People's Assembly

he People's Assembly is the body in charge of legislative power in Hakha. It enacts national laws, and is in charge of make all the country's legal codes.

The assembly was created by King Myint I in 2021 as an initiative to end the absolute monarchy in Hakha and start a constitutional monarchy. Elections were held on 1 January, where the Liberal Front led by former prime ministerial candidate Khaing Maung won a large majority but failed to win the government. The assembly finally took office on 4 January when all legislators were sworn in.

The unicameral Assembly is composed of 248 legislators, of which 224 are renewed every four years, half (112) every two years, the other 24 seats are divided 50/50 by legislators appointed by the Theravada School, the official school of Buddhism in Hakha, and by legislators elected by the nobility, led by the hereditary prince. The 224 eligible legislators are elected by the D'Hondt system, with a set number of legislators for each of the 18 autonomous regions, the number of legislators being determined by population, with the 5 southern regions of the country having a clear dominance in this regard.

Apart from the penal codes, the People's Assembly has other extraordinary powers, such as, for example, the power to depose a prime minister for poor performance of his duties, to depose ministers, to modify the number of legislators or to form constituent assemblies, etc.

Headquarters
The headquarters of the People's Assembly is located in the Hoekyiay Palace Complex, a complex of government palaces where most of the headquarters of various Hakha government entities, including the Prime Minister, are located. The legislature sits in the first and main palace of the complex, which is located on the outskirts of the huge capital of Hakha.

The contraction of the headquarters began in October 2021 by order of King Myint and with the help of several countries it was completed much earlier than expected due to the limited technology available to the country at the time. It was inaugurated on January 10, 2022 at the first regular session of the same.

The Assembly chamber has room for up to 440 people between legislators and the public, as it is perhaps one of the few parliaments where anyone can attend a session, this measure was taken by the government to try to give the people of Hakha a greater interest in politics, at most 60 can people attend to see the legislators work, then there are 30 seats reserved for personalities and relatives of the legislators.

In terms of design, unlike other parliaments where most of the palaces are used for offices, in the case of Hakha, the hemicycle occupies most of the palace, its size is due to the number of legislators, in the current chamber is expandable up to 350 legislators, since their number increases or decreases in each population census, this means that an important part of the session hall is empty. Offices in the palace are only guaranteed to the deputy prime minister and the president of the assembly, the rest of the palace is mostly occupied by tourist attractions, such as elegant halls or the Museum of History, which is an interactive museum about the history of Hakha, in which there are artistic and archaeological samples, as well as different exhibitions on the history of the country.

The 248 legislators' offices are located in the fourth palace of the aforementioned complex.

History
Hakha was historically ruled by absolute monarchies regardless of the period, however, there were Parliament projects before:

In the Kingdom of Langdaw, the predecessor kingdom of Hakha together with that of Hoekyiay, King Phyo II fell seriously ill, it is believed that from syphilis that he may have contracted a few years before, the serious condition of the monarch of Langdaw aroused serious suspicions about his possible death, and as a consequence, having no heir at the time, the kingdom almost fell into a civil war for the throne. One of the factions, the parliamentarians, proposed, as its name indicates, the establishment of a parliamentary monarchy under the argument of the permanent physical incapacity of the king to govern, this faction gained notoriety and came to control a part of the territory of the kingdom, but with the miraculous recovery of the king in 1826 and the subsequent birth of his two sons, suspicions of civil war would cease to exist.

At the height of the internal conflicts of Hoekyiay, in the mid-19th century, the island of Yenangkyina declared its independence from the Kingdom of Hoekyiay, forming the ephemeral Free Kingdom of Yenangkyina, the monarch who took power, Khant, established a monarchy modified parliamentary, in which he established a Parliament of 60 legislators, although with a ban on political parties and fulfilling the functions of a prime minister, that is, a parliament with independent legislators selected by the king, this model of supposedly parliamentary monarchy, which was complemented by authoritarianism which used parliament as a consultative rather than legislative body, was extremely unpopular and caused a popular revolt that ended with Hoekyiay recovering the territory of the island in just 4 years.

Finally, in September 2021, the Kingdom of Langdaw, subjugated by Hoekyiay since the 19th century, but with autonomy through a sort of governor general, agreed to the unification of Langdaw and Hoekyiay, following a proposal sent by the King of Hoekyiay since 2001, Myint I. One of the articles of the Thanamaraw Act stated that the new state, named Hakha after the most important river in both kingdoms, should become a constitutional monarchy within 4 months. Finally, on 16 October, the unification was successfully completed, and elections were called for 1 January 2022, the deadline for leaving the absolute monarchy.

In the elections, the first in the history of the Yakin civilisation, the liberal parties came out on top. The party that won the government, the Constitutional Front, of socio-liberal ideology, led by Kaung Kan Pyay, won in 6 sparsely populated regions, and although it was enough to win because of the electoral system imposed until then, the Liberal Front, of classic liberal ideology which lost by a margin of 1 region, won a comfortable first minority after winning in some of the most important regions.

The outlook for the first legislature was a hung parliament, which is why several alliances were built: Free Citizens, of liberal-conservative ideology, between the Liberal Front and the Conservatives party, and the SAM (acronym) between Popular Front, of socialist ideology and the Independent Front, of social-democratic ideology. The first minority is currently held by the Constitutional Front with 62 seats and 8 seats difference to the second minority.

The current legislature is the 1st legislature, which runs until 10 January 2026.

Attributions
The People's Assembly has certain powers like those of any legislative branch in a democratic nation. The best known is obviously the initiative of bills and the creation of laws and legal codes. Other of its functions are:

- Appointment of prime minister (only when the prime minister resigns and the king decides that the deputy prime minister does not take office)

- Motion of no confidence in the prime minister and/or other government officials

- Creating or modifying the annual budget

- Appointing and/or deposing the judges of the Supreme Court

- Authorizes the prime minister or the king to declare a state of emergency

- Modification of a part of the Constitution with prior proposal and formation of a Constituent Assembly

- Modify the number of legislators according to the census