PROPOSAL: First Amendment to the Constitution
NOTICE: This Amemdment is a Proposal. It has not been signed into law yet and awaits a referendum from the general public.
Preamble
A Constitutional Amendment to reform the Electoral System in order to expedite the democratic process and resolve ambiguity or contradictions.
Article I: Electoral Reform
Section I: Terms of Office
- The Term Length of the role of Prime Minister shall henceforth no longer exceed three months.
- The Term Length of the role of Mayor of a City shall remain as two months.
- Any Individual who has served more than two (2) Terms as Prime Minister is to be considered ineligible for the role of Prime Minister.
- Any Individual ineligible for the role of Prime Minister shall also be ineligible for the role of Leader of the Political Party they are a member of.
- Any Individual who has started their Term as Mayor, Council Leader, or Prime Minister is considered to have finished their Term when one of the following conditions have been met:
- When the Term’s Statuatory or Constitutional Length has been reached;
- When they voluntarily resign from their position;
- When the Monarch exercises their power to remove them from office;
- When they fail a Vote of Confidence or Vote of No Confidence;
- When they die or are otherwise discharged from their Constitutional and/or Statuatory duties for medical reasons;
- When they otherwise fail to continue their Constitutional or Statuatory duties for longer than sixty (60) days.
- Any Individual, before starting their Term as Mayor, Council Leader, or Prime Minister, is required to swear an Oath of Office.
- The Oath of Office will require the Individual to pledge allegiance to the Monarch, the People, and the Country.
- The Term is considered to start on the day that the Individual swears their Oath of Office.
Section II: Eligibility Criteria
- All Individuals who have lived in, worked at, or otherwise have permanently stayed in the Country for longer than six months are to be considered Residents.
- All Residents are to be considered eligible for Citizenship, provided no other disqualifiers for Citizenship apply.
- All Residents have the same rights (as stated under Article II of the Constitution) as Citizens.
- All Individuals are permitted to vote up to once in each Election.
Section III: Referendums
- A Referendum is defined as a poll conducted via electronic communication that is used to perform democratic checks and balances by the People of the Country.
- Any Resident or Citizen of the Country is considered eligible to Vote in a Referendum.
- A “majority”, in the context of a Referendum presenting a yes-or-no question, is defined as a result within which there are more affirmative Votes than not.
- The Monarch must hold a Referendum where required by Constitutional or Statuatory Law.
- The Monarch is not permitted to prevent in any way a Referendum from occurring.
- The Monarch is not permitted to overrule the outcome of a Referendum, except in the case of a tie, in which case the Monarch must break the tie.
- A Referendum may only be ended by the Monarch, however, a Referendum must last at least two (2) days.
- A Referendum may be ended by the Prime Minister if the Monarch is incapacitated.
- If the Prime Minister is also incapacitated, Parliament may Vote on whether to end the Referendum.
- A Referendum can only be ended if at least three Votes have been cast.
- A Referendum may be ended by the Prime Minister if the Monarch is incapacitated.
- If the Monarch believes it to be in the interest of the People, they may declare a Referendum to be open-access, i.e any Individual of any Nation may Vote.
- There must be no restrictions placed on who may Vote in an open-access Referendum.
- If a Referendum concludes and the Monarch believes the open-access nature of the Referendum has caused disruption to the democratic process, they may call all Votes from non-Residents and non-Citizens to be recalled.
- No Individual shall Vote more than once in a Referendum.
Section IV: Electoral Register
- The Home Office is to be tasked with keeping an Electoral Register keeping track of all Citizens and Residents who intend to vote in Elections.
- The Home Office must not charge money for the process of placing an Individual onto the Electoral Register.
- The Home Office is permitted to sell private copies of the Electoral Register to organisations that have legitimate uses for the data, e.g financial institutions.
- The Electoral Register must not be accessible to the general public.
- Any Citizen who is not on the Electoral Register is ineligible to vote in Elections.
- The Home Office must only keep Data in the Electoral Register if it is relevant to the process of voting in Elections and to verifying an Individual’s identity.
- The Electoral Register must not keep any biometric Data.
- Any Individual is permitted to request a copy of their personal Data in the Electoral Register.
- Unless the Home Office believes beyond a reasonable doubt that the request is fraudulent, it must comply with the request.
- Any Individual who is no longer intends to vote may request to be struck off the Electoral Register.
- Any Individual who is no longer eligible to Vote shall be struck off the Electoral Register automatically.
- The Electoral Register must assign each voter a unique Voter Identification Number and store it in the Electoral Register.
- Each Individual must be provided with a copy of their Voter Identification Number when they finish their registration.
- Any Individual is able to request a brand-new Voter Identification Number if they believe it to be stolen or otherwise misappropriated.
- The Home Office must keep a copy of all stale Voter Identification Numbers in order to prevent collisions.
- The Voter Identification Number must be nine (9) digits long with one (1) check digit.
- The Home Office is to decide internally on which algorithm derives the check digit.
- The Home Office may not change the algorithm that derives the check digit without reissing all existing Voter Identification Numbers.
- Each Voter Identification Number must be derived randomly by the Home Office.
- Registration for the Electoral Register must close at least seven days before the start of any Election.
- Registration for the Electoral Register must reopen as soon as all ongoing Elections have concluded.
Section V: Methods of Voting
- Any Individual on the Electoral Register is permitted to vote electronically.
- The Monarch shall be responsible for setting up a secure and convenient manner in which to vote electronically.
- The electronic communication shall require the Individual to submit their Voter Identification Number to prove their identity.
- Any Individual on the Electoral Register is permitted to vote by mail.
- Post Office Limited shall be required to set up, provide, and accept Voting Forms for Elections at every Post Office branch.
- Post Office Limited must mail all Voting Forms it accepts to the Home Office.
- Individuals are permitted to directly mail their Voting Forms to the Home Office free of charge.
- Any Voting Forms containing incomplete or invalid data must be destroyed.
- Following the conclusion of an Election, all Voting Forms pertaining to that Election must be destroyed.
- Post Office Limited shall be required to set up, provide, and accept Voting Forms for Elections at every Post Office branch.
Section VI: Disputes
- Any Member of Parliament is allowed to call a Vote of Recount in Parliament within fourteen days of an Election’s conclusion.
- If the Vote of Recount succeeds, a recount of the vote is performed and the new results are published.
- Following the recount’s results being published, a Vote of Re-Election is automatically called in Parliament.
- If the Vote of Re-Election succeeds, the Election process is restarted.
- The number of Votes of Recount for a given Election must not exceed one (1).