Supreme Chancellor/Legends



Supreme Chancellor, simply known as Chancellor, was the title of the Head of State and Government as well as Senate President and Senate Chair of the Galactic Republic.

Appointment of the Chancellor
The Chancellor was elected by and from the senators and representatives of the Galactic Senate and could serve two four-year terms. The Chancellor could be removed from office at any time by the Senate with a Vote of No Confidence.

Elections for Chancellor

 * Galactic Republic Chancery election, 4,000 BBY
 * Galactic Republic Chancery election, 44 BBY
 * Galactic Republic Chancery election, 40 BBY
 * Galactic Republic Chancery election, 36 BBY
 * Galactic Republic Chancery election, 32 BBY
 * Galactic Republic Chancery election, 28 BBY

Powers and functions
The office was largely powerless in the last years of the Republic, especially after the Ruusan Reformations, and the Chancellor served mainly as an officiator of parliamentary procedure and the first among equals in the Senate. However, it had the authority to call an Extraordinary Session of the Senate. It was still a very prestigious position, however, and the Chancellor had a grand office in both the Senate Rotunda's Chancellery and in the dome-like Senate Office Building in Galactic City. The Supreme Chancellor was properly addressed as "Your Excellency". The symbol of the office of the Supreme Chancellor, as well as the Galactic Senate as a whole, was a fanned spear. This sigil was also emblazoned prominently on the Chancellor's podium in the center of the Senate Rotunda's Main Chamber. When in the Main Chamber, the Chancellor usually wore a Veda cloth robe. The Supreme Chancellor was elected from among the Senators who made up the Galactic Senate and served a term of office that lasted for four standard years. A Supreme Chancellor could legally serve only two consecutive four-year terms before he or she had to step down due to term limits.

Chancellor Finis Valorum was seen during the Blockade of Naboo and presided over the dispute between Naboo and the Trade Federation. He was ousted when Queen Amidala, on Senator Palpatine's urging, moved for a vote of no confidence.

The office became much more powerful during the term of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who was able to convince the Senate to grant him a range of "emergency" powers due to the Separatist Crisis and then the Clone Wars, including an unconstitutional extension of his term of office after 24 BBY for the duration of the Separatist Crisis. The Chancellor became commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Republic Navy after both entered the Republic's service during the Battle of Geonosis, was given more direct power over administrative concerns, and he was allowed to overrule local planetary and sectorial governments. Eventually, Palpatine became a dictator and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Galaxy, thus abolishing the office of Supreme Chancellor and transforming the Galactic Republic into the First Galactic Empire. The position was not revived by the New Republic, which chose instead to call its chief executive the Chief of State.

List of known Supreme Chancellors

 * Fillorean (c. 15,500 BBY)
 * Contispex (c. 12,000 BBY)
 * Blotus the Hutt (c. 9,000 BBY)
 * Vocatara (c. 4,800 BBY)
 * Sidrona Diath (4,000–3,997 BBY)
 * Unknown Supreme Chancellor (3,997 BBY–?)
 * Cressa (c. 3,955–3,946 BBY)
 * Tarsus Valorum (c. 1,000 BBY)
 * Anwis Eddicus (?)
 * Vaila Pecivas (?)
 * Eixes Valorum (c. 232 BBY)
 * Signet Mezzileen (?)
 * Kalpana (?–40 BBY)
 * Finis Valorum (40–32 BBY)
 * Palpatine (last Supreme Chancellor and first Supreme Chancellor in a long while not from a Core World, 32–19 BBY)

Behind the scenes
The Chancellorship may not be the original name for the Republic's leader, the leader of the Republic had previously been styled President of the Senate in previous works, though this may also have simply been one of the Chancellor's many titles. There is further confusion in that The Essential Chronology and The New Essential Chronology use both titles to describe the Republic's leader during the Great Sith War. It is also possible that the offices of President and Chancellor existed independently of each other at first, but were at some point merged (possibly as part of the Ruusan Reformation).

Appearances

 * Cloak of Deception
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Labyrinth of Evil