In a country with several religious factions, it is necessary to incorporate all of them; a system for organizing this government is proposed. The institutions will be based on a constitutional democracy system with three levels of government including legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch. The executive branch will comprise of the president, vice president and cabinet. The president will be commander-in-chief, head of state and government with the responsibility of preserving and protecting the constitution (Johnstone & Eagles, 2008). The judicial branch would dedicate the high court to exclusively handle cases related to the constitution while the Supreme Court would handle cases unrelated to the constitution. The setup would guarantee in reducing the work handled by High Courts especially when dealing with many different types of cases. The legislative branch would include a Congress, Senate and Council of Religion. The Congress will have representatives based on the population which is popular with all provinces being assured a representative. The Council of Religion will accommodate all religious factions with guaranteed equal representation elected by their governance. However, the council will be limited to only 100 representatives. The council will work closely with the Congress to pass proposed bills before the president can sign them into law. The bills must be supported by a majority of the congress and council before being forwarded to the president. The council will be headed by the vice president.
It is practically difficult to imagine a modern government or political system lacking parties especially where religious factions are involved (Johnstone & Eagles, 2008). The main role of political parties would be to combine demands and ideas, and convey them into the proper channels. Additionally, the parties will recruit officials looking for office present them to the public for voting. Furthermore, political parties would assist in creating public opinion, criticize and control government, undertake the responsibility of governing, and elect and verify interested officials. This will ensure that the government is held accountable for its actions and democracy succeeds. Again, political parties will nominate and present a presidential candidate for voter to decide during elections. All these roles can be simplified in one role that is controlling legislative and executive branches.
The system would apply federalism through the constitution and give important powers to states. Federalism is the best political system that can cater for a large and diverse population especially with numerous religious factions (Chanin & Radin, 2009). Sovereignty will be divided among constituent political units or (provinces and states) and the central government. The system will ensure federalism is based upon self-governing rules and establishments where the governing power will be divided between state and national governments, creating an alliance. This will ensure there is equal representation of all religious and other diverse factions within the country (Chanin & Radin, 2009).
The citizens of the country will be allowed to participate in elections and exercise their right to vote. The right to vote will be included in the constitution and it will be limited to citizens with valid identifications. The voting process will determine who will become the head of state, senate representative and other officials in state and national levels. The citizens will vote and the candidate with more than 50 percent of the votes will be declared head of state. The election will constitutionally be repeated after the end of a president’s term or in any other case stipulated in the constitution. An electoral commission will be set up by the legislature with the mandate of registering voters, facilitating the election, and counting the votes to determine the winner.
References
Chanin, J.M & Radin, B.A., (2009). Federal Government Reorganization: A Policy and Management Perspective. Burlington, Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Johnstone, L & Eagles, D.M., (2008). Politics (Us Edition): An Introduction to Democratic Government, Third Edition. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
