Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra
| Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra Primer Ministro de Sierra (es) Premier ministre sierrien (fr) 首相黃金王國 (zh) Thủ tướng Chính phủ của Sierra (vn) 시에라 총리 (kr) Jongri no Shiera (tn) シエラ内閣総理大臣 (ja) Premierminister von Sierra (de) | |
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Ministry Federal | |
 Seal of the Prime Minister | |
 Flag of the Prime Minister | |
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Executive Branch of the K.S. Government Executive Office of the Prime Minister | |
| Style |
Prime Minister (informal) His/Her Excellency (formal) |
| Status | Head of government |
| Member of |
the Cabinet the Senate the Executive Council the Privy Council |
| Reports to | the Queen |
| Residence |
 Getty House |
| Seat | Porciúncula, GC, Kingdom of Sierra |
| Nominator | Political parties |
| Appointer | HRM Elizabeth II |
| Term length | At Her Royal Majesty's pleasure |
| Inaugural holder |
Frederick Bachelor, Sr. December 16, 1859 |
| Formation | November 27, 1858 |
| Salary | $500,000 per year |
| Deputy | Deputy Prime Minister |
| Website | pm.gc.ks |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of the Kingdom of Sierra |
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The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra (informally abbreviated to PM) is the head of Her Royal Majesty's Government in the Kingdom of Sierra. The Prime Minister is the highest minister of state, the leader of the Cabinet, the Supreme Field Marshal of the Sierran Crown Armed Forces, a ranking member of the Privy Council, and the chairperson of the Executive Council. As head of government, it is the Prime Minister's responsibility to advise the Queen on exercising her royal prerogative and executive powers as prescribed by the Constitution. The office is constitutionally defined, although its modern functions and powers have been established through long-established convention. The Prime Minister also has the responsibility of administering the Executive Office of the Prime Minister, which is the central organization that oversees numerous federal and statutory agencies and boards. As an official possessing fused powers, the premiership has become Sierra's most powerful and influential institution vis-à-vis the Monarchy, Parliament, and the Supreme Court by de facto.
Although there are no explicit requirements or restrictions on who can become prime minister, by convention, historically, all prime ministers have come from either houses of Parliament, though especially from the House of Commons, as long as there was a majority government in the House. In almost all cases beginning in the 20th century, the Prime Minister has always exclusively been the leader of the majority party or the largest party in a coalition in the House of Commons. As the primer inter pares, the Prime Minister is a sitting, voting member in the House of Commons, who may introduce bills and conduct other parliamentary motions in the same manner as their peers. Since the 2012 Prime Ministerial Electoral Selection Method Act, whenever there is a hung parliament (i.e., there is no majority government), the people directly elect the Prime Minister from one of the parties in Parliament, irrespective of existing coalitions. By convention, all prime ministers must be appointed by the Queen, who honors the vote held in Parliament or by the people. Similarly, the Queen can dismiss the Prime Minister at Her Royal Majesty's pleasure, though only when a motion of no confidence passes or when there is a loss of supply.
Since the office's creation in 1858, there have been a total of 33 prime ministers. The current incumbent prime minister Cedric Harrison of the Democratic-Republican Party of Sierra since February 12, 2024 and is the first African Sierran prime minister in Sierran history. He succeeded fellow Democratic-Republican Maggie Chan, who replaced outgoing Social Democrats Susan Kwon, following the 2022 federal election that took place on November 24, 2022.
Role, powers, and duties
The role of the prime minister is to fulfill all of the inclusive powers and duties of the monarch on their behalf. As an ex officio member of the Privy Council, the prime minister is also responsible for advising the monarch on what course of action to take when exercising the exclusive rights which are: the royal prerogative, the royal assent, and the issuance of edicts. In almost all cases, if at any time the monarch performs these exclusive rights, it is after through the consultation with the prime minister. For this reason, the advice of prime minister is regarded as practically full-binding and therefore functions as the most powerful position in Sierra. The prime minister is able to exercise great political power and execute many actions through the monarch while simultaneously holding legislative power in Parliament as the President of the Senate.
Within Parliament, the prime minister is a member of Parliament within the House of Commons. The Prime Minister is also entitled to the seat of President of the Senate, who is in charge with facilitating legislative discussion, monitoring debates, censuring officials, and answering questions to members of both the Senate and House during the Prime Minister's Questions sessions. The prime minister is entitled to one vote in the Senate as any other senator although if there is a tie, his/her vote counts as the tie-breaker. In an addition, in order to strengthen their party and to minimize the chances of a divided government, the Prime Minister is responsible for the appointment of 13 commissioned senators-at-large (leveraged senators), usually done at the start of their term. The Prime Minister may choose to appoint whomever as long as the individual satisfies the constitutionally established qualifications of members in the Senate. Conversely, the prime minister may remove any commissioned senator at their own discretion. The terms of the at-large commissioned senators are bound to the Prime Ministers and may therefore automatically lose their seats if the Prime Minister leaves office unless the succeeding prime minister sustains them.
During times of war, the prime minister assumes the role as the Supreme Field Marshal who is charged with coordinating, organizing, and leading all military operations and movements related to the conflict. Declaring and making peace is an exclusive right reserved for the monarch as a prerogative and as such, the prime minister must first consult and confirm with the monarch of his/her opinion and then receive support by Parliament. In both times of war and peace, the prime minister always has access to Sierra's nuclear codes and may activate them if deemed absolutely necessary.
The prime minister may grant pardons, reprieves, or clemency so long as the person has not been tried and sentenced for treason. The prime minister also has the power to ban specific foreign individuals from entering Sierra if deemed to pose a threat to Sierra. Other judiciary powers the prime minister enjoys include executive privilege and the confidentiality privilege, two mechanisms which allow the prime minister to withhold sensitive information from the public, the civil government, and the monarch during a legal case (which would legally protect him/her from being tried under perjury) and override most subpoena requests. Theoretically, the prime minister has automatic clearance to nearly all classified information from Sierra's military and intelligence agencies but may still be denied access to certain information. This arises by the fact that the prime minister is directly electable and therefore, anyone could easily bypass Sierra's rigorous clearance checks by simply getting voted into office. Another issue is that the prime minister's term of office is also tied to elections and should the prime minister be voted out, he/she would retain any particularly sensitive state information as a civilian.
Qualifications and selection
The prime minister and all other members of the Cabinet must be appointed by the Queen. In practice and by convention, the Queen appoints the Prime Minister based on the individual who is the most likely to receive the support, or confidence, of the majority of the members of the House of Commons. Generally speaking, this is understood to be the leader of the majority party in Parliament, the leader of the largest party in a coalition government, or the leader directly chosen by the general electorate in a hung parliament situation. Selection of other ministers of state is determined by the party or coalition, and must be reviewed and approved by the Senate prior to assuming office. By convention, the Senate always approves these ministers unless extraordinarily compromising circumstances arise during a Senate hearing over a particular individual.
Although there is no legal requirement for the prime minister to be a member of Parliament, it is generally expected that the prime minister hold a seat in the House of Commons in order to fully carry out their dual role as executive and legislator. To date, no prime minister has been elected who was not previously a member of Parliament, and no prime minister has held onto the office longer than three months after they lost their seat in their own constituency. Based on House protocol, prime ministers who have not previously held office may be urged to seek election over an available seat promptly. Hypothetically, a fellow party member presiding over a "safe constituency" would yield their seat for a by-election to enable the prime minister to win and serve in Parliament. Currently, there are few eligibility qualifications for a member to hold office in the House of Commons and they call for the candidate to be:
- A citizen of any of the four constituent states of the Kingdom of Sierra (Bajaría, the Deseret, Hawaii, or Sierra), or any of its territories, or its crown dependencies
- An individual who has reached the age of 25 or older;
- A citizen who has physically lived in any place under Sierran jurisdiction, whether sovereign or extraterritorial, (including overseas military bases, embassies, etc.) for 10 consecutive years or a total of 14 years with the last 7 years being consecutive as a resident;
- A citizen whose domicile is within no further than 50 miles from the boundaries of the constituency they seek to run in for a period of at least 3 months at the time of assuming office;
- A citizen for at least 15 years, if naturalized;
- A citizen in good upstanding with respect to society, who has not been convicted or served a sentence for a felony within the past 20 years, a serious offense within the past 15 years, a criminal offense within the past 10 years, or a misdemeanor/minor crime within the past 5 years;
- And a citizen who has never been convicted of treason, terrorism, or war crime
Inauguration and oath
Before a new prime minister can formally assume the office, the prime minister-elect is required to meet the reigning monarch and the outgoing prime minister, usually at the monarch's residence, the Occidental Palace. If the monarch is not present, one of the Great Officers of State may stand in for the monarch. The prime minister-elect and outgoing prime minister must exchange hands before the monarch. The outgoing prime minister must relinquish their "commission" before the monarch, who then presents this renounced commission to the incoming prime minister. Before taking office, the prime minister is constitutionally required to swear in front of the monarch the following statement:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra and His/Her Royal Majesty's Representative and Civil Servant to the Sierrans, that I will faithfully execute the powers ascribed upon me by the Constitution. I declare that any and all actions I undertake shall be scrutinized to the fullest extent and that I shall only work in the interests of the People and the State. Ten thousand years, glory, glory to the King/Queen!
The prime minister has the optional choice of adding in the following phrase at the end of his/her oath: So help me God (or Providence). If a monarch was officially declared dead by the state coroner within seven days of the prime minister's inauguration, the oath's end is modified to say, "...Ten thousand years, the King/Queen is dead, glory, glory to the King/Queen...".
The oath in its entirety is administered by the Chief Justice and it has been traditionally dictated that the prime minister's left hand be placed on a Holy Bible (interchangeable with any other religious texts such as the Quran or a secular text such as the Constitution). As soon as the prime minister has completed his/her oath, the prime minister is officially inaugurated into the office with all its powers, responsibilities, and benefits. Following the inauguration, the Getty House bids farewell to the departing prime minister and prepares for the arrival of the new prime minister. At the desk of the prime minister, a manila folder containing a personal letter from the leaving prime minister, sensitive state information, and a debriefing document awaits the prime minister. There, the prime minister also finalizes all his/her credentials in order to fulfill the task of prime minister.
Traditionally, about two weeks after a general election, the prime minister holds an inaugural address, regardless if they were newly appointed or have continued to serve as the incumbent, before the country at the front steps of Parliament Building, detailing their plan for the government and their goals as the leader of the government.
Term
The term of office for the prime minister has no fixed length or time limit. The prime minister serves at Her Royal Majesty's pleasure, and remains in office as long as they are able to maintain the confidence of the majority of members in the House of Commons, if they resign, if they are dismissed, or if they die. The only other method of the prime minister's removal from office is impeachment, which is a stronger form of dismissal that entails formal prosecution by Parliament against alleged crimes committed by the prime minister during their tenure.
The lifespan of Parliament has been limited to a maximum of five years after the last general election, although in practice, the time between the formation and dissolution of Parliament is often much shorter than this. Whenever Parliament requires dissolution, the prime minister must submit a formal writ of election, requesting the Queen to allow an election to take place within a speedily prompt manner. Following parliamentary dissolution, members of Parliament continue to serve in their capacity as members, but are heavily limited in what they can do. The prime minister and all other members of the House must run in the general election in order to maintain a seat in the House. The goal of every incumbent prime minister is to ensure that their party or coalition maintains a plurality or majority in the House, in order to continue as a government. Should the prime minister's party lose enough seats to yield a minority, and a coalition cannot be formed in a timely manner, the leader of the new largest party wins. Should neither be the case, and there is a hung parliament, it is possible for the Queen to hold a special prime ministerial election, whereby one of the party leaders within the new House is to be chosen by the people as the new prime minister.
Vacancy and succession
In the event of a vacancy, the deputy prime minister fulfills the role as acting prime minister for either the remainder of the vacant prime minister's term or until the prime minister is able to competently fulfill his/her duties. A special election may be called forcing a new prime minister to be voted in if Parliament deems it necessary. If the prime minister is removed from office through impeachment, death, or resignation, the deputy prime minister automatically becomes the prime minister. According to the Sierran line of succession, should the deputy prime minister be unable to fulfill the role as prime minister, the responsibility is transferred onto the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The line continues down the offices of the Cabinet according to the numbering of precedence of the ministries with the last in line the Minister of Veteran Affairs.
Style, compensation, salary, and benefits
| Styles of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra | |
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| Reference style | His/Her/Their Excellency |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Posthumous style | The Honorable |
| Alternative style | Mr./Mrs./Ms. Prime Minister |
The prime minister enjoys an annual salary of $500,000, $50,000 personal expense account, $100,000 travel account, and $30,000 for miscellaneous spending. In addition, the prime minister is provided residence at the Getty House Estate and may utilize all its facilities and services at his/her pleasure. State dinners, official visits, and other public functions are funded by the government but all other expenses including food and laundry must be paid out of the prime minister's finances.
The prime minister has unrestricted access to the Occidental Palace, the official residence of the monarch, as well as several government-owned country retreats throughout Sierra. A guest room within the Palace is readily available personally for the prime minister and his/her family whenever visiting the monarch.
The official state car is a modified armored version of the Venger 62 limousine which is used as ground transport for the prime minister. Two heavily modified and custom-fitted Boeing 757 models serve as the official aerial means of transport for the prime minister and the Sierran royal family. The prime minister also has a fleet of 20 Marines-operated helicopters and cruisers at his/her disposal.
The prime minister, his/her family, and personal guests receive continuous protection from the Secret Service and continue receiving protection up to 20 years after exiting office. Under special circumstances, this post-office protection may be extended unto former prime ministers at the discretion of the current prime minister. In the case of a severe national emergency, the prime minister can be brought to any of the undisclosed amount of heavily guarded secret locations throughout Sierra to continue normal government operations.
A personal set of coat of arms and standard may be commissioned by the prime minister during their administration for his/her use, and may receive titles from the peerage system by the Monarch with the expressed approval of the Parliament.
The prime minister is officially styled with the title His/Her Excellency and outranks all titles and offices with the exception of the Sierran Royal Family in the government hierarchy of importance. Under normal circumstances, living former prime ministers are still referred to as His/Her Excellency. Deceased prime ministers are posthumously referred to as The Honorable.
List of prime ministers
Current ministry
The incumbent ministry under Maggie Chan has been in government since November 28, 2022.
Post-prime ministry
All living former prime ministers are entitled to pensions, offices, and security protection. As of January 2015, the current pension stands at $125,000 a year. In addition, former prime ministers enjoy franking privileges, covered traveling expenses, and nationally sanctioned prime ministerial libraries. Upon leaving office, former prime ministers may lose access to security-clearance locations, government-operated residences including the Getty House or the Occidental Palace, and various other privileges. After stepping down, some prime ministers continued to pursue a prolific career in politics or policymaking. There are no constitutional restrictions that prevent former prime ministers from taking office or even running for prime minister yet again. As such, extensive opportunities and advantages are offered to former prime ministers (who enjoy statutory pensions), even more so than does who have not been.
Prime ministers who have been regarded positively during their tenures generally continue their legacy after leaving office. Almost universally, approval ratings for former prime ministers are higher than they were during their service. Without the responsibilities or scrutiny associated with the prime ministerial profession, former prime ministers have well-established images and credibility, allowing them to enter into any field in society. Prior to the extortion scandal that brought impeachment and then imprisonment upon former prime minister Kovrov Stoyanovich, Stoyanovich had relatively positive ratings. Following his release from prison in 1997, Stoyanovich rebuilt his image by dedicating a life to humanitarian concerns by traveling around the world. His charity work and promotion of global peace allowed former critics to overlook his scandal and praise him for his work. A major, recent exception is Daniel McComb, who resigned in 2017 amid mounting sexual abuse allegations made against him by former staff and associates. McComb, who is under an ongoing investigation by the federal government and Parliament, left office with lower than 11% approval ratings, the lowest in the history of post-ministry ratings for Sierran prime ministers.
When former prime ministers pass away, a state funeral is held in honor and recognition of their service. Their body is laid in state beneath the Rotunda of the Parliament Building for about a week before buried at their's or their family's desired location. Considered a solemn event, the entire procession itself is managed jointly between the Sierran Crown Armed Forces and members of the Parliament, reaffirming national solidarity with the prime ministerial office. The event is considered an obligatory ceremony that the Sierran royal family must attend. The last state funeral held for a prime minister was for former prime minister Leslie Steele (2021) who died of natural causes at the age of 88.
Walter Zhou (R) 
Ted Brundy (R)
Diana Jeong (R)- Nemesis Heartwell official Prime Minister portrait.png
Susan Kwon (SD)
