Led by a major Huenyan NGO, calls are rising for Huenya to implement sweeping term limits for virtually every elected national office, including the Presidency and the Federal Court.
The Center for Democratic Advancement (CDA) has launched a formal campaign to rally Huenyans behind a set of proposed referendums. One would impose a limit of two terms on the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. A second would place the same set of term limits on elected members of the Federal Legislature. The third one would impose similar term limits on justices of the Federal Court, as well as trial and appeal courts judges. The fourth and final one would mandate the same term limits for governors, municipal mayors and council members.
The goal of CDA’s push for term limits is “to ensure that Huenya sidesteps the pitfall you see in more established democracies where elected officials essentially remain in office until they either drop dead or lose all mental acuity,” Huitzilima, Secretary-General of CDA, told DTNS. “Ensuring that elected offices don’t become lifelong positions will keep fresh ideas and spirit flowing into our government, and will also help provide a hard stop to corruption and entrenched special interests. It will also make future elections more competitive by keeping incumbents from having too much advantage.”
Huitzilima said that avoiding electoral issues other democracies often encounter, while Huenya’s own democracy is still young, was the ultimate goal. She conceded, however, that the impetus for CDA’s push dates back to January 2025. In what was a very controversial decision at the time, the Federal Court ruled in favor of President Xiadani in a decision that ultimately extended her first term for an additional year. A later push to impeach the members of the Court that ruled in favor of extending the President’s term failed in the Legislature. Efforts to limit the powers of Huenya’s Electoral Commission, or reform election laws, also failed. “It is clear that having judges who are appointed to lifetime positions is a mistake, especially when the very check and balance of impeachment that is supposed to protect the nation fails,” Huitzilima said. “Term limits are needed to provide the guardrails against nascent oligarchy and political corruption that the Constitution currently does not.”
While the subject matter is very serious, the campaign CDA is running to convince Huenyans on term limits is a bit light-hearted. In one ad, an office worker is shown bumbling and fumbling their way through their workday, failing at multiple tasks. As the commercial ends on a shot of the worker slipping and falling, sending a ream of paper he was carrying spiralling through the air, it fades to black with text appearing. “Do you think someone should keep their job forever, no matter what? Neither do we. Term limits now,” it reads with the CDA logo below it.
In another ad, a person is shown driving down the road. The speedometer on the dash shows 100 mph. The driver speeds down the road, engaging in various activities such as eating, looking at their phone, etc. As they continue to speed down the road in a distracted fashion, their vehicle drives right off a cliff. Dust fills the air and the sound of the engine roaring echoes; the camera pans back past a speed limit sign. “Limits aren’t always bad,” the fade-out screen reads, followed by the same pitch for term limits.
One serious ad did make its way into the lineup. Black-and-white images of Empress Calhualyana of Xiomera and the Imperial Parliament appear on the screen, with some of the more prominent right-wing Xiomeran leaders such as Almahuatzan also making an appearance. “You know who else hates term limits? These people,” the fade-out text reads, followed by “We aren’t the Empire. Term limits now.”
Elected officials across the Huenyan political spectrum, with the exception of those on the far left, do not seem particularly eager to embrace the CDA’s call for term limits. “Term limits will accomplish nothing the CDA is claiming it will. What it will do is push talented public servants who are eager and capable to serve their country out of office far too soon, denying the nation of what they could accomplish. It will also create excessive turnover in our government, making it harder to engage in long-term planning and governance of the nation,” a statement from the Unification Party in response to the CDA campaign read. The Conservatives, Huenya Standing Tall and the Centrist Coalition also issued statements opposing term limits.
