SO 2017-32 Electoral Precedence Act 2017

Electoral Precedence Act 2017

An Act to regulate the precedence among constitutional elections, non-constitutional elections, and regional polls.

WHEREAS there are to be held various elections and various polls within Our Region;

WHEREAS there has not yet been set out an order of precedence;

BELIEVING that there should be made provisions for the precedences of such elections and polls;

BE IT ENACTED by Us, by and with the advice and consent of Parliament, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Article 1
Elections and regional polls to be holden at Our Regional Page, shall be conduced in the following order of precedence if the dates set for them (partially) overlap each other, or when no especial date has been assigned to them yet, that does not overlap another election or poll:
1) The election of a new Founder;
2) A Parliamentary Election;
3) A Parliamentary By-Election;
4) An election for the position of Prime Minister;
5) An election for the position of Prime Minister;
6) An election of the position of President;
7) An by-election for the position of President;
Another election or by-election for a specific position or office, mentioned in Our Constitution;
9) Another election or by-election for a specific position or office, mentioned in an Act of Parliament;
10) Any other (by-)election or regional poll, their precedence being determined by the date they were asked for to be holden, and if it be the same, by the discretion of the Founder or other official presiding over the vote.

Article 2
If an election as set out in number 1 of Article 1 of this Act is to be holden, and there is already any other vote being taken, that vote shall be interrupted, unless it ends within 24-hours.

Article 3
If an election as set out in number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 of Article 1 of this Act is to beholden, and there is already any other vote as set out in number 8, 9 or 10 of the aforementioned Article being taken, that vote shall be interrupted, unless it ends within 24-hours.

Article 4
Further regulations concerning the precedence of elections and polls aforementioned may be made by the Founder at his discretion, as long as they do not violate an Act of Parliament and do not obstruct the proper way of order within the Region.

Article 5
This Act may be cited as "[The] Electoral Precedence Act 2017".

Monday 1 May 2017
The Rt. Hon. Nassau-Windsor, MP LSM
The Rt. Hon. Libertarian Democracy, MP GSM LSM, Minister of Development
The Rt. Hon. Abdoa, MP GSM LSM

While I do agree with my Rt. Hon. friend that the regional poll system does require regulation and an order of precedence, I do think it is necessary to also have established a Poll Calendar, regulated by the Founder / the Administrative Branch, so that situations described in Article 3 of this proposal are avoided.

I agree with Libertarian Democracy, and would add that I would prefer that we kept the current order of President, Prime Minister then Parliament, in keeping with tradition; also, I am not convinced that by-elections should be ranked so highly in the list because general elections should take precedence in my view. I propose the following order:
1, 6, 4, 2, 8 election,, 7, 5, 3, 8 by-election, 9, 10
Also, article 5 should read "by-election" while article 1 should have "conducted" instead of "conduced".

Again, bill co-sponsored, but I stand by my proposed amendments, and will bring them forward in the Debate Hall if needed.

I agree with Abdoa's proposed changes, however I do co-sponsor this bill so it can be advanced to debate where these changes can be made without depending on timely action of the author.

I thank both my Rt. Hon. friend [Libertarian Democracy] and my Hon. friend [Abdoa] for their suggestions. Indeed I also welcome their sponsorships in favour of this Bill so far. Though, I would like to point out to my said Hon. friend that I choose to give the election of a Prime Minister precedence over that of a President, as he is the principle official of governance - hence he is the Head of Government. It is him who appoints Ministers etc. and he has various other constitutional roles as well that play a fundamental part in our corpus of law.

The President on the other hand, though he is quite an important official indeed, has not such strong ties to the internal executive powers of Our Region; he is mainly a ceremonial and a representing official.

I fully recognize my honorable colleague's reasoning, but I argue that many of the prime Minister's functions are not for the most part indispensable, while several of the President's are. As follows:
-the PM is Head of Government: unless the previous PM has dismissed his ministers without replacing them, they will still serve and run their departments during a vacancy; in any case ministerial vacancies can occur even with a PM still in office, and that has never posed too big of a problem in the short term.
-Speaker of Parliament: solved by SO#2017-16 ("Speaker pro tempore of Parliament Act 2017") - whenever there is no PM (or an inactive one) the Speaker pro tempore automatically takes over in Parliament.
-The President on the other hand is head of the regional military, charged with defense of the integrity of the Union, along with the Minister of War who advises him.

We should also remember that the PM runs interior affairs, while the President runs exterior affairs, by and large. Interior security depends on external policy, hence my preference for having Presidential elections before Prime Ministerial ones.

Also a point: I think we should specify to remind people that there if a PM is removed through Motion of No Confidence, there isn't a by-election, there's a full election for an entirely new term. I know it carries no practical relevancy here, but it would be misleading to treat the criteria for a prime ministerial by-election the same as for the other posts.