UN Provisional Authority Lazarus

UN Provisional Authority Lazarus (UNPALAZ) is the main governing body of the entire colonial settlement on Lazarus. It also includes within its jurisdiction the three orbitals; Ascension, Novo Mir and Takarabune as well as any future settlements within system and beyond the continent.

The mission of UNPALAZ is to transition the colony from a colonial entity into a) a sovereign entity that follows various rules and norms laid down by international (now interstellar) law and b) to consider whether the new sovereign entity is fit for admission into the wider UN community.

As it stand UNPALAZ is in charge of the following UN agencies & bodies

• UNEXCOM aka UN Exploration Command
• UNGC aka UN Gendarme Corps
• UNSARCOM aka UN Search & Rescue Command
• LAZCOMNET; planetary satellite & communications network
• CERBERUS; watchdog agency that guards against rogue AIs as well various cybercrime, cyberterrorism & cyberwarfare
• ERA aka Exo Tech Research Authority; agency responsible for the research & sequestering of technological artefacts of the precursor societies
• PROPWA; Provisional Authority Parks & Wildlife Agency

UNPALAZ is a federal body, it adminisers and oversees the various towns, cities, municipalities as a whole. It does not deal in the day to day affairs of such settlements. Those places are governed by their own forms of administration, though what UNPALAZ has done is created a framework of governance for these communities.

Effectively major settlements such as Monolith City, Nova Luxor, Krasnygorod, Grand Canal and Utopia are designated municipalities and of those jurisdictions Utopia is the only one where the UN can directly intervene at a local level. The rest of continent is comprised of counties and groups of counties are organised into prefectures.

Counties and prefectures serve as electoral districts for the Bicameral legislature that is the basis for Lazraus's future self governance. Counties are the district for lower house members, prefectures for upper house members. Currently the way the population stand there are twenty one prefectures.

Each municipality has one upper house and three lower house spots. This brings the total number of elected officials to twenty six in the upper and ninety nine in the lower. As the population grows, either naturally or via another wave from Earth, the chances are the number of legislators will change. And also given that their are plans to expand settlement beyond the continent at some stage, these areas will also need to be incorporated.

UNPALAZ allows the following political parties/factions/movements to operate within the existing framework:

• Communists - Old Guard (Marxist Leninist)
• Communists - Kropotkinist
• Communists - New Era Socialism
• Dysonists
• Frente Popular
• Workers Party
• Freedom Coalition
• Loyalists (Pro UN & status quo)
• Moderates
• Corporatists
• Expansionist Movement

As it stands a Loyalist - Moderate coalition holds government with a majority in the Lower House, in the upper house or Senate it's a mixed bag of various parties with the Loyalist Moderates having to negotiate to get things through. And of course the CEO of the Authority has the right to veto any measure if they deem it not in the best interest of the UN and/or the settlement. The main opposition to the Loyalist Moderates comes from the Frente Popular, Communists, Workers and Dysonists in the lower house.

Currently the major focus at the current time (2336 CE) is the impending return of the UNCV Calypso and whether further expansion is needed, within the continent itself and to the other land masses. Others also seek to expand beyond the planet itself into the rest of the system.