Following up on the last discussion about Conflicts of Interest, I'd like to propose the following amendment to keep the best of the current and proposed legislation.
 

Conflict of Interest Amendments
Amendments to address conflicts of interest for election candidates and public officials

1. Amendments to the Election Act

(1) Article 7, Section 5 of the Election Act will be amended as follows:

(5) No person holding a Cabinet office or the office of the Delegate may hold any equivalent office in a foreign region or organisation.
a. The Election Commission will determine the equivalence of offices as necessary.

(2) Article 8 of the Election Act will be amended as follows:

8. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

(1) Candidates for Delegate, Prime Minister, Cabinet Minister, and Chair of the Assembly must file conflict of interest disclosures prior to the voting period in order to be eligible to appear on an election ballot or be elected. Conflict of interest disclosures must be filed as the first post in each candidate's campaign thread, and must be filed even if other campaign material is not provided.

(2) Conflict of interest disclosures must include the following information:
a. Current World Assembly nation;
b. All past and present alternate identities;
c. All current foreign regional and organizational involvement as a citizen or equivalent member, including all offices or military ranks held;
d. All foreign regional and organizational involvement as a citizen or equivalent member within the past year, including all offices or military ranks held.

(3) Information may be withheld from conflict of interest disclosures to preserve the integrity of military or intelligence operations in which the South Pacific Special Forces are participating or have participated, with certification from the Minister of Military Affairs or the General Corps in the case of military operations, or the Intelligence Coordinator for the Council on Regional Security in the case of intelligence operations.

(4) The Election Commission will, prior to the voting period, disqualify a candidate from appearing on the ballot and from being elected if they have not filed a conflict of interest disclosure, or if information required to be included in their conflict of interest disclosure has been omitted.

9. Constitutional Law

2. Amendment to the Sunshine Act

(1) The Sunshine Act will be amended as follows:

4. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

(1) The Delegate, Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Chair of the Assembly, Permanent Justice, and members of the Council on Regional Security must file conflict of interest disclosures with the Assembly, in a manner determined by the Chair. Each official must update their conflict of interest disclosure with any new information in a timely manner throughout their term of office.

(2) Conflict of interest disclosures must include the following information:
a. Current World Assembly nation;
b. All current foreign regional and organizational involvement as a citizen or equivalent member, including all offices or military ranks held.

(3) Information may be withheld from conflict of interest disclosures to preserve the integrity of military or intelligence operations in which the South Pacific Special Forces are participating or have participated, with certification from the Minister of Military Affairs or the General Corps in the case of military operations, or the Intelligence Coordinator for the Council on Regional Security in the case of intelligence operations.

(4) Failure to update a conflict of interest disclosure with any new information in a timely manner, by any official required to maintain such a disclosure, will constitute violation of the law and will be grounds for recall.

3. Amendment to the Charter

(1) Article XI, Section 1a of the Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific will be amended as follows:

a. Recalls should only be initiated for dereliction of duty, abuse of authority, conflicts of interest, or violations of the law, and not for purposes of political rivalry.

4. Omnibus Legislation

(1) This legislation is omnibus legislation, and if any amendment contained herein does not meet the required voting threshold for passage, no amendment contained herein will be enacted.

Thoughts?

-tsunamy
[forum admin]

Reply

Looks good! I would like to ask the Chair what is the earliest this may be brought to a vote?

Above all else, I hope to be a decent person.
Has Been
What's Next?

 

CoA: August 2016-January 2017
Minister of Foreign Affairs: October 2019-June 2020, October 2020- February 2021

Reply

Looks good! I would like to ask the Chair what is the earliest this may be brought to a vote?

(2) Unless otherwise mandated by these rules, debate must last for a minimum period of time equivalent to the length of the voting period for the bill, resolution, or appointment in question.

(3) Legislative voting periods will be determined according to the following schedule:
a. General laws, amendments, resolutions, and appointments will remain at vote for three days.
b. Constitutional laws, constitutional amendments, resolutions dealing with matters of constitutional law, and treaties will remain at vote for five days.

The voting period for this bill will be five days, as it contains amendments to constitutional laws, so the minimum debate period is also five days.

In regard to the content of the legislation, I continue to believe this will lead to subjective, arbitrary decisions and unfair treatment of election candidates, so I will be voting against and encourage others concerned about arbitrary, unfair decisions determining the course of our elections to vote against as well.

(This post was last modified: 05-21-2017, 03:35 PM by Cormac.)

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On a point of order: seeing as how this is simply a new draft of an earlier bill I would ask the CoA to acknowledge that this may go to a vote immediately.

Above all else, I hope to be a decent person.
Has Been
What's Next?

 

CoA: August 2016-January 2017
Minister of Foreign Affairs: October 2019-June 2020, October 2020- February 2021

Reply

Looks good! I would like to ask the Chair what is the earliest this may be brought to a vote?

 

(2) Unless otherwise mandated by these rules, debate must last for a minimum period of time equivalent to the length of the voting period for the bill, resolution, or appointment in question.

(3) Legislative voting periods will be determined according to the following schedule:
a. General laws, amendments, resolutions, and appointments will remain at vote for three days.
b. Constitutional laws, constitutional amendments, resolutions dealing with matters of constitutional law, and treaties will remain at vote for five days.

The voting period for this bill will be five days, as it contains amendments to constitutional laws, so the minimum debate period is also five days.

In regard to the content of the legislation, I continue to believe this will lead to subjective, arbitrary decisions and unfair treatment of election candidates, so I will be voting against and encourage others concerned about arbitrary, unfair decisions determining the course of our elections to vote against as well.

I appreciate the Chair's fourthcomingness with this. While I understand his feeling, we give our officials a range of latitude to actually administer the region, so believing our officials — including our Chief Justice — to be fair, seems commonsense.

If the Chair would like to offer a secondary mechanism to challenge the EC's determination, I'd be happy to discuss. Otherwise, if there are no other concerns, I'll be motioning this to a vote in five days time.

-tsunamy
[forum admin]

Reply

If the Chair would like to offer a secondary mechanism to challenge the EC's determination, I'd be happy to discuss. Otherwise, if there are no other concerns, I'll be motioning this to a vote in five days time.

There is no appeal mechanism that makes sense within the relatively short time frame of the election period. These decisions would have to be made quickly, not subject to long deliberation. So no, I have no appeal process to propose, but I continue to oppose this legislation.

Reply

I'm putting forward competing legislation:

Conflict of Interest Amendment
An amendment to address conflicts of interest for election candidates and public officials

1. Amendment to the Election Act

(1) Article 7, Section 5 of the Election Act will be amended as follows:

(5) No person holding a Cabinet office, the office of Chair of the Assembly, or the office of the Delegate may hold any equivalent office in a foreign region or organisation.

(This post was last modified: 05-21-2017, 04:40 PM by Cormac.)

Reply

I'm putting forward competing legislation:

Conflict of Interest Amendment
An amendment to address conflicts of interest for election candidates and public officials

1. Amendment to the Election Act

(1) Article 7, Section 5 of the Election Act will be amended as follows:

(5) No person holding a Cabinet office, the office of Chair of the Assembly, or the office of the Delegate may hold any equivalent office in a foreign region or organisation.

Oh dear god no.

Above all else, I hope to be a decent person.
Has Been
What's Next?

 

CoA: August 2016-January 2017
Minister of Foreign Affairs: October 2019-June 2020, October 2020- February 2021

Reply

Oh dear god no.

It's better than the Election Commission making subjective, arbitrary decisions about who can and cannot run for office.

On second thought, though, that legislation didn't make any sense, because it arbitrarily allows the Permanent Justice and members of the Council on Regional Security to hold office elsewhere despite the conflicts of interest that could arise. So this is the competing legislation I'm putting forward:

Conflict of Interest Amendments
Amendments to address conflicts of interest for election candidates and public officials

1. Amendment to the Election Act

(1) Article 7, Section 5 of the Election Act will be amended as follows:

(5) No person holding may be a candidate for a Cabinet office, the office of Chair of the Assembly, or the office of the Delegate may if they hold any equivalent office in a foreign region or organisation.

2. Amendment to the Charter

(1) Article XI of the Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific will be amended as follows:

XI. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, RECALLS, AND MOTIONS OF NO CONFIDENCE

Establishing a method to hold government government officials to account

1. Neither the Delegate, the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, the Chair of the Assembly, the Permanent Justice, nor members of the Council on Regional Security may hold any office in a foreign region or organization. Any such official found to be holding office in a foreign region or organization will immediately and automatically be removed from office.

1. 2. Any official of the Coalition may be recalled by an Assembly resolution passed with three-fifths supermajority of those voting.
a. Recalls should only be initiated for dereliction of duty, abuse of authority, or violations of the law, and not for purposes of political rivalry.
b. Upon initiation, recall resolutions must be debated for three days and receive a motion and second before being put to vote.
c. Upon passage, the recalled official will immediately be removed from office.

2. 3. A Motion of No Confidence may be initiated by the Assembly, if the members have lost faith in the effectiveness and activities of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. Motions of No Confidence must be debated for three days and receive a motion and a second before being moved to vote. Passage requires three-fifths supermajority support of those voting, and triggers a special election for all cabinet offices.

(This post was last modified: 05-21-2017, 05:13 PM by Cormac.)

Reply

1. Neither the Delegate, the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, the Chair of the Assembly, the Permanent Justice, nor members of the Council on Regional Security may hold any office in a foreign region or organization. Any such official found to be holding office in a foreign region or organization will immediately and automatically be removed from office.

...do we really need to be that excessive? I get the whole anti-cosmopolitan thing but this is a bit extreme.

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