House of Assembly

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House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level.

Historically, in British crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible government, the House of Assembly superseded the (usually unelected) Legislative Council as the colonial legislature, often becoming the lower house.

Houses of Assembly

• The Barbados House of Assembly is the oldest House of Assembly in the Commonwealth.
• The Bermuda House of Assembly forms the lower house of the bicameral parliament.
• Two of the Canadian provinces have unicameral legislatures named House of Assembly:
  • the Nova Scotia House of Assembly; and
  • the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly.
  • Also, the indigenous Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands call their legislative body a House of Assembly.^{[citation needed]}
• Two of the Australian states have bicameral parliaments where the House of Assembly is the lower house:
  • the South Australian House of Assembly; and
  • the Tasmania House of Assembly.
• The House of Assembly of South Africa, known in Afrikaans as the Volksraad, was the lower house of the whites-only parliament until 1981, when the Senate of South Africa was abolished. Following a new Constitution in 1984, it became one of three Houses of the Tricameral Parliament. Following the end of apartheid and the introduction of a new Constitution in 1994, it was replaced by a National Assembly.
• The House of Assembly of Dominica is the unicameral legislature in which the appointed members are called Senators.
• In Nigeria, the House of Assembly is the name given to each state legislature.
• The House of Assembly of Zimbabwe was the sole parliamentary chamber following the abolition of the country's Senate in 1990, prior to its reinstatement in 2005.
• In Trinidad and Tobago, the legislature of Tobago, which enjoys limited self-government, is the Tobago House of Assembly.
• The unicameral National Parliament of Papua New Guinea was known as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea before independence.

See also

• Legislative Assembly
• Legislative Council
• Parliament