With thanks.

My final vote is for þerxh Sant-Enogat.

I will add that if a session of the States General does not or cannot form, then it does not mean we find ourselves in a state of anarchy.  In such an event, the failsafe is for the Constable to administer the Province under Crown Rule.

Thanks Luc. I had forgot that was on the national ballot.

This will come down to how strict are we going to read the Vuode constitution where it says seats are claimed by making a *public* declaration. 

Does a ballot return count as a public declaration?

And, even if it does, what about ballots that were not made in public, but cast in secret?

What I can say with certainty is that the spirit behind the Vuode Constitution (even though it doesn't explicitly say this) was that the province was in outright opposition and rejection of the notion that the Chancery would hold our provincial ballots. This, in my opinion, was one of the cornerstones in the authoring and passage of our constitution.

Unfortunately, three of the most active people who had a hand in those events are not around (Dreu G, Viteu M and Sir T).  One could argue that the mandate has shifted due to a change in demographic.  Even if we consider that a material enough change of circumstances, it wouldn't warrant us to abandon the text or spirit of the law as it stands.  Indeed, it strengthens my call for a fresh provincial constitutional convention.

My opinion is that the claims made via national ballot are not valid on the basis that these particular points of our constitution were written as an assertion of our autonomy from Chancery interference.

I nominate the member for Maricopa, Txoteu Davinescu.

Rescinded.

When my payment clears, I believe it will result in a slight overpayment. Add it to the Treasury as a donation please.

Working from old memories here so some of the finer details of the 'Grischun Plan' escape me.

It was an attempt to create a 'unitary authority'.  This meant on a local level the provinces would retain separate and distinct identities, but would have been administered by a single civic authority. Meanwhile, yes, both would have retained their own Constables and Senators.

It was an attempt at finding a middle ground, because at the time there was opposition to abolishing a Senate seat and there were a handful of Organic issues with just going for a full-on merger.

My personal preference has always been a total merger of Vuode and M-M. The abolishment of both for the birth of a new single province.

Needless to say, I am extremely interested in having the conversation and seeing how much progress can be made.

If we go with a plain text reading of the law then I think, technically, no seat claims means no session of the States General takes place.

I'm thinking this might present an opportunity for the province to hold a meaningful conversation on our future; be that, in lieu of a functioning legislature, a summit of sorts or be it a constitutional convention.

Participation in Vuode has always went through periods of being bullish or bearish.  I can't say we have a failed province or one that is dying, but I have been vocal with my thinking that merging the province with one of our neighbours would be beneficial.

And thank you for the congratulations.

There wasn't an official announcement of the party ceasing.

Around August 2019 I resigned from leading the party. After that point BenArd was the RUMP's sole MC.  I gather he made some kind of attempt to muster a revival for the next election, but didn't get a response.  The party simply failed to run in that next election.

BenArd went to the ZPT while I went on to stand as a Peculiarist.

Basically, the party fizzled out with its members going inactive one by one until there was none.

I'm unable to pay via PayPal just now it seems.  I think if the Burgermeister sends me a payment request then I can pay by debit card?

Posted in both places.

One in the official thread for the Chancery and one here for the local constituents.

I, hereby, announce my candidacy for the Senate seat of the United Provinces of Vuode and Dandenburg.

I, hereby, announce my candidacy for the Senate seat of the United Provinces of Vuode and Dandenburg.

Congratulations on your appointment.

I will read over the provisions you cite and offer a draft amendment to the States General.

I wholeheartedly support our Antarctic territory becoming a Province.

In a strength equal to that level of support, I vehemently protest against our Antarctic territory becoming a Province.

As for a Constable for Vuode, while I deeply appreciate the new Monarch's respect for local democracy, I have no problem with the Crown exercising its prerogative and making its own choice.

The Cort has given its judgement in the case of Grischun v Chancery ( https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3422.0 ) (Although, the case probably should be entitled Grischun V Cunstaval of Vuode).  The Cort has determined that the Cunstaval did err in applying Provincial law by calling for seats in the legislature to be claimed out of turn, however also determined that no harms were caused by that error.  The Cort also declined to provide the relief being sought, meaning the session of the States General stands without dissolution.

We should take note of the sixth finding of the Cort, which reads, "(6) The Cort does direct the Assembly to consider its own legal mechanisms in such matters, and if it considers it necessary, to close any time-related loophole."

I will take the initiative to begin a conversation, here, to consider the points of law.  The relevant part of our legislation is Article III, Section 5:

"Any adult citizen of Vuode may claim a seat in the Estats Xhenerais during the period in which a national general election is taking place. This is done by making a declaration in public as follows: "I, name, hereby claim my right to be seated in the next Grand Session of the Estats Xhenerais". The citizen shall then be officially seated after swearing or affirming oath to the Cunstaval. The exact process of this shall be determined by United Provinces Byelaw."

My initial thought while reading this is as far as I can remember, an "exact process" was never determined by Byelaw for the affirmation procedure.

In considering what the Cort has directed us to consider (to consider if any time related loopholes need to be closed);  The Section requires that seats are claimed during the time period that a national election takes place.  I don't see anything resembling a "loophole" here; rather simply a limitation of when the permissible time to make a claim begins and ends.  I would assert that a limitation is definitely required and definitely needs to be defined.  So, the question I would ask is do we feel the current limitation is too restrictive in some way and do we need to create a new defined time period in which seats can be claimed and then filled?

I suppose we should also consider whether the entire mechanism is still desirable in the first place.

S:reu Molinar. 
My first Talossan friend.
Many, many hours spent chatting about all manner of things.
Time spent as political colleagues and as political rivals within our Nation.
Of all the Talossan Honours ever bestowed and of all the accolades ever achieved in this Kingdom, this one fills me this absolute joy.

I eagerly await the first of next month.

Quote from: Tric'hard Lenxheir on July 03, 2024, 11:50:34 PM

Quote from: Eðo Grischun on July 03, 2024, 09:50:44 PMApologies if things have changed since I was last around, and happy to be corrected, but from Article III, Section 5:

Any adult citizen of Vuode may claim a seat in the Estats Xhenerais during the period in which a national general election is taking place. This is done by making a declaration in public as follows: "I, name, hereby claim my right to be seated in the next Grand Session of the Estats Xhenerais". The citizen shall then be officially seated after swearing or affirming oath to the Cunstaval.


Does this mean leaving the claim period open till the 15th would breach this clause? Do claims need to be made before the conclusion of the national election? (I can say as the original author of the clause that the intention was that the period would end upon closing of the national polls).

Although, if we can find a way to argue that I'm wrong on this, I'll be happy seeing the period stay open a bit longer, seeing as it looks like only one person claimed a seat.

Glad you are back hopefully Vuode's future will get brighter with a more experienced leader. We did the best we could without any real leadership

Looking forward to working with you!

We'll need to have a bit of a think about the current situation as it appears we may need to do some legislative tinkering so that I'm not the only person serving as a Councillor for this term.

Quote from: Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB on July 03, 2024, 09:57:09 PMMainly it is because no one from Vuode reminded me that as Cunstaval I have to dissolve and open the General Assembly so it was late. I was running a national election and it didn't cross my mind.

Just posted about it elsewhere.  The Cunstaval isn't required to dissolve the Assembly. It just happens automatically.

In-so-far as an official thread being created to collect seat claims, I believe this may have been a recent custom? However, it isn't strictly required. 

The constitution was written at a time when Vuode had an extremely inactive Constable and so we wrote the document to ensure things didn't rely on human input for many mechanisms.