I vote Per.

The proposed constitution follows.

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Article I: The State
Sec. 1. The Free and Sovereign Province of Belacostă is an autonomous and self-governing member of the federal Talossan nation.

Sec. 2. The full style of the state is "la Provinçù Liveradă es Soveran da Belacostă", or in English, "the Free and Sovereign Province of Belacostă". In either language, the short style of the state is simply "Belacostă".

Sec. 3. The sacred and irremovable territory of the Free and Sovereign Province of Belacostă shall consist of the cantons of Mazzini and Garibaldi, with the capital of the Province at Mazzini.

Sec. 4. The sole historic and national language of the entire Talossan people, and therefore of the  Province, is the Talossan language (el glheþ Talossan). The Belacostăn government shall also recognize English as a secondary working language, and may adopt tertiary working languages by law.

Article II: The Provincial Assembly
Sec. 1. The legislative power of the Province shall be invested in l'Aßemblatx Provincial, the Provincial Assembly. The Provincial Assembly is composed of all citizens of the Province who each claim a single seat at the beginning of a new session, and is considered the Province's supreme political authority. Each citizen may not hold more than one seat in the Provincial Assembly.

Sec. 2. The Provincial Assembly shall have power to pass any bill into law by a simple majority vote; a bill shall be introduced upon recommendation of at least two Provincial Consuls, and if the Assembly vote is successful, automatically becomes law. Votes on bills shall last seven days, but a vote may be closed early once enough votes have been cast to guarantee a bill's passage or failure. At the dissolution of the Cosă, the Assembly will be ceremonially closed to business until the next Cosă's first Clark.

Sec. 3. Citizens who have been naturalized and assigned to Belacostă during the current session of the Provincial Assembly may be admitted as Assembly members by a majority vote in the Assembly.

Sec. 4. Should any other province merge with Belacostă, all members of that province's legislature as then constituted shall each be granted one seat in the Provincial Assembly for the remainder of its current term.

Article III: The Provincial Council
Sec. 1. The executive power of the Province shall be vested in a three-member body known as el Cußeglh Provincial, the Provincial Council, which shall conduct its business collectively (i.e. by majority vote).

Sec. 2. The Provincial Council will be elected from among the citizens of the Province at each Cosă election, via a positional vote. Voters will name their first-, second-, and third-choice candidates. For each first-choice vote, the candidate shall receive three points; for each second-choice vote, two points; and for each third-place vote, one point. The three candidates with the highest point totals shall be elected to the Provincial Council, with any ties being broken by the number of first-choice votes received (and if necessary, the number of second- and then third-choice votes, with a coin flip being used past this if necessary). Provincial Consuls may choose to ceremonially represent any canton or sexteir of the Province, or to represent the Province at-large.

Sec. 3. The presiding officer of the Provincial Council shall be known as el Governadeir, the Governor. The first order of business of each newly-assembled Provincial Council will be to elect a Governor from among its members via a Motion to Appoint a Governor. The Provincial Council can replace an incumbent Governor via a simple majority vote on another Motion to Appoint a Governor (effectively, a "constructive motion of no confidence").

Sec. 4. The Governor shall be primus inter pares on the Provincial Council, and shall have no powers over his fellow Consuls save that of presiding over the Council's business. The Governor may issue proclamations that have the force of law, insofar as they do not conflict with either this Constitution or other provincial laws. Proclamations require the countersignature of the King or Viceroy to take effect, with the exception of proclamations to issue memorials, confer provincial honors, or clarify policy internal to the Provincial Council. Proclamations may be vetoed by a simple majority vote in the Provincial Assembly, and the Governor may not cast a vote on such veto motions.

Sec. 5. The Governor shall serve ex officio as the presiding officer of the Provincial Assembly.

Sec. 6. The Provincial Council shall have the power to appoint Ministers and delegate executive and administrative powers to the same. Ministers may be dismissed by either the Provincial Council or the Provincial Assembly. At the closure of a Provincial Assembly session, all Ministerial positions shall be vacated.

Sec. 7. The term of office of Provincial Consuls shall extend until the next Provincial Council is assembled. The composition of the Provincial Council cannot be altered between elections except by the death, renunciation, or resignation of a Consul, by their conviction by the Cort pü Inalt, or by a two-thirds majority in favor of a Motion to Recall a Consul.

Sec. 8. In the event of a vacancy on the Provincial Council between elections, the remaining two Consuls shall nominate a successor for confirmation by the Provincial Assembly. Should the Governorship fall vacant, the remaining Consuls shall elect a new Governor via the standard Motion to Appoint.

Sec. 9. Should any other province merge with Belacostă, that province's chief executive shall be granted a temporary, additional seat on the Provincial Council for the remainder of its current term. Any vacancies that occur on the Provincial Council that leave the number of Consuls at three or more shall be held as filled by one of the temporary Consuls.

Article IV: The Judiciary
Sec. 1. The Cort pü Inalt shall have original jurisdiction to try all cases arising under Belacostăn law.

Sec. 2. The provincial government reserves the right to form a judicial system to meet its needs pursuant to Organic Law.

Article V: Federal Officials
Sec. 1. El Cunstaval, the Viceroy, is the representative of the King of Talossa. The Viceroy is appointed by the King pursuant to Organic Law. While the King may freely appoint a Viceroy, it is the preference of the citizens of the Province that the Viceroy be a citizen of the Province for at least one year prior to appointment. The Viceroy may not hold a seat on the Provincial Council. Any bill adopted by the Provincial Assembly shall be deemed to take effect on the signature of either the King or Viceroy, or shall enter into force at the end of the month in which it is adopted if no action by either is taken on it. The King or Viceroy may veto a bill, but this veto may be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the Provincial Assembly.

Sec. 2. Belacostă's delegate to the Senäts shall be elected pursuant to Organic Law.

Article VI: Supremacy
Sec. 1. This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the Province; no provincial statute or Gubernatorial proclamation shall be permitted to contradict it as they are subordinate laws.

Sec. 2. Gubernatorial proclamations shall be subordinated to provincial statutes, and shall not be permitted to contradict the latter.

Sec. 3. In the case of any prohibited contradiction, the subordinate law in question shall only be held as void to the extent to which the contradiction exists.

Article VII: Amendments
This Constitution may be altered by a resolution of the Provincial Assembly, which must be approved by a two-thirds majority.

Article VIII: Statutory Adoption
Approval of this Constitution shall not be held to affect the continuing applicability of other provincial laws, save for any contradictions as outlined in Article VI.

Article IX: Ratification
This Constitution may be held as approved by a referendum in accordance with Organic Law, with the vote to last no less than two weeks. It will enter into effect at the next dissolution of the Cosă.

Azul to all! The Reconstitution Act, having passed both the Assembly and the Senate, now comes before the citizenry of Belacostă for ratification through a provincial referendum. Following precedent, I (as Maestro) shall conduct this referendum, and this thread shall serve as polling station. I shall additionally get in touch with all citizens of Belacostă for which the Chancery has given me contact informations to direct them to this thread.




The referendum vote is now open. By the provisions of Article IX of the proposed constitution, the vote will last (a bit more than) two weeks, and therefore the deadline shall be the same as the deadline for voting on the Sixth Clark, February 21st at 7:30 PM TST (Central). All citizens of Belacostă as of the deadline for voting are eligible to cast their vote.

(I would like to note that the Clark PDF is now fancy and Lex.G.12.1-compliant.)

Small notification that 60RZ23 – The Knights of Ni Act had a missing Lexhatx title letter in the enacting clause. I fixed this in the Clarked version.

Voting on the February 2025 Clark (the 6th and final of the 60th Cosă) is now open.

You can find the Clark at: https://wiki.talossa.com/images/0/08/February2025Clark.pdf

You can vote here (MCs) or in the equivalent Senate thread (Senators). For this Clark only, voting will only be accepted as posts on Wittenberg, and not on the Database. The Secretary of State apologizes for the inconvenience. Any members who, for any reason, have difficulty logging in to Wittenberg and/or posting their votes should contact the Chancery's Gmail address (talossachancery).

Voting is open until the 21st of the month, at 19h30 TST.

Senators are allowed to create a single thread in the Senate chamber to post all of the Senate votes that are not cast in this thread. Any votes not posted either using the form above, the current thread or the Senate thread might be ignored and void. Please do not vote by email or private messages.

When you vote, do not indicate any conditions which may make it sound like this vote isn't final: you can always change your vote later.




Sir Lüc da Schir, UrB
Secretary of State

Members of the Cosă	Party	Seats	RZ20	RZ21	RZ22	RZ23	RZ24	VoC
Antaglhă X. Someliéir	FreeDems	20
Baron Alexandreu Davinescu	PROG	5	PER	CON	PER	PER	PER	NON
Bentxami Puntmasleu	FreeDems	20
Bråneu Excelsio	COFFEE	20
Breneir Tzaracomprada	OPEN	20
Flip Molinar	IND	5
Dame Litz Cjantscheir	IND	20
Sir Marcel E. P. Tafial	FreeDems	20
Mic'haglh Autófil	PdR	10
Dame Miestră Schivă	FreeDems	20
Muhammed Yasir	OPEN	10
Munditenens Tresplet	DIEN	20
Sir X. Pol Brigă	PROG	5
Þerxh Sant-Enogat, Túischac'h	PROG	5

Senator	Province	RZ20	RZ21	RZ22	RZ23	RZ24
Sir Martì-Páir Furxhéir	Atatürk
Iason Taiwos	Belacostă
Glüc da Dhi, Mençei	Cézembre
Sir Gödafrïeu Válcadác'h	Fiovă
Mximo Carbonel	Florenciă	PER	PER	PER	CON	PER
Txoteu Davinescu	Maricopa
Sir Ian Plätschisch	Maritiimi-Maxhestic
Tric'hard Lenxhéir	Vuode	PER	PER	PER	PER	PER

Typing up the Clark for publication right now. Since I didn't receive any other bill in time, the vacant RZ21 spot will be taken by The Fixed Electoral Date Amendment.

That's not what I meant and you know it. (Just like quabbling about past constitutional change was not the point of my initial writeup, so you quoting the little bit at the end instead of focusing on the broader point - that cumbersome systems are bad and off-putting - is interesting.)

Two things:

1. I think it's a good idea to have a full Court sooner rather than later, and infrequent judicial business should not really be an excuse to have the seat filled on May 22nd at the earliest, especially as three out of four most cases - Hammond v. Cézembre, Davinescu v. Txechescu and Grischun v. Chancery - all arose out of the aftermath of a general election;

2. MZs have plenty of time before voting on the Clark ends to question the nominee if they wish to do so; besides, the raisons d'etre for the in depth scrutiny of V - his personal character and the then lifetime appointment to the UC - are no longer relevant in this situation.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on January 31, 2025, 01:57:33 PMSenescal elections are only unnecessary if you think the basic principle that the Cosă chooses the Seneschál, not the King, is wrong.

Well that's patently untrue since we don't have Seneschal elections, and yet the Cosă does choose the Seneschal via a petition, with the King doing little more than counting signatures.

Anyhow, I would like to strongly caution people against establishing a system that is too inflexible or too complicated.

If it really took three consecutive Clarks to pass a bill, uncontroversial, unamendable (eg. conferring citizenship) or urgent (eg. Budget) bills would take a really long time to get passed. Besides, we would only get four chances to present new bills, ie. the first four Clarks; or even fewer if the Fixed Electoral Date Amendment is passed, as a month of recess would either lower opportunities to present a bill to just three, or if it is called late, potentially even kill bills halfway through their approval process by not giving bills a chance to get a second reading.

Regardless, this would mean that ten days before the Fourth Clark begins is the last chance you have to get a bill through the whole process before the next First Clark. Basically half a Cosă, plus two whole months for an election and government formation. I'm sorry but I really don't think a system of multiple readings is compatible with the Clark system, unless you also made the Ziu vote twice a month for two weeks each, for example.

As for the complicated point, I strongly believe that making our political processes more intricate is a bad idea. I don't think we need to gaslight ourselves into feeling like we need trappings of big boy legislatures to function properly, when there's barely a dozen people actively sustaining the activity of the legislature.

Let's get rid of the CRL, but let us not turn to something with even more complex rules that inevitably get misapplied, though with no malice. There's multiple recent examples of things that "sound fun" but are unnecessary and/or overcomplicated (Seneschal elections, the CRL itself, the Senate rules committee...) and I don't think you can both support going on another of these endeavours *and* want to simplify our body of laws, or to "cut red-and-green tape", or whatever your political party of choice prefers to call it.

(from the CRL thread)

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on January 29, 2025, 08:35:48 PMI am in the odd situation that I will be voting against my own bill

@Breneir Tzaracomprada , since at this point we've got a chance to review the Call for Bills by bypassing the database, do I understand correctly that you would like to withdraw the Edited Whole Hopper Act from the Sixth Clark?

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on January 29, 2025, 04:55:41 PM

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on January 29, 2025, 04:46:31 PMIt doesn't even technically say two members must give recommendations. It just says the CRL and apparently we all assumed that means a majority, which sort of makes sense I guess, but it's just one interpretation.

Ok but it has certainly not been implemented that way. I have attempted to Clark bills and on several occasions "successful" review by the CRL was a requirement.

@Sir Lüc How are you interpreting CRL review requirements for the purposes of Clarking bills?

Sorry for not getting back to this; I think now everyone can see what I meant when I said the CRL is effectively operating on vibes. My reading of the law is consistent with the Mençei's interpretation, but please, let's fix this at the earliest opportunity.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on January 30, 2025, 04:48:38 PMIf the Secretary's interpretation of the law is consistent with that of CRL member Da Dhi as here, please clark The Fixed Electoral Date Amendment:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3628.0

The Database is literally not letting me add bills to the Clark anymore, without even spitting out an error message. I tried Clarking this bill thrice (even as a non-Amendment, since maybe that was the problem); nothing changed since I added all other bills either.

Folks, for this Clark we're going to have to go back to the old method of voting solely on Witt, which I find compatible with OrgLaw VII.9 since all MZs have Witt accounts and we don't need a way to register secret ballots either. I sincerely apologise but the Database is falling apart.

Anyhow, The Fixed Electoral Date Amendment is Clarked as RZ25.

The Digital Terpelaziuns Act has been Clarked as RZ24.