Premier (Arab Union)

The Premier of Ministers of the Republic (Arabic: رئيس وزراء الجمهورية ra’īs wuzrā’ al-jumhūriyah), in English simply referred to as the Premier, is the head of government of one of the 20 republics which make up the bulk of the Arab Union. There is no constitutionally-mandated official title for a republic's head of government, with Part III Line 7:17–20 of the Constitution of the Arab Union simply making reference to the requirement that each republic's Council of Ministers be chaired by an individual not currently holding a seat in that or any republican congress nor the federal Arab Congress, nor any republican or federal judicial position or appointment, and who is appointed to lead the republic's Council of Ministers by vote in the respective republican congress. Although "Premier" is the word used to describe this position, it has not been mentioned in the constitution; the constitution recognises the appointed chair of a republican Council of Ministers as the respective republic's head of government, but only literally as so, not conferring upon the officeholder an official title as done at the federal level with the Prime Minister of the Arab Union.

The Premier's Council of Ministers, the highest executive body of a republic, acts as the cabinet of the Premier, who is elected by the relevant republican congress (a unicameral legislative assembly unique to each republic). According to the constitution, the President of the Arab Union is simultaneously head of state of each republic and the union/federation as a whole, and has the power to dissolve a republican Council of Ministers and remove its Premier via executive order, identical to the President's power to dissolve the federal government and remove the Prime Minister.

The Premier is always a prominent yet unseated member of the political party or coalition holding a majority of seats in their republican congress. In 16 of 20 republics, the respective regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party forms government, and those 16 republics' premiers are thus Ba'athists; in Yemen, Libya and Tunisia, however, the Communist Party holds a majority of seats in the three respective republican congresses, and thus forms their executive governments and chooses their premiers from Communist Party membership, while the Arab Social-Democratic Party's chapter in Morocco forms the republican government there and is thus the party of its premier.

"Premier" is also the title used for the head of government of an organised territory of the Arab Union (organised meaning that the territory has its own territorial government with devolved authority from the Arab Union federal government), although the Arabic is slightly altered (رئيس وزراء التبعية ra’īs wuzrā’ at-taba‘ayah; lit. Premier of Ministers of the Territory). Premiers of organised territories are elected indirectly by the voting citizens of their territory, in that the party or coalition holding the most seats in the Territorial Congress (the unicameral devolved assembly of the organised territory) nominates its leader as premier, who is confirmed by the President of the Arab Union according to custom; this is essentially the same process as that of the 20 republics. Unorganised territories (territories which have no government of their own), on the other hand, are administered by a "territorial governor" (حافظ التبعية ḥāfiẓ at-taba‘ayah), who is appointed by the Prime Minister and confirmed by the President, and who governs the territory and simultaneously represents the federal government within the unorganised territory, which is the unorganised territory's only government (other than municipalities, which can still be incorporated in unorganised territories, but which are immediately below the federal level of government and have only executive authority).