Everything about Member Of Parliament totally explained
A
Member of Parliament, or
MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a
parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as
senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as
senators. Members of parliament tend to form
parliamentary parties with members of the same
political party.
Australia
In
Australia, the term
Member of Parliament refers to the
Australian House of Representatives, and in some jurisdictions it also refers to members of the
State Parliament.
Austria
In
Austria, the term
Member of Parliament refers to the members of the two chambers of the
Parliament of Austria (
Österreichisches Parliament). The members of the
Nationalrat are called
Abgeordnete zum Nationalrat. The members of the
Bundesrat, elected by the provincial diets (
Landtage) of the nine federal
States of Austria, are known as
Mitglieder des Bundesrats.
Canada
While the Parliament consists of the
Queen of Canada,
Senate of Canada and the
House of Commons, only members of the lower house are referred to as Members of Parliament (
French:
Député) in common usage.
The
Ontario Legislature refer their representatives as
Members of Provincial Parliament (French:
membre du Parlement provincial) or MPPs.
Germany
In
Germany,
Members of Parliament refers to the elected members of the federal
Bundestag Parliament at the
Reichstag building in
Berlin. In
German they're called
Mitglieder des Deutschen Bundestages (MdB).
The 16 federal
States of Germany (
Länder) are represented by the
Bundesrat parliament at the former
Prussian House of Lords, whose members are the
Länder's Minister-Presidents and
Ministers.
India
In
India, the term
Member of Parliament refers to the
Sansad or the
Indian Parliament chambers of the
Lok Sabha or the
Rajya Sabha.
MPs to the
Lok Sabha are elected popularly by constituencies in the Indian states and union territories, while MPs to the
Rajya Sabha are elected by State legislatures. Central government is formed by the party having the most number of MPs in the
Lok Sabha. Each state is allocated a fixed number of elected MPs. The Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh, represents the maximum number of MPs in the
Lok Sabha.
Ireland
In
Ireland, the term
Member of Parliament can refer to the members of the pre-1801
Irish House of Commons of the
Parliament of Ireland. It can also refer to Irish members elected to the
British House of Commons of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922.
Northern Ireland continues to elected MPs to the modern
British Parliament.
Members of the modern Irish lower house of parliament,
Dáil Éireann (or "the Dáil") are termed
Teachtaí Dála (
Teachta Dála singular) or TDs. The upper house is called the
Seanad Éireann (
shan-ad). Its members are called Seanaideorai (
shan-ad-ore-ee) or Senators.
Italy
In the Republican
Italian Parliament the current term is
Deputato
(that is
deputy as appointed to act on people's behalf) and so the Lower House takes the name of
Camera dei Deputati. Similarly to other countries, the Higher House is called
Senato and its members are the
Senatori.
Lebanon
The
Parliament of Lebanon is the Lebanese national legislature. It is elected to a four-year term by universal adult suffrage in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's diverse Christian and Muslim denominations. Its major functions are to elect the
President of the Republic, to approve the government (although appointed by the President, the Prime Minister, along with the Cabinet, must retain the confidence of a majority in the Parliament), and to approve laws and expenditure.
Republic of Macedonia
In the
Republic of Macedonia there are 120 Members of Parliament which are called 'Pratenici' (singular Pratenik).
Malaysia
The
Malaysian Parliament is modeled after the
Parliament of the United Kingdom and consists of two houses, known as the
Dewan Rakyat, which is the
House of Representatives, and
Dewan Negara, the
Senate.
The members of the
Dewan Rakyat are elected in
general elections or
by-elections, whereas the members of the
Dewan Negara are either appointed by the
king, in recognition of outstanding service to their country or chosen by the states. Each state appoints a number of senators proportional to its size.
Currently, the
Dewan Negara has 70 seats while the
Dewan Rakyat has 222. Of the 222 seats in the
Dewan Rakyat, as of 2008, 140 are held by the ruling
Barisan Nasional and 82 by
opposition parties.
Members of Parliament are styled
Yang Berhormat ("Honourable") with the initials
Y.B. appended
prenominally. A
prince who is a Member of Parliament is styled
Yang Berhormat Mulia.
Malta
The
Parliament of Malta consists of 69 seats, and thse seats are shared between two political parties; 35 seats for the
Partit Nazzjonalista and 34 seats for the
Malta Labour Party.
Netherlands
The parlement of the
Netherlands consist of two chambers; together they're know as parlement or "Staten-Generaal", literally Estates-General. The First Chamber is also known as the Senate and its members as "senatoren", senators. The Second Chamber, "Tweede Kamer", is the most important one. The important debates take place here. Also, the Second Chamber can edit proposed laws with
amendments and it can propose laws itself. The Senate doesn't have these possibilities. Its function is more a technical reviewing of laws. It can only pass a law or reject it. Both chambers are in
The Hague which is the seat of parlement but not the official capital of The Netherlands -that is
Amsterdam.
The 150 members of the Second Chamber are elected by
general elections every 4 years (unless the government falls). The 75 members of the Senate are elected indirectly. The members of the 12 provincial parlements elect the senators. The value of a vote of a member of a provincial parlement is relative to the population of the province. Provincial parlements are elected by general elections each 4 years.
See also (in Dutch):
Staten-Generaal,
Eerste Kamer,
Tweede Kamer en
Provinciale Staten
New Zealand
New Zealand has a single-chambered (
unicameral) parliament. In New Zealand,
Member of Parliament is the term for a member of the
New Zealand House of Representatives, although parliament technically consists of both the House and the
Queen. The New Zealand House of Representatives normally has 120 MPs, elected every three years. There are 69 electorate (constituency) MPs, 7 of whom are elected by
Māori who have chosen to vote in special
Māori seats. The remaining 51 MPs are elected from party lists. As of 2007, the speaker of the house is
Margaret Wilson.
Before 1951, New Zealand had a two-chambered (
bicameral) parliament, and there were two designations — MHR (Member of the House of Representatives, the body which survives today) and MLC (Member of the
Legislative Council).
Norway
In
Norway, the term Members of Parliament refers to the elected members of the Norwegian parliament,
Stortinget. These members are called
stortingsrepresentanter. Norway has a two-chamber parliament, consisting of
Odelstinget and
Lagtinget. Odelstinget contains the majority of the parliament members (three fourths, or 127 of the total 169 members). Lagtinget contains the last fourth of the members, and is chosen by popular vote in the parliament at the beginning of each parliament period (the members of parliament are elected for four years at a time). The dividing of the parliament into chambers is only used when it's dealing with passing regular laws and in cases of prosecution by national court (
riksrett). In other matters, such as passing the national budget or changing the constitution (the latter requiring a majority of two thirds), the chambers are united.
Pakistan
In
Pakistan,
Member of Parliament refers to a member of Parliament (
National Assembly of Pakistan, Qaumi Assembly). The National Assembly is based in
Islamabad.
Poland
Singapore
In
Singapore,
Members of Parliament refers to elected members of the
Parliament of Singapore, the appointed
Non-Constituency Members of Parliament from the opposition, as well as the
Nominated Members of Parliament, who may be appointed from members of the public who have no connection to any political party in Singapore.
Sri Lanka
In
Sri Lanka,
Members of Parliament refers to elected and nominated members of the
Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Sweden
In
Sweden,
Members of Parliament refers to the elected
members of the
Parliament of Sweden . In Swedish, an MP is usually referred to as a
riksdagsledamot or a
riksdagsman (the former is in more common use today, especially in official contexts, due its status as a
unisex word, while the latter was used more often historically and literally refers to a male MP exclusively).
The parliament is a
unicameral assembly with 349 members who are chosen every four years in
general elections. In order to become an MP a person must be entitled to vote (for example be a Swedish
citizen, be at least 18 years old and be or have been resident in Sweden) and must be nominated by a
political party.
The salaries of the MPs are decided by the
Riksdag Pay Committee (
Riksdagens arvodesnämnd), a
government agency under the parliament. Since
1 November 2007, the basic monthly pay of an MP is
SEK52,900 (ca.
US$8,300). The pay of the
Speaker is SEK126,000 a month (ca. US$20,000), which is the same as that of the
Prime Minister. The Deputy Speakers receive an increment of 30 % of the pay of a member. The chairs and deputy chairs of the parliamentary committees receive a similar increment of 20 % and 15 % respectively.
Thailand
In the
Kingdom of Thailand,
Members of Parliament refers to the elected
members of the
National Assembly of Thailand. Following the
military coup d'état on
September 19,
2006, all its 500 members are suspended from duty until the next election.
United Kingdom
The
United Kingdom has members of three different parliaments:
Members of Parliament (which refers to members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, abbreviated to MP(s) but only in reference to members of the (lower) House of Commons)
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) (Elected members of the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland were called Commissioners.)
The Welsh Assembly isn't empowered to make primary legislation and forms the Welsh Assembly Government, which unusually combines legislative and executive functions. The National Assembly consists of 60 elected members; they use the English title Assembly Member (AM) or the equivalent Welsh Aelod y Cynulliad (AC), the latter primarily used when referring to this role when conversing in the Welsh language, and is infrequently heard within English speaking discussions. It is increasingly common, however, to see the Welsh Assembly Government referred to as "the Welsh Government" and the Welsh Assembly is increasingly referred to as Senedd in Welsh, the same word as is used for the Westminster Parliament.
The Northern Ireland Assembly's 108 members are elected from 18 six-member constituencies on the basis of universal adult suffrage. The constituencies used are the same as those used for elections to the Westminster Parliament. Elected members are known as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). The Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters". These matters are not enumerated in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Rather, they include any competence not explicitly retained by the Parliament at Westminster. Uniquely, Assembly legislation is open to judicial review.
Between 1921 and 1973, Northern Ireland was governed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, a devolved assembly whose members were known as Members of Parliament.
MPs in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are elected in general elections and by-elections to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system of election, and may remain MPs until Parliament is dissolved, which must occur within 5 years of the last general election, as stated in the Parliament Act 1911.
Members of the House of Lords are not MPs but Lords of Parliament, and sit either for life in the case of the Lords Temporal, or so long as they continue to occupy their ecclesiastical positions in the case of the Lords Spiritual. Hereditary peers may no longer pass on their seat and those remaining have been elected by themselves, following the House of Lords Act 1999. Their numbers remain at 92 by top-up voting ("by-election") when a member dies, however Lord Avebury’s House of Lords (Amendment) Bill (HL Bill 51) paves the way for their gradual extinction and this may be enacted before grand constitutional reform occurs. Such major reform is likely to be somewhat prolonged based on the Lords' resistance to suggested proposals in February 2007.
There are several special members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, other government ministers in the Commons, the Chief Whip of each party, Privy Counsellors, and the Speaker of the House.
A candidate to become a Member of Parliament must be a British or Irish or Commonwealth citizen, must be over 18, and must not be a public official or officeholder, as set out in the schedule to the Electoral Administration Act 2006(External Link) (this was a reduction in the lower age limit, as candidates needed to be 21 until the law came into effect in 2006).
Members of Parliament are technically forbidden to resign their seats (though they're not forbidden from refusing to seek re-election). In order to leave the house between elections, they must either die or take advantage of the rule that appointment to a "paid office under the Crown" disqualifies an MP from sitting in the Commons, and two nominally paid offices - the Chiltern Hundreds and the Manor of Northstead - exist to allow members to resign from the House. For more information, see the article Resignation from the British House of Commons.
The basic salary of an MP in the House of Commons was increased to £60,277 on 1 November 2006. Many MPs (ministers, the Speaker, senior opposition leaders etc) receive a supplementary salary for their specific responsibilities. As of the 1 April 2006 increment these range from £25,255 for junior whips to £126,085 for the Prime Minister. (External Link)
Other countries
MPs are also representatives in other parliamentary democracies that don't follow the Westminster system. Their functions are very much the same, yet the post is usually referred to in a different fashion such as Deputé in France, Diputado in many Spanish-speaking countries, Deputado in Portugal and Brazil, Deputato in Italy or Mitglied des Bundestages (MdB) in Germany.
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