The following amendment splits the old Article 1 from the Code of Laws to create the Election Act.

---

Article 1: Elections

1. The procedures for all elections in The South Pacific shall be stipulated in the Election Act.

[...]

Election Act

03/2015

The following act of law stipulates and overviews the general and specific procedures for all elections in The South Pacific.

Article 1 - General Elections

1. Elections for all Cabinet positions shall commence on the fifteenth of every March, July, and November.
2. Elections for Court Justices shall commence on the first of every April, August, and December.
3. Terms for all Cabinet positions shall commence on the first of every April, August, and December, and terms for Justices shall commence on the fifteenth of every April, August, and December.
4. All elections shall consist of a pre-voting period lasting six days and a voting period lasting three days. Citizens shall have to declare their candidacy or accept their nomination within the first three days of the pre-voting period.
5. Runoff elections will begin within twenty-four hours of the initial vote closing and consist of a voting period lasting three days.
6. No one can run for or hold more than one Cabinet position, or more than one Justice position, or both a Cabinet and a Justice position at any given time.
7. Candidates for elections may self-declare or be nominated by another Citizen. Candidates must file a Conflict of Interest Disclosure at the time of their acceptance of a nomination or self-declaration.
8. Nominations may be accepted in absentia, as long as they are sent to the Election Commissioner at most two weeks before the start of the pre-voting period, and include a Conflict of Interest disclosure.
9. Conflict of Interest Disclosures must include current World Assembly Nation, all past and present aliases used, all past and present involvement in other regions and organizations, and all current positions held across NationStates.

Article 2 - Position Specificities

1. The Delegate and Vice Delegate will run on a joint ticket and be elected by a majority vote. If no ticket receives a majority vote a runoff election with the two tickets receiving the most votes will occur.
2. Cabinet offices will be voted on separately and be elected by a plurality vote. Court Justices will be voted through a single ballot, with the three candidates who receive the most votes winning seats.
3. In all elections an option to re-open nominations will be included. For non-judicial elections, if this option receives the most votes the nomination period for that office will be restarted.
4. For Court Justice elections, if the option to Re-Open Nominations receives enough votes to be placed within the top four, then the nomination period will be restarted for all seats with lesser votes than this option. The candidates who receive the top votes will win however many seats are left to be filled.

Article 3 - Vacancies

1. In the event that no candidate runs for an available office the newly elected Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacancy.
2. Vacancies in office occur when the office holder resigns, is recalled, or no longer holds citizenship. In the event of a vacancy in office a special election will begin within 72 hours of the office becoming vacant, unless the vacancy occurs in the month prior to the start of the term for the position in question; in this case the Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacated position for the remainder of the term.

Article 4 - Election Commission

1. Elections will be run by a member of the forum administration staff, acting as an election commissioner.
2. A designated Election Commissioner may be appointed if all members of the administration staff will be candidates in the given election, or if no administrator is able to be an Election Commissioner.

---

Passage requires 50+1% support; voting ends on March 06, 2015  12:40 AM EST. 

(This post was last modified: 03-03-2015, 01:39 AM by Sandwich Territories.)

Reply

Quick question because I can't find the thread this was discussed in. Shouldn't Article 2 (2) read: "Court Justices will be voted through a single ballot, with the three four candidates who receive the most votes winning seats" given we have four Justices? Or have I overlooked something?

Reply

I believe the fourth justice was added to the Charter, but the Code of Laws was never amended to include a mention of the fourth justice.

We can certainly amended this document; and I would suggest we do that before the next judicial elections.

(This post was last modified: 03-03-2015, 09:11 PM by Sandwich Territories.)

Reply

Good idea! I think we'd all welcome certainty in the number of places actually up for election!!

Reply

This vote has passed. 16-3.

Reply