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**Amerion** · 07-15-2019, 11:40 AM

Legislators,

I propose a repeal of the Political Parties Act. The Act served the region well when political parties were active and I am sure we can all look back at that time fondly. However, given that these parties have since come and gone, and the unlikely scenario that we re-establish them, I see no particularly compelling reason to retain the legislation.

Repeal of the Political Parties Act Wrote:
Political Parties Act

An act outlining political parties and their benefits.

1. Defining Political Parties

(1) A political party is any group of people in The South Pacific, counting at least as many members as senior Cabinet officials, who organize together in an official association for political or electoral purposes.

(2) Associations for purposes other than politics, including satirical, social, or casual groups, do not qualify as political parties under this Act.

2. Rights of Political Parties

(1) Political parties have the right to exist without undue government interference, per the freedom of assembly guaranteed in Article III of the Charter.

(2) Political parties have the right to engage in coordinated legislative and electoral efforts, without fear of reprisal from any government official.

(3) Political parties have the right to conduct business in private, without the arbitrary interference of the government or arbitrarily being compelled to publish private communications.

3. Benefits to Active Political Parties

(1) Political parties that maintain an accurate public membership roster, and field at least one member for public office in an election per year, qualify for a dedicated public and private subforum.

(2) Political parties may petition the Chair of the Assembly for approval for a subforum. The Chair of the Assembly will verify the qualifications of the party, and if the party meets those qualifications, notify the Forum Administration to create the party's dedicated subforums.

(3) Dedicated party subforums will consist of two parts--
a. a public subforum, where the party must pin an up to date version of its membership roster;
b. a password-protected subforum, which will have the necessary permissions to ensure non-members cannot read threads without authorization.

(4) All political party subforums are to be contained within a single catch-all forum designated for political parties in an appropriate forum section of the official offsite forums of The South Pacific.

(5) The subforums of political parties are to be sorted by order of registration.

4. Archival of Inactive Subforums

(1) The Forum Administration will non-destructively archive political party subforums if the requirements listed in Article 3 are no longer met.

(2) Inactive political parties may petition the Chair of the Assembly for revival of their archived subforums, under the same process outlined in Article 3.

(This post was last modified: 07-23-2019, 05:43 AM by Amerion.)

***Roavin*** · 07-15-2019, 12:26 PM

On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to have on the books, in case somebody gets the idea to make a party again.

Bzerneleg · 07-15-2019, 12:27 PM

I support the repeal, political parties aren't really a thing here anymore. Informal and more relaxed caucuses may be set up instead of creating new political parties.

BZERNELEG

South Pacifican. Public Servant. Creator. In that order.

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**Amerion** · 07-15-2019, 12:28 PM

(07-15-2019, 12:26 PM)Roavin Wrote: On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to have on the books, in case somebody gets the idea to make a party again.

It means one less Act I have to re-write/re-format Devil

Edit: That's right, your Chair is selfish *muahahaha*

(This post was last modified: 07-15-2019, 12:29 PM by Amerion.)

***Roavin*** · 07-15-2019, 12:33 PM

(07-15-2019, 12:28 PM)Amerion Wrote:
(07-15-2019, 12:26 PM)Roavin Wrote: On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to have on the books, in case somebody gets the idea to make a party again.

It means one less Act I have to re-write/re-format

Edit: That's right, your Chair is selfish *muahahaha*

Selfishness can be a virtue. Tounge

ProfessorHenn · 07-15-2019, 12:37 PM

This repeal is good and necessary housekeeping of the laws. Political parties barely flourished when they were at their fullest extent, and informal political groupings are the best way of assembly the Assembly’s legislators need at the present time.

ProfessorHenn
Legislator

**Belschaft** · 07-15-2019, 02:21 PM

As someone who argued against the establishment of political parties at the time, and who holds the view that they generally did more harm than good, this has my wholehearted support.

_{Minister of Media, Subversion and Sandwich Making}
^{Associate Justice of the High Court and Senior Moderator}

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Aga · 07-15-2019, 03:27 PM

Az Bzerneleg and everyone else pointed out, the law is superfluous. Now, once you change and repeal the laws, you won't have any regulation for the protection of political organisations within TSP.

Although it could be argued that political parties have never flourished, TSP's structure changes all the time, and political parties may become necessary for the workings of TSP in the distant future.

I don't understand why it is required to repeal a superfluous act, which can be used on the near future.

Aga/Eunopiar

Mostly does boring things.

Omega · 07-15-2019, 07:24 PM

Political parties serve little to no purpose in TSP under our system. The only thing they do is provide a formal organization for what would otherwise be a group of friends in most cases. They don't ever get the support to be major players in elections or law-making and ought to be written off into the history books. If anything they caused more problems than they created. Don't get me wrong, I thought the APC and other parties were the right choices at the time, but today, I can see I was wrong.

Repealing this act takes away the government aid to political parties making it harder for them to get the support they would need to survive in the long term. Political parties are not the key to political activism or engagement in TSP and unless we radically change things, they likely never will be overly important. Incitivinsing parties through this act is simply encouraging what could be a detrimental system. I fully support this repeal.

Above all else, I hope to be a decent person.
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The Sakhalinsk Empire · 07-15-2019, 08:12 PM

I agree that political parties nowadays have become redundant, so you have my support on this one.

The Sakhalinsk Empire, Legislator of the South Pacific
Currently a citizen and legislator of TSP. I am active as Sverigesriket in Europe.

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