Member of Parliament

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A Member of Parliament is a representative of 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. The term Member of Parliament is often shortened in the media and in every day use to the initialism "MP".Contents [hide]1Westminster system1.1Australi1.2Bangladesh1.3Canada1.4India1.5Ireland1.6Kenya[edit]Westminster system Main article: Westminster system[edit]Australia In Australia, the term "Member of Parliament" refers to Members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Commonwealth parliament. Members may use "MP" after their names - previously "MHR" was used but this is not current. The members of the upper house of the Commonwealth parliament, the Senate, are known as "Senators". In New South Wales and Victoria, Members of the Legislative Assembly (lower house) use the post-nominal "MP", but Members of the Legislative Council (upper house) use "MLC".[edit]Bangladesh In Bangladesh, members of the Jatiyo Shangshad, or National Assembly, are elected every five years and are referred to in English as Members of Parliament. The assembly has 345 seats, including 45 reserved for women.[edit]Canada In Canada, the Parliament of Canada consists of the upper house, the Senate of Canada, and the lower house, the Canadian House of Commons, but only members of the lower house are referred to as Members of Parliament (French: député) in common usage. There are 105 seats in the Senate and 308 in the House of Commons.[1][edit]India In India, the term Member of Parliament refers to all the members of the Sansad, the Indian Parliament, whether in the chamber of the Lok Sabha or in that called the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected popularly by constituencies in each of the Indian states and Union territories, while members of the Rajya Sabha are elected indirectly by the State legislatures. Each state is allocated a fixed number of representatives in each chamber, with the state of Uttar Pradesh having the greatest number. The central government is formed by the party or coalition which has the greatest number of directly elected members in the Lok Sabha.[edit]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 House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922.Northern Ireland continues to elect MPs to the modern Parliament of the United Kingdom. Following the formation of the Irish Free State in (1922) , independent from the United Kingdom, members of the lower house of the Republic of Ireland (1949) , Dáil Éireann (or "the Dáil") are termed Teachtaí Dála (Teachta Dála singular) or TDs. The upper house is called Seanad Éireann. Its members are called Seanadóirí or Senators. See also: Member of Parliament (pre-Union Ireland)[edit]Kenya The National Assembly of Kenya consists of 210 elected members and twelve who are nominated, all being called Members of Parliament.[2][edit]Malaysia Main article: Parliament of 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. 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.[edit]Malta The Parliament of Malta consists of the President of Malta and the House of Representatives currently made up of 69 members (article 51 of the Constitution). Only these members of the House are referred to as "Members of Parliament" (article 52(1) of the Constitution). When appointed from outside the House, the Speaker is also considered a member of the House (although usually not referred to as "Member of Parliament") except when a vote on a bill amending the Constitution is taken (article 52(2) of the Constitution). The Constitution lists the qualifications and disqualifications from serving as a Member of Parliament[3]. Privileges of Members of Parliament as well as their Code of Ethics are laid out in the House of Representatives (Privileges and Powers) Ordinance[4].[edit]Nauru The Parliament of Nauru consists of 18 seats and is the legislative institution of the Republic of Nauru. The Parliament House is located in the Yaren district. Members of Parliament are entitled to use the prefix The Honourable.[edit]New Zealand Main articles: New Zealand Parliament and New Zealand electionsNew Zealand has a unicameral (or singe chamber) parliament, namely the New Zealand House of Representatives, although parliament technically consists of the House and the monarch. Member of Parliament is now the term for a member of the House of Representatives, which normally has 120 members, elected at a general election every three years. There are 69 constituency members, seven of whom are elected by the Māori who have chosen to vote in special Māori seats, while the remaining 51 members are elected by proportional representation from party lists. Before 1951, New Zealand had a bicameral (or two-chamber) parliament, and there were two designations: Member of the House of Representatives, abbreviated MHR, the body which survives today, and Member of the Legislative Council, abbreviated MLC.[edit]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.[edit]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. See also: Cabinet of Singapore and Members of the Singapore Parliament[edit]Sri Lanka In Sri Lanka, Members of Parliament refers to elected members of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and National List Member of Parliament, who are nominated by the contending parties (and independent groups) in proportion to their share of the national vote. A government is formed by the party or group that has the support of the majority of MPs. See also: Cabinet of Sri Lanka and Parliament of Sri Lanka[edit]United Kingdom See also: List of United Kingdom MPs, List of Parliaments of the United Kingdom, MPs elected in the UK general election, 2010, Number of Westminster MPs, and Salaries of Members of the UK Parliament The United Kingdom contains members of three different parliaments: 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. The present Northern Ireland Assembly's members are known as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). The National Assembly for Wales consists of sixty elected members, but it is not called a parliament, its members instead being referred to in English as Assembly Members (AMs) or in Welsh as Aelod y Cynulliad (AC).[5] Members of the House of Commons are elected in general elections and by-elections to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system of election, and may remain Members until Parliament is dissolved, which must occur within five years of the last general election, as laid down in the Parliament Act 1911. 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[6] (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 are not forbidden from refusing to seek re-election). To leave the house between elections voluntarily, a Member of Parliament must accept a "paid office under the Crown". Two nominally paid offices under the Crown  – the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Manor of Northstead – exist to allow members to apply for a paid office under the Crown and thereby to achieve a resignation from the House. Accepting a salaried Ministerial office does not amount to a paid office under the Crown for these purposes.[7] The basic salary of a member of the House of Commons was increased to £64,766 with effect from 1 April 2009.[8] Some MPs (ministers, the Speaker, senior opposition leaders etc.) receive a supplementary salary for their specific responsibilities. As of 1 April 2008 these increments range from £14,039 for Select Committee Chairs to £130,959 for the Prime Minister. Members also receive expenses, including paying for buying and furnishing accommodation required when away from their main homes.[9] The pension arrangements of UK MPs are equally generous. The Member will normally receive a pension of either 1/40th or 1/50th of their final pensionable salary for each year of pensionable service depending on the contribution rate they will have chosen. Members who make contributions of 10% of their salary gain an accrual rate of 1/40th.[10] An MP who has served 26 years and retiring today could look forward to receiving an annual inflation-proof payout of £40,000 from their pension. According to a report in the Daily Mail, state contributions for British Members of Parliament are more than four times higher than the average paid out by companies for final-salary schemes, although they are not significantly more generous than most public sector pensions.[11] Members of the House of Lords, however their membership comes about, are members of a legislative chamber which is part of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Although technically they are part of the parliament, they are never referred to in the United Kingdom as members of parliament but as peers, or more formally as Lords of Parliament. They 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 a seat in the House of Lords to their heir automatically. The ninety-two who remain have been elected from among their own number, following the House of Lords Act 1999, and paradoxically are the only elected members of the Lords.[12][edit]Zimbabwe In Zimbabwe, the title "Member of Parliament" is used by members of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe. Members of the upper house of Parliament are instead referred to as Senators.[edit]Other systemsMember of Parliament can be used to translate the term used to describe representatives in other parliamentary democracies that do not follow the Westminster system, who are usually referred to in a different fashion such as Deputé in France, Diputado, Deputado in Portugal and Brazil, Mitglied des Bundestages (MdB) in Germany. However, better translations are often possible.[edit]Austria In Austria, the term Member of Parliament refers to the members of the two chambers of the Parliament of Austria (Österreichisches Parlament). 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.