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by The Ministry of Information of the Communist Bloc. . 155 reads.

[Regional Law] Election Standards Act 2020

Election Standards Act 2020

An act to define regional election procedures, and strengthen the powers of the Overseers.

Now, therefore, BE IT ENACTED by the order of the glorious Constitution of the Revolutionary Republic, by and with the advice and consent of the Citizens of The Communist Bloc, in this present Legislative Committee assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows-

ARTICLE I - Definitions

(1) "Overseer" shall refer to the Election Overseer, as defined by the Constitution.

(2) "Campaign Telegram" shall refer to any Telegram sent on behalf of a candidate for an election.

(3) "Executive officer candidates" shall refer to all candidates standing for an office that would grant the candidates access to information reserved to the Council of Ministers or be appointed as a regional officer in an election.

(4) “Foreign executive office” shall include the regional officer of a region not controlled by The Communist Bloc or allied militaries, off-site executive government member of another region or organization, or the current or historical founder of another region or organization.

Article II - Category

(5) This Act shall be classified as a Type I ADMINISTRATIVE law.

Article III - Electoral Rules

(6) All elections must be visible to the public.

  1. This does not infringe on the internal selection procedures of Speaker and Head Judiciary.

  2. A link to any on-going public election shall be pinned on the regional World Factbook Entry for the duration of the election.

    1. A copy of the content of the WFE and formatting tags shall be saved and archived by Election Overseers, should there be need to delete any part(s) of the WFE for the duration of the on-going election to make space for the pinning of the election’s link.

    2. The WFE must be restored to its previous version once the election period ends, unless personnel changes are made, in which case it may be updated.

(7) Should the technical ability exist, votes in election polls must be allowed to be withdrawn and/or changed.

  1. Should this be unable to be done, Overseers shall be in charge of withdrawing votes.

  2. The Citizen wishing to withdraw their vote must contact the Overseer and present their vote, in full via screenshot which contains who they voted for, and their Username.

    1. Should the citizens be unable to do so, they may not withdraw their votes.

    2. Overseers must present any withdrawn votes to the judiciary at the end of the election, to be examined for vote tampering.

(8) Elections will not be considered binding until an Overseer has announced the results.

  1. Overseers must announce the results within 24 hours.

    1. Failure to do so may be considered dereliction of duty.

(9) Citizenship applications will not be processed while voting for elections is taking place.

(10) Should a candidate ask for it, the Minister of Information will be responsible for sharing one campaign telegram per candidate via Telegram on the NationStates website.

  1. A disclaimer must be attached to the bottom of any Campaign Telegram which reads:
    "This telegram was sent in accordance with the Election Standards Act 2020. The Ministry of Information does not sponsor this or any other candidate. For a full list of candidates, or to sign up for this election, please visit [link to sign up for the relevant election]"

  2. Regional Telegrams must not be considered offensive and/or inflammatory, nor can they violate any of the rights outlined in the Constitution.

  3. Regional Telegrams may not be written on behalf of a candidate, except where (8) is true.

(11) Political Parties or Interest Groups may sponsor telegrams for candidates. Should this happen, a donation of Telegram Stamps equal or greater than the current number of nations within the Bloc must be made to The Communist Bloc.

  1. A message of sponsorship may also be added to the telegram, linking to the Party or Interest Groups sign up.

  2. Should a Party or Interest Group fail to sponsor a candidate, no mention of that Party or Interest Group may be made within a Regional Telegram.

    1. Except if the candidate is referring to relevant experience.

​(12) No candidate may falsely accuse any other candidate of lying, cheating, fraud or any other crime without evidence of such.

  1. If any candidate or citizen feels that another candidate has committed a crime, they must submit a legal challenge to the Judiciary or Overseers.

  2. No candidate, or supporter of a candidate, shall threaten to take forum action against another candidate without sufficient proof.

    1. Should an Overseer or member of the Judiciary consider a candidate or supporter is repeatedly abusing the right to take legal action, they may bar them from taking further legal action against a candidate until the election is over.

(13) No candidate may publicly insult other candidates or citizens for any personal reason.

(14) Candidates should not spam (defined as the excessive use of similar messages on the same or different threads) anywhere on the forum, excluding their own campaign thread, to promote their campaign.

(15) Should a position disallow certain officials, they must resign before standing for that position.

(16) Sign-ups for elections must contain the following information:

  1. Name

  2. Party or Organisation

  3. Position standing for

  4. Current positions held

  5. Declaration of Foreign Offices

  6. Declaration of ban and Persona Non Grata (PNG) from current allies

(17) All candidates are obligated to truthfully submit information during the sign-up period.

  1. Candidates must additionally disclose whether they were banned or designated as persona non grata by current allied regions during the sign-up process.

  2. All candidates must additionally disclose whether they currently hold foreign offices during the sign-up process.

  3. If candidates do currently hold foreign offices, they must disclose the region (or organization) in which they hold the foreign office and the powers of their foreign office in the region (or organization) during the sign-up process.

  4. They may disclose this information in their sign-up post. If doing so would occupy a large amount of space, they may alternatively disclose this information in a publicly accessible medium linked to their sign-up post.

(18) If a candidate is accused of providing false or incomplete information on the signups as defined in clause 14 of this document before voting starts, the overseer must notify the candidate of relevant accusations.

(19) If following the closing of an election or by-election, the tally of votes of multiple options in an election or by-election tie for the last seat up for election, a run-off vote between the tied options will be immediately triggered.

  1. The run-off vote shall be open for 48 hours.

(20) For elections of the Legislative Committee or The People’s Tribunal where more than one seat is up for election there shall be an option named “None of the Rest of the Above”.

  1. The election voting thread shall have an explanation of this option in the beginning of the forum post for the election and the election telegram shall also be appended with this explanation. The explanation shall follow this general format with x and y as stand-ins to be substituted for the number of seats and number of candidates respectively:

    • “There are x seats open on the [Legislative Committee/People’s Tribunal] and y candidates running. You have x votes to cast. Vote for the candidates you wish to vote for and those you do not wish to vote for leave the option to vote for them blank and select "None of the Rest of the Above".”

Article IV - Overseer Powers

(21) Overseers shall have the right to issue a cease and desist order for a period of no more than 6 hours, should they feel that campaigning is becoming toxic.

  1. This may be overturned by any citizen with the power to be Overseer

    1. Except where it is targeted at that Official, or;

    2. The election is for the office that gives them the authority to stand as Overseer.

  2. This power may be used to close the Regional Discussion channel on Discord should the behaviour continue.

  3. Overseers may recommend to Admins that repeat offenders receive longer bans.

(22) Should sufficient evidence of multiple Major Offenses or a Single Highest Offense be given in relation to a candidate, Overseers may halt an election for a period of no more than one week.

  1. The incumbent(s) for that election will retain the role.

  2. The Overseers must then present the evidence to the Judiciary immediately.

    1. Failure to do so may be considered anti-revolutionary and punishable as such.

    2. The Judiciary may, should they believe the evidence does not warrant halting the election, then move to continue the election.

    3. Overseers found abusing this power in a manner not considered Treasonous or Anti-Revolutionary may be banned from standing for office for a period of 6 months, per People’s Tribunal’s decision and with a confirmation requiring a ¾ majority in the Legislative Committee.

      1. The Overseer involved may not vote on this in either the Legislative Committee or the Judiciary.

Article V - Schedule

(23) This act shall be considered legally binding following majority assent from the Legislative Committee, as well as majority assent from the People’s Assembly.

Written and proposed by Martyn Kiryu

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