Patkoaliza

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A patkoaliza (For. Kryf. /ˈpætˌkwɑ.lɪ.zɑ/; pl. patkoalizasi; literally "part coalition") is a form of coalition in the Kryfona Kingdom wherein a minority party comes to an agreement with just a few members of a given party to form a government, rather than the given party as a whole. A patkoaliza is in many respects easier to form than a proper coalition because individual MPs often do hold differing opinions from their party, but it is much more difficult to maintain than a coalition, as it is dependent upon the goodwill and word of a few individual members of parliament rather than an organized party. Patkoalizasi are most commonly used when a minority party needs only a small number of seats to form a government, and either refuses to or cannot come to an agreement with other parties in parliament.

Between 1903 and 1957, patkoalizasi coalitions were formed seven times. Every government between 1903 and 1927 was formed via the use of patkoaliza, as were the governments of 1939 and 1957. An informal patkoaliza existed for about a month in 1963 when the KLP's leadership refused to form a coalition with the KRP; eventually, the two parties came to an agreement and formed a proper coalition government. Since then, no government has employed a patkoaliza.

Origin and early history

The first known use of a patkoaliza occurred in the lower levels of the Kryfona government around 1813, when the idea was introduced to the Seuyastazal Parliament. At the time, Seuyastazal was going through its 5th consecutive hung parliament due to the massive split in support and votes between the parties supported by the Arieles minority and small Kryfona majority of the province. As a means of compromise to allow the government to actually function, the prospect of allowing a single party to align itself with individual MPs and not just the leadership of another party was floated shortly after the 1813 elections; the idea passed as a bill by a unanimous vote. Subsequently, other provinces began to adopt the patkoaliza as a means of coalition governing, beginning with Lawvsgara and Azsaeh in 1815, and spreading to the middle provinces of the Kryfona Kingdom by the end of the 1830s. By 1850, every province in the modern Kingdom sans Vyfarla-sa-Eiwen (then the territories of Vyfarla and South Vyfarla) and Yerljasqar— also a territory at the time—had codified the patkoaliza into their parliamentary proceedings. Vyfarla would codify it in 1900 when it and South Vyfarla merged into Vyfarla-sa-Eiwen Province; Yerljasqar would do likewise in 1904 when it was incorporated.

Introduction to the Kryfonsparliszaiye

Beginning in the late 1870s, the provincial parliaments of the Kryfona Kingdom, and conversely, their MPs, began to pressure the Kryfonsparliszaiye to codify the patkoaliza at the federal level. At the time, the Kryfonsparliszaiye effectively had no mechanism by which to form coalitions—prior to 1903, there were only two elections in which more than two parties stood—because it was seen as unnecessary. Supporters of the patkoaliza recognized this as troubling for the future of the Kingdom—then undergoing large scale political revolution—and deemed it necessary that there be some mechanism in place for parties to form coalitions with. Lobbying efforts on behalf of the provincial parliaments began in earnest in 1876, and reached a fever pitch by 1878. Their efforts eventually paid off: that year, Garyz Osinazmoj, a former provincial MP and then-leader of the Kryfona Royalist Party, introduced the patkoaliza as part of a package of parliamentary reforms. Surprisingly, despite vehement opposition from the loyalist majority of the time, the package passed on 14 July, 1878 by a narrow vote of 42-39 when two loyalists broke party lines.

Legal challenge: Kryfona Loyalist Party v Kryfona Kingdom

Almost immediately after the passing of the package, the higher-ups of the KLP launched a legal challenge against it on 20 July, 1878, objecting in particular to the patkoaliza as neither legal nor constitutional. According to the KLP, the bylaws of the Kryfonsparliszaiye did not allow the patkoaliza, even after parliamentary reforms. In an interview with Nylzsryfa, then-leader of the party Kazina Osgedare also objected to the idea at a purely personal level, saying it was "improper" for such coalitions to be formed. A month after the challenge began, on 17 August, 1878, lower court in Nylzsryf ruled in favor of the Kryfonsparliszaiye. An appeal subsequently found its way to a higher court, the Court of Lawvsgara, in which the case sat for almost 5 months before a ruling in favor of the Kryfonsparliszaiye was again given. After a second appeal, the case eventually found its way to the High Court of the Kryfona Kingdom, the highest court in the entire Kryfona Kingdom; surprisingly, the High Court of the Kryfona Kingdom refused to hear it. For almost a year the case was stuck in limbo as the High Court deemed it a waste of their time and refused to hand down a ruling, before eventually the deaths of two of its standing judges during 1879 resulted in a court favorable to hearing it. The first High Court hearing on the matter came on 8 October, 1880, over two years after the case began and well over a year after the High Court was supposed to first hear it.

The hearings on the case lasted almost a month, spanning all of October before the High Court finally concluded hearings on the matter. In an unsurprising turn of events, on 2 November, 1880, the High Court rendered a unanimous verdict affirming the legality of the patkoaliza as a parliamentary tool. "No bylaw of parliament nor constitutional law of this country," said the verdict, "prevents the creation and establishment of a coalition-building process such as the one implemented through the Patkoaliza Act." The loyalists vehemently disagreed with the verdict, but stated that they would not contest the verdict further.