I propose the following amended LC Election Act, which includes WA, Native voting restrictions for on site LC elections,  SPSF voting rights and constitutional designation language, to be adopted by both the onsite community and the Assembly.  I've proposed it to the LC, but am presenting it here as well for discussion and input.

Quote:Local Council Elections ActAn act detailing elections for Local Council1. Timing of Elections

(1) Local Council Elections will be held every July, November, and March. The exact date will be decided by the sitting Local Council, but the nominations period must start at some point during these months.

2. Election Commission

(1) An Election Commissioner will be appointed by the Council on Regional Security to administer all Local Council elections.
(2) The Commissioner will be responsible for the communication of election notices, the organization of election dispatches, the verification of candidate eligibility, the administration of election polls, counting and verifying cast ballots, and certifying results.
(3) The Commissioner may not run for office or hold the office of Delegate, Prime Minister, or Cabinet Minister or Local Councilor, during their tenure as Commissioner.
(4) The Commissioner will be a permanent position and shall be replaced as needed due to inactivity or ineligibility by the Council on Regional Security.
(5) Any election-related disputes will be arbitrated by the Election Commissioner; should the dispute be on a matter of law, the Commissioner shall refer it to the High Court. The Commissioner will not finalize any election until all disputes have been settled.

3. Candidate Eligibility

(1) A candidate may only run for one seat on the Local Council.
(2) Candidates must receive and accept a nomination on the Regional Message Board from a member of The South Pacific that is not their own account or controlled or accessible by the candidate nominated. The acceptance post must quote the nominating post in full and mention the Election Commissioner using nation tags. Nominations and declined nominations need not tag the Election Commissioner.
(3) To be eligible, a candidate must be a member of The South Pacific, and all candidates must file a full Conflict of Interest disclosure to the Election Commissioner, fully listing all nations they control and can access and disclosing any positions held in other regions.
(4) The Election Commissioner shall share the Conflict of Interest Disclosure with the Council on Regional Security to allow a security check.
(5) The CRS can prevent any candidate from running if they deem them to be a security threat.
(6) Candidates shall publicly post their Conflict of Interest disclosure in a dispatch, which may be their campaign dispatch. At the request of the candidate The Minister of Military Affairs may authorize the waiving of the public disclosure of nations participating in South Pacific Special Forces operations. In such cases the public disclosure should state that SPSF participating nations are not listed as authorized by the Minister of Military Affairs. The Minister of Military Affairs shall confirm this by sending confirmation to the Election Commissioner.
(7) If, at any time before the election is certified, the Election Commissioner or the Council on Regional Security determines a candidate's Conflict of Interest Disclosure is not fully truthful, or the CRS determines a candidate represents a security threat, the candidate will be disqualified from the election.
(8) An intentional deception or omission in a Conflict of Interest, or knowingly abetting in another's claims to a false identity, wherein this fraud threatens the security of The South Pacific, or circumvents the laws and legal processes of The South Pacific, including the electoral process described in this Act, shall constitute Identity Fraud and be subject to referral for prosecution by the Election Commissioner or Council on Regional Security.
(9) Any Local Councilor can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. If they serve that maximum, they must wait for one full term before they can run in a regularly scheduled election for the Local Council again. Any member of cabinet must wait one full Local Council term after leaving the cabinet before they can run in a regularly scheduled election for the Local Council.

4. Election Process

(1)Prior to the opening of the first voting period of the LC election, there will be a period of three days where members can nominate candidates, and candidates can accept nominations, which will commence after a region-wide telegram sent by the Election Commissioner announcing the opening of nominations. This will be followed by three days where candidates can campaign, which will commence after a region-wide telegram sent by the Election Commissioner announcing the close of nominations and start of the campaign.
(2) The election will consist of two on site polls, open to Native World Assembly members, each lasting three days. The first past the post winner of the first poll will be elected onto the Local Council, and all remaining candidates will move on to the next poll, where the top two candidates will be elected.
(3) If there are three candidates or fewer, all candidates will be automatically elected. Electees shall fill any remaining spaces on the Local Council under the terms outlined in Article 5 of this Act.
(4) Re-open nominations (RON) must be an option on both normal voting periods. If there are more than eleven candidates running, elimination rounds shall take place to reduce the field of candidates proceeding to the two normal voting rounds to eleven as follows
a. If there are exactly twelve candidates then a three day elimination poll, open to Native World Assembly members, will be conducted with the top eleven vote-receiving candidates continuing onto the set of normal voting periods.
b. If there are more than twelve candidates, the field will be split into three day elimination polls, open to Native World Assembly members, with the top eleven vote-receiving candidates over all such polls proceeding to the two normal voting rounds.
(5) In the event of a tie, all tied candidates will be elected unless the number of Local Councilors is greater than three, in which case there will be a separate three day poll for the tied candidates.
(6) In the event of RON winning a poll, any candidates elected prior to that poll will be allowed to take their place on the Local Council without running again, and the nominations would re-open for the remaining places.
(7) In the event a candidate who has won a round but is later disqualified by the Election Commissioner or the Council on Regional Security, that round’s results are voided and a new round shall be added.
(8) Members of the South Pacific Special Forces who are on deployment for the whole duration of the regional poll are eligible to cast a vote. The Minister of Military Affairs shall provide a list of deployed personnel to the Election Commissioner. Members on the list who send the Commissioner their vote through a telegram and a public post on the Regional Message Board which tags the Election Commissioner and notes who their vote goes towards shall have it added to the final tally.
(9) The terms for the incoming Local Council begin when the Election Commissioner certifies the results and the Delegate assigns Regional Officer Powers, before which any and all election-related disputes must be settled. The outgoing Local Council will maintain their offices until then.

5. Vacancies of Office

(1) A special election will be held for vacancies arising within the Local Council, if more than half of the term remains. If less than half of the term remains, or the position is vacant due to a lack of candidates as outlined in Article 4, the Local Council may appoint a replacement until the next regularly scheduled election.
a. If the Local Council does not name a replacement within one week of the vacancy the Delegate may appoint a replacement or call a special election.
(2) Special Elections shall follow the same procedures outlined in this Act except the candidate restrictions in the terms of Article 3, clause 9 on term limited Local Councilors and Former Cabinet Ministers are waived. Such persons are allowed to run in Special Elections.

6. Separation of Powers

(1) Offices of the Coalition are the Delegate, the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers, the Chair of the Assembly, Local Councilors, the Chief Justice, and any of their appointed deputies. For clarity, positions under a Deputy in rank, such as interns and advisors, are eligible to run for Local Council.
(2) It is not permitted for any individual to hold more than one office within the Coalition's government.
(3) It is permitted to seek election or appointment to new office while holding an existing office.
(4) Election or appointment to a new office constitutes explicit resignation of an existing office.

7. Constitutional Law
(1) The Local Council Election Act is a constitutional law, and further amendments to it must meet constitutional amendment requirements.

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: the the candidate will be disqualified from the election.

the the candidate will be disqualified from the election.
 

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: Conflict Of Interest

Conflict Oof Interest
 

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: (1)Prior to the opening of the first voting period of the LC election, there will be a period of three days where members

How about "citizens" instead of "members"?

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: (3) If there are three candidates or fewer, all candidates will be automatically elected and the elected Local Council shall fill any remaining spaces on the Local Council under the terms outlined in Article 5 of this Act.

How about "If there are three candidates or fewer, all candidates will be automatically elected and the elected Local Council shall fill electees filling any remaining spaces of the Local Council under the terms outlined in Article 5 of this Act."?
 

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: a. If there are exactly twelve candidates a three day elimination poll, open to Native World Assembly members, with the with the top eleven vote-receiving candidates continuing onto the set of normal voting periods.

How about "If there are exactly twelve candidates, then a three-day elimination poll, open to Native World Assembly members, with the with the will be conducted with the top eleven vote-receiving candidates continuing onto the set of normal voting periods."?

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: (5) In the event of a tie, all tied candidates will be elected unless this takes the number of Local Councilors to greater than three, in which case there will be a separate three day poll for the tied candidates.

How about "In the event of a tie, all tied candidates will be elected unless this takes the number of Local Councilors to greater than three the number of Local Councilors is greater than three"?
 

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: a. If the Local Council does not name a replacement within one week of the vacancy arising the Delegate may appoint a replacement or call a special election.

How about "If the Local Council does not name a replacement within one week of the vacancy, arising the Delegate may appoint a replacement or call a special election."?

(08-13-2020, 12:04 PM)Rabbitz Wrote:

(08-13-2020, 09:55 AM)Volaworand Wrote: (1)Prior to the opening of the first voting period of the LC election, there will be a period of three days where members

How about "citizens" instead of "members"?

I like all these and am tweaking the proposal... except for I intentionally went with "member" since it is a well defined legal term, where citizen seems less clear.  To be clear, it would mean any person with a nation resident in the region can nominate candidates, regardless or influence, WA status or what not.

In terms of procedure, what do you mean when you say this has been proposed in the LC? The LC doesn’t have the legal ability to propose constitutional laws to the Assembly. So if we were to move forward with this, any vote on the gameside must occur only after the Assembly has sent this over to them. Just want to make sure we aren’t flouting current procedure.

Generally speaking, I’m wary of returning this matter to Assembly jurisdiction. It would mean any time the gameside wants to change how they elect the LC, the Assembly has to originate an amendment and debate it here first. I know there’s some difficulty created by the High Court case questioning if the LC can regulate their elections at all. But the reason we repealed all the Assembly laws regarding LC elections was because we wanted the gameside to be able to decide those matters for itself.

(08-13-2020, 02:08 PM)sandaoguo Wrote: In terms of procedure, what do you mean when you say this has been proposed in the LC? The LC doesn’t have the legal ability to propose constitutional laws to the Assembly. So if we were to move forward with this, any vote on the gameside must occur only after the Assembly has sent this over to them. Just want to make sure we aren’t flouting current procedure.

Generally speaking, I’m wary of returning this matter to Assembly jurisdiction. It would mean any time the gameside wants to change how they elect the LC, the Assembly has to originate an amendment and debate it here first. I know there’s some difficulty created by the High Court case questioning if the LC can regulate their elections at all. But the reason we repealed all the Assembly laws regarding LC elections was because we wanted the gameside to be able to decide those matters for itself.

As I understand it the LC can propose changes to its own structure.  I've encouraged the LC to debate this, pass it on site (for approval to submit it here), and present it as a change to it's own structure for Assembly approval.  If the Assembly were to ammend it in our debates, then it would return to gameside for final approval.  The reason it would need to recive conitutional designation is to resolve the issue we run into with the native, WA restrictions violating the Charter... and if it ever reaches the court, the term limits would disappear too, which would turn the LC from an entry level form of local government into one where it's just the same usual faces rotating around amounst themselves.

Basicly... the LC " may not pass laws or regulations that contradict this Charter or constitutional laws."  ... It can however, ask the Assembly to do so under the Ammendment process.  "Local Council may originate amendments to its constitutional structure, which must be debated and voted upon in the Assembly."  Asking the Assembly to adopt this act as consitutional would be the LC asking the Assembly to ammend it's constitutional structure.

I've only created the thread here to gather input from the assembly on the front side. and hopefully arrive at a bill that is acceptable to both on site polling AND Assembly approval. and save the final draft having to go back for onsite approval a second time.

This isn’t a Charter amendment about the LC’s structure. So it’s not eligible for LC origination.

In other words, a law about how the LC is elected doesn’t change its constitutional structure as outlined in the Charter. The LC isn’t allowed to propose laws to the Assembly.

I do have a bill open to amend the Charter so that the LC can write its own local constitutional laws. That’s a more permanent solution that would avoid bringing this back under the Assembly’s jurisdiction.

What if we put an amendment in the elections act (which is a constitutional law) designating the LC law named "LCEA" to the same weight as constitutional law. This way the LC can make changes to their law as needed without Assembly origination everytime so long as the title of their act remains constant.

Perhaps something like added to the Elections act: 


3: Office of the Delegate
...
4: Offices of the Local Council
(1) The Local Council shall establish their own election system titled "The Local Council Elections Act" which shall have the full force of a Constitutional Law.
(2) The provisions of the Local Council Elections Act must not violate the Charter, Constitutional Laws, other Assembly passed laws, or other rules or regulations of the region.

[Various formatting for Section renumbering follows]

(08-13-2020, 11:29 PM)Nat Wrote:

A fine solution from Griffindor, but it may run into a potential problem:

'The High Court concludes that one law cannot designate another law (or sections thereof) as constitutional; constitutional laws must be directly marked as such within their own text.'
(HCLQ 1805 Designation of Constitutional Laws, Part III; link)

Ahh thanks for catching that error for me.

I'm constantly surprised at Nat's nearly encyclopaedic knowledge of past cases.