinet, and Arthur is the highest point of national administration.

The current Cabinet Government can be divided into three factions. The first faction consists of the former Prime Ministers from the colonial period. By relying on their past prestige from the colonial period, they occupy several important positions in the Cabinet Government and are one of the most powerful factions.

The second faction is the Cabinet members elected by the lower-class citizens, including Agriculture Minister Henry, Minister of Transportation Connelly, and Minister Willy of Health.

Most of these people have higher loyalty to Arthur and are truly pragmatic, genuinely wanting to achieve some accomplishments.

The third faction is the Cabinet Ministers appointed by Arthur, who are completely loyal to Arthur.

Actually, the number of people in this faction is not large, and they only control two departments, Defense and Finance.

But these two departments happen to be the most important in the Australasian Cabinet Government, one representing military power and the other representing financial power.

Although Minister Kent of Defence and Finance Minister Roger are not keen on fighting for power, no one can deny their positions in the Cabinet Government.

Even Prime Minister Evan is unwilling to have conflicts with Minister Kent and Minister Roger. After all, these two represent Arthur within the Cabinet Government.

Compared to other countries, the power of political parties in Australasia is much smaller.

Firstly, all legal political parties in Australasia are subject to the supervision of the Royal Parliament.

This supervision is not just a title, as the Royal Parliament has the power to supervise, punish, declare legal and establish, and declare illegal and forcefully dissolve political parties.

This also means that the Royal Parliament has the power of life and death over all political parties, so these parties cannot make much of a splash in Australasia.

Secondly, indirect bribery, such as political donations, is not allowed.

Australasia has an Election Federation which oversees all elections, established and supervised by the Royal Parliament and the House of Representatives.

The members of the Election Federation are composed of the royal family, the cabinet government, the Royal Parliament, and the House of Representatives, and are directly responsible to the royal family while being supervised by the Royal Parliament and the House of Representatives.

The only way for a political party to obtain legal development funds is to call on voters to donate to the Election Federation.

All the funds received by the Election Federation, 70% are distributed according to the proportion of seats occupied by the political parties in the House of Representatives, and the remaining 30% are equally allocated to all legal political parties.

It should be noted that due to the limited power of political parties, even the current Unity Party, which occupies the most seats in the House of Representatives, only has 24% of the seats.

This indicates that bribery by capitalists is basically impossible.

Although a political party may get the lion’s share of donated funds, it will never exceed 25%.

This has turned the common practice of political donations in other countries into a joint development in Australasia, where while developing oneself, one is also funding the enemy.

This regulation has caused great discomfort to all major political parties, but due to the supervision of the Royal Parliament and the necessity to accept the interference of the Election Federation during the election, they can only grit their teeth and accept it.

As for accepting bribes in private, political parties do not dare to do so.

Do not underestimate the level of supervision from the Royal Parliament and the Election Federation, coupled with the enactment of election laws and party laws, using strict laws to eradicate such behavior.

Arthur is very harsh on election bribery punishment. Once discovered, not only will all illegal proceeds be confiscated but the political party involved will be declared illegal and forcefully dissolved, and its main members will be barred from participating in any scale of elections in Australasia, severing all ties with their political career.

This is only the political punishment. For individuals, depending on the size of the proceeds received, one could face trial with sentences ranging from imprisonment to life imprisonment or even death.

In addition, the capital of Australasia is still very weak at present, and apart from the royal financial group, there is no capital that can challenge the government, or even have the courage to do so.

Under such various restrictions, the election funds of major political parties in Australasia are not abundant, with most of the funds coming from spontaneous political donations by Australasians.

Although such donations are frequent, the amounts are not very large, and the total annual donations amount to less than 500,000 Australian dollars, even for the most popular Unity Party, its annual budget does not exceed 100,000 Australian dollars.

Although it already seems like a lot, 100,000 Australian dollars of that comes from Arthur’s support.

If it were not for Arthur’s 100,000 Australian dollars, the financial situation of major political parties would be even worse.

Of course, the booming development prospects of Australasia are also one of the reasons for a limited size of political parties.

The development pace of Australasia makes its people very satisfied, and the common people are content with their lives, so naturally, they have no intention of engaging in politics.

Without the support of more lower-class citizens, this is the main reason why the current major political parties are not large in size, and their support rates are not very high.