[Sanctaria]

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[/hr]POLITICS | OPINIONS | SPORT | NATIONAL | LIFESTYLE | BUSINESS | INTERNATIONAL

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013

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[/hr]VOL. XCV .. Num. 34,402 | In the News: Senate -- Kindle Profile -- Cabinet Projections

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PARLIAMENT BACK TODAY - SORT OF
by SARAH PLEDYS, Political Editor

Sanctus - The nation's first ever directly elected Senators will arrive in Parliament House today to be sworn in and top of the agenda is the doling out of Senate committee seats; very important, as committee members will get to vet any Deputy nominated by the new Prime Minister as a Cabinet Minister.

The return of the Senate also sees an anomaly in Sanctaria, as although the government and the House of Deputies will have a majority, albeit slim, of the Sanctarian Conservative Party, the Senate will have a slim Democratic Left Party majority, the official opposition. And slim it will be too, as the DLP have announced they will be relying on the support of two Independent Senators, including Haven's June Warren, to keep control of the upper house.

Democratic Left Party leader Charlene Hendry has confirmed that Tiffany Bethelson, a DLP Senator from Altashire, will be the party's leader in the Senate; she said that there has not yet been a decision on who the party will nominate as Senate Moderator. She also expressed disappointment that she won't be leading the DLP into the government and becoming the nation's first female Prime Minister, but said that having control of the upper house was "symbolic" and would provide "an effective checks and balance" against the Government in the House. She noted that although the DLP didn't gain the House of Deputies, and thereby get into the government, the party did see an increase in its seats and that the SCP saw a significant fall.

The House of Deputies is back in action on Thursday with the new SCP leader Mark Kindle expected to be elected Prime Minister by the body shortly after 11am. After sending his cabinet nominations to the Senate, he will most likely be spending the day politicking with the Senators on various committee in a bid to get his colleagues in the House confirmed as Cabinet Ministers. The Senate will have to act quick though, as one of the final acts of the previous Government was putting in legislation the date and time the new Government would be sworn in and take office - 12 noon on this Friday.

The DLP have already said that they don't plan to reject any nomination sent to the Senate. "It's envisioned it'll just be a friendly chat before the relevant committees, outlining what they hope to do in their term as Secretary", Senator Bethelson said yesterday evening before continuing to state that "it won't be adversarial. The SCP won, they get to have their team".