President of the American Parliament

 

President of American Parliament Presidente del parlamento americano Président du parlement américain Präsident des amerikanischen Parlaments Председатель Американского парламента
Logo of the American Parliament
Flag of the CAS
Incumbent Sofia Muñoz since May 20, 2020
American Parliament
Style	Mr/Mrs President
Status	Presiding officer
Member of	American Parliament
Residence	Wagner House
Seat	Seattle, Astoria
Appointer	American Parliament
Term length	Five years, renewable once
Formation	August 12, 1970 (1970-08-12)
First holder	Johnathan Wagner
Deputy	Vice Presidents of the American Parliament

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The President of the American Parliament is the presiding officer and leader of the American Parliament, the transnational legislature of the Conference of American States. As the head of the American Parliament, the President presides over all parliamentary procedures, debates and activities within the parliament and is also required to enact most American laws and the budget. The President is also responsible for representing the parliament internationally and is one of the three main leaders and representatives of the CAS as a whole.

The President of the American Parliament is elected by Members of the American Parliament to serve a term of five years each and can only be reined once. Since it's creation, there've been over 50 presidents with three of them being women, including the incumbent president. Most Presidents of the American Parliament have come from older member states that joined since the CAS was founded in 1946. The current President is Sofia Muñoz from Central America.

Name

Prior to the formal establishment of the American Parliament in 1970, the main legislative body was the American Legislative Assembly and the office of the presidency was created. The office was known as the President of the Legislative Assembly from 1946 to 1956 and then renamed into the President of the American Assembly from 1956 until 1960 when it was reorganized into the modern American Parliament. The name of the office is translated into the main languages of the CAS and is as follows:

• Spanish: Presidente del parlamento americano
• French: Président du parlement américain
• German: Präsident des amerikanischen Parlaments
• Russian: Председатель Американского парламента

Role and functions

Role in Parliament

The President of the American Parliament is the leader of the transnational legislature and chairs parliamentary debates and all activities, functions, and procedure that occurs within the walls of parliament and its constituted bodies. As such, the role is similar to that of a speaker found in modern national legislatures. Below the president is a board of four Vice Presidents who serve as advisors and aides to the president, chair debates and carry out the functions of the president whenever they are not available. The President also chairs meetings of the Fiscal Department to discuss budget related issues and administration and is responsible for managing both issues as well. The President is also the leader of the Council of Presidents, a collective body made up of all nine leaders of all active political groups.

Position in the CAS

The president holds a high-ranking and vital position within the structure and hierarchy of the CAS and represents both Parliament and the CAS in matters of external public relations and international relations. When the American Council meets, the president is allowed the speak and address the council and voice the concerns, goals and agenda of the American Parliament to the Council. The president takes part in intergovernmental conferences when discussing new treaties and other political matters. The president's signature is also required for the budget of the CAS and Union acts under codecision procedure in order to be adopted and chairs conciliation committees with the Council in such areas. Such actions are taken in order to prevent conflict from emerging between parliament and the Council and other CAS institutions. In essence, the president serves as the bridge between the legislative bodies of the CAS and is tasked with maintaining cooperation and stability between the legislative institutions of the CAS.

The role and position of the president differs greatly from most modern government and political systems. While the head of state comes before all others in the protocols of most sovereign countries, the president comes before any CAS and other Anglo-American protocol as the American Parliament is listed as the most important institution in the structure of the CAS thus putting the president in a highly important and powerful position which supersedes the role and position of Anglo-American leaders and other CAS officials. The president is viewed as the legislative leader of the CAS and is one of its primary diplomatic representatives when representing the CAS in international affairs, a role also held by both the Secretary-General and the CAS President. The president will often represent the CAS when meeting with foreign leaders and representatives and is commonly sent to lead a CAS diplomatic delegation to international organizations such as the League of Nations and accompanies the Secretary-General and/or the CAS President when they visit other countries, especially observer states of the CAS or potential future member states.

Party affiliation

The majority of presidents have belonged to one of the nine major political groups with a significant portion being affiliated with the United Federalists of America and the Liberal Democrats of America due to both groups being the largest and heavily influential, though other groups such as the American Conservative Coalition and the Social Democrats of America have exercised influence and many presidents have belonged to such political groups. Presidents of the American Parliament are allowed to be affiliated with a political group, but they are to act in a non-partisan matter and are to avoid putting the interests of their respective party over that of the CAS as a whole. Partisan motivated actions and policies that occur at the expense of one or more party groups and/or the CAS as a whole are filed under corruption and can be used to justify a motion of no confidence to remove the president from office and replace them in a snap election.

Elections

The president is elected by members of the American Parliament to serve five-year terms with the office being renewable once, meaning that the officeholder can only serve for ten years at most. Since the office was established, the Liberal Democrats of America (LDA) and the American Conservative Coalition (ACC) have been the two main parties to have held the office the most with the Social Democrats of America (SDA) being the only party outside of the LDA and ACC. Elections to the position are typically held shortly after general elections to the transnational legislature have taken place with the winner of the election being sworn in at the same time that the next session of the American Parliament has officially started. Closed-door elections are held following an election to the American Parliament in which any political group that is contesting the race will hold a primary and field their own candidates and all MAPs cast their votes with the candidate that wins the most delegates being declared the winner.

List of presidents

Groups

•   Liberal Democrats of America

N.	Portrait	President (Born–Died)	State	Took office	Left office	Party	Group		Electoral mandate
TBD		Wilbur Banks (born 1947)	Superior	May 15, 2010	May 20, 2020	LDPS		LDA	2010 2015
				10 years, 5 days
TBD		Sofia Muñoz (born 1982)	Central America	20 May 2020	Incumbent	AD		LDA	2020
				4 years, 135 days

See also

• American Parliament
• American Council
  • President of the American Council
• President of the Conference of American States
• Speaker (politics)