Delegate Election Amendment

[Grandton Foreign Office]

Alright, doing this to get the ball rolling more than expecting it to go to vote soon, this is the bill that I would love to see if I had every part of it go my way: (which I don't expect for it to, thus this draft is merely a for show, and to get people thinking and debating about this again, and is not something I want us to vote on)



I've also to the best of my ability tried to follow the recently passed guide on writing laws. Probably made mistakes on that aspect.

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >Delegate Position and Endorsement Law



<strong class='bbc'>Preamble</strong>

This law creates the system in which the delegate position is obtained, and the endorsement cap through which the position is maintained.



<strong class='bbc'>Article I: Delegate Election Types</strong>

Clause I: The Delegate shall be reviewed every three months by elections which shall be split between alternating full elections and mid-term elections.

Clause II: Full elections shall be held in two rounds, the preliminaries on the forums, and the final on-site.

Clause III: Mid-term elections may consist of one to three rounds, depending on if the delegate is reaffirmed.



<strong class='bbc'>Article II</strong>: Full Elections

Clause I: The preliminaries shall begin and end voting in concert with the cabinet elections in June and December.

Clause II: The declaration period shall begin 10 days before voting is to start, within this period any World Assembly member within The South Pacific may declare his intent to become delegate and earn a spot on the ballot.

Section A: After declaring his or her candidacy, the rest of the declaration period shall be when a candidate is to campaign.

Section B: Declarations must be made no later than 48 hours before voting is to begin in order to earn a position on the ballot.

Clause III: When voting begins every citizen may vote for one candidate to advance to the final round.

Section A: The two candidates with the highest votes shall advance to the final round.

Section B: In the event of a tie between 3 or more nations, all tied nations advance to the final round.

Clause IV: If no more than two candidates have declared by the declaration deadline, the preliminary elections are to be skipped, and both candidates advance to the final round immediately.

Clause V: The final round shall consist of an on-sight election.

Section A: Beginning at the end of the preliminary election, the candidates in the final round have the authority to break the endorsement cap.

Section B: The contest shall last for two weeks, if at any point a delegate change occurs and a gap of more than 10 endorsements between the new delegate and the nearest candidate the contest is over and the delegate is elected.

Section C: If the requirements in Section B have not been met, the delegate at the end of the 14 days shall be the elected delegate.

Section D: In the event that the incumbent delegate is not a candidate in the finals, but neither candidate overtakes him within the 14 days, the candidate with the highest endorsements behind the incumbent is the legally elected delegate.



<strong class='bbc'>Article III:</strong> Mid-Term Elections

Clause I: The voting of mid-term elections shall be scheduled in concert with that of the March and September Cabinet elections.

Clause II: The Mid-Term election shall occur on the forums, where each citizen will vote for or against keeping the current delegate for three more months.

Clause III: If a majority (50% + 1 vote) of voting citizens vote to reaffirm the delegate, he or she shall serve until the next election.

Clause IV: If a minority (50% - 1 vote) of voting citizens vote to affirm the delegate, the same process that is used in a full election is used, a preliminary election followed by final.

Section A: The sitting delegate may NOT stand for re-election.

Clause V: If the vote is tied, a full election is also held.

Section A: The sitting delegate MAY stand for re-election.



<strong class='bbc'>Article IV:</strong> Oversight

Clause I: The election Commission shall be tasked with managing the on-forum aspects of delegate elections (preliminary and reaffirmation votes).

Clause II: Any charges of wrong doing within the election shall be reported to the Minister of Justice who shall investigate any accusations and hold a trial for any crimes.



<strong class='bbc'>Article V:</strong> The Endorsement Cap

Clause I: All of the nations of The South Pacific may not exceed 100 endorsements at any time.

Section A: The Assembly may change this number by amending this law, it is recommended the number be kept comparable with 60%-70% of the delegate's endorsements.

Clause II: The delegate has the authority to eject and ban any nation in excess of the cap immediately.

Section A: The delegate is encouraged to seek other solutions first, especially asking the offending nation to reduce his endorsements to a level below the cap on his or her own

Clause III: Nations in the final round of a delegate election, and the Vice-Delegate are exempt from the endorsement cap.

Clause IV: Any nation ejected for breaking the cap three times may be put on trial by the Minister of Justice.



<strong class='bbc'>Article VI:</strong> The Law of Succession / Martial Law shall be repealed from the book of The South Pacific Law.

This would also be a good clerical fix to make the charter and whatever action we take (if we do regular elections) consistent:

This section of the Charter of The South Pacific shall be amended to read:



"Article 9 - Terms of Office

The terms of service for elected officials of the South Pacific<del>, save the delegate,</del> shall be three months.



Article 10 - Elections Timing

<strong class='bbc'>Cabinet</strong> Elections shall be held on the first Saturday, of every March, June, September, and December. During elections, providing there is no one interested in any of the positions, the Delegate shall appoint someone for that particular term.



<del>Article 11 - Special Elections

When a new Delegate takes office, the Delegate may call for new elections. Providing this is the case, the elections will occur on the first Saturday of the next month.</del>".



Every article beginning with Article 12 shall be renumbered to fill the hole created by removing Article 11.

I admit this bill is somewhat complicated and specific, but, when it comes to deciding who is in charge the more specific the better I have always thought. And, even though it is more complicated, it is still unique by combining our system currently with a forum system.



Once again, I just picked the side I liked better on the issues like flat cap versus a percent and regular elections versus elections when a challenge occurs. Also one note I'll throw out, while I have liked the idea of an RSO like Belschaft suggested, a group of trusted nations with higher endorsements, I was trying to figure out how not to give them an advantage in a delegate election, but could not think of a way. So I left it out.
</blockquote> Shouldn't we make it specific that the sitting delegate is allowed to stand for reelection in a full election?