President of Meridon

The President of Meridon is the of Meridon. The President is the elected head of the Meridonian government and occupies the seniormost government office in the nation. The President is responsible for appointing the heads of the Executive Council, signing bills into law, conducting diplomacy and foreign affairs, ensuring the enforcement and execution of Federal law, and serving as the Commander in Chief of the Meridon Defense Forces.

William Acton is the 32nd and current president of Meridon. He assumed office on 10 May 2020.

Origin
The earliest form of centralized executive power was invested in the Chairman of the First Union of Meridon, established in 1640. The Chairman was not an elected post and took the form of an officer holding the post, selected by lottery from eligible delegates to the Union Council for a 6 month term. While the First Union severely limited government powers overall, the Chairman helped to chair meetings of the Union and serve as a tiebreaker vote when needed. The Chairman was also responsible for the oversight of the few government departments that existed, whose members and policy were appointed by legislative vote. In the early years of the Union the Chairman served as a strong supervisory role, and gradually began to take more powers traditionally relegated to an executive, including the final approval of laws and the guidance of policy. in 1692, the Chairmanship was opened to legislative vote, and in 1717 it was opened to popular vote. Term limits expanded from 6 months to two years. While these changes helped in making the executive more useful, they came at the expense of territorial and city sovereignty.

Complaints regarding the strength of the executive were one of the contributing causes to the Second Meridonian Civil War. The newly-elected Chairman at that time, Jackson Marriott, was given an emergency 5-year extension to his term to fight the war. In 1743, with the tide of the war turning, the Union Council gave another five year extension to the term. When the war ended in 1747, Marriott was again offered a 5-year extension to his term, however he refused and served until the formalization of the Constitution of Meridon, which established the office of the President. His protege, Henry Miller, was elected as the first President and served two five year terms.

Executive powers
The Constitution of Meridon designates the President as the "supreme executor of Federal law, upon which the supreme burden of Federal Law he must enforce." The Constitution mandates that the President is responsible for the execution and enforcement of all federal laws, statutes, and decisions of the legislature.