Speaker (politics)

The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair.

[1][2] The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerford in the Parliament of England.

[3][4] The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like.

The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to discipline members who break the procedures of the chamber or house.

In addition to voting as senator or federal deputy at their respective houses, both presidents also hold the casting vote in case of a tie, but the large number of legislators (81 in the Federal Senate and 513 in the Chamber of Deputies, as of 2023) makes this attribution rarely used.

[7] Following the Brazilian political tradition, the legislative assemblies of the states (Legislative Chamber in the case of the Federal District), all unicameral, adopt rules identical to those of the National Congress, electing a Presiding Board among the state deputies for two-year terms on the first session after taking office.

As stipulated in Article 84 of the Constitution of China, should both the president and vice-president become incapacitated, and the National People's Congress is unable to elect a timely replacement, the chairman of the NPC Standing Committee will act as president.

Parliamentarism in Italy is centred on the presidents of the two Houses, vested in defence of the members and of the assembly as a whole;[note 1] so "the Speaker invites the representative of the Government not to deviate from the rules of parliamentary behaviour".

By recent tradition, the prime minister nominates a person, who may or may not be an elected member of parliament (MP), for the role.

The speaker is one of the few public sector roles which allow its office-holder to automatically qualify as a candidate in the Singapore presidential elections.

The president is elected among the members of the Congress and is, after the king and the prime minister, the highest authority in the Kingdom of Spain.

Until 1993, the president of the Control Yuan was elected by and from the members like the speaker of many other parliamentary bodies.

The speaker, elected by the entire House, is the top-ranking officer of the legislative branch of the federal government.

Unlike in Commonwealth realms, the position is partisan, and the speaker often plays an important part in running the House and advancing a political platform; Joseph Gurney Cannon, speaker from 1903 to 1911, is an extreme example.

In practice, however, the vice president does not regularly appear in Congress owing to responsibilities in the executive branch and the fact that the vice president may only vote to break a tie, something that rarely occurs due to the filibuster preventing tie votes from occurring in practice.

Since the Senate's rules give little power to its non-member presider (who may be of the minority party), the task of presiding over daily business is typically rotated among junior members of the majority party.

In Nebraska—the only state with a unicameral legislature—the senators elect one senator to serve as "Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature", who presides over legislative sessions in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor but retains the powers typical of other legislative speakers.