The MMP Cosa Amendment

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

WHEREAS, public pressure has been mounting for a transition to a unicameral Cosă; and

WHEREAS, it is desirable to retain a measure of representation for the citizens of each Province that is directly accountable to them; and

WHEREAS, this representation must be balanced with the need for proportional representation to provide for a legislature that reflects the will of the people; and

WHEREAS, mixed-member proportional representation is an electoral method suited for such a balance; then

BE IT RESOLVED, that the following Amendments to the Organic Law are made:

(1): Article IV, Section 2 is replaced in its entirety with the following:

1. The total number of seats shall be 200, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than three times the number of provinces minus one.
2. At each General Election, each province shall be apportioned a number of seats in the Cosă, hereinafter referred to as "provincial seats". Each province shall be apportioned an equal number of whole seats. No province shall be apportioned less than 3% of the total number of seats in the Cosă, nor shall any province be apportioned less than one seat. No province shall be apportioned more than 15% of the total number of seats in the Cosă. Within these limits, provinces shall each be apportioned the maximum number of seats such that the total number of provincial seats does not exceed one half of the total number of seats in the Cosă.
3. The remainder of seats shall be apportioned between political parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats". Each party shall receive party seats such that its total number of party seats and provincial seats held by provincial MCs affiliated with that party, taken as a share of the total number of Cosă seats, is as equal as possible to its share of the popular vote. Each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, each party shall assign these seats to individuals, in accordance with law. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
4. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosă until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

(2): Article IV, Section 3 is replaced in its entirety with the following:

1. In the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The King shall appoint a replacement to each vacancy. If the seat belonged to a party with a functioning party leader, the King must appoint as a replacement whichever person shall be so designated by that party's leader. If there is no functioning party leader, or if the party leader refuses to designate a replacement, the King shall appoint the replacement according to his own best judgment.
2. In the case of vacant provincial seats occurring between elections, the executive of the province in question shall appoint a Member of the Cosă to serve the remainder of the term. If the provincial executive fails to appoint a Member within a fortnight of the vacancy, the King or his Cunstavál shall appoint the Member.

(3): Article IV, Section 5, which currently reads:

Each person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosa and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 4, above.

shall be amended to read:

Each person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosă" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosă and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 3, above.

(4): Article IV, Section 11, which is currently blank, is replaced with the following:

Should the Senäts ever cease to exist for any reason, including but not limited to abolition, all incumbent Senators shall be awarded their province's provincial seats for the remainder of what would have been their current Senatorial term of office, subject to the same conditions for removal as any other MC as in Section 5 above.

(5): Article IV, Section 13 is created to read:

Provincial MCs will not be eligible for award of any party seats during a Cosă term unless they appear on a registered party list for the most recent General Election.

Uréu q'estadra så:
Mic'haglh Autófil MC

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

Explanation of changes:

(1) modifies how Org.IV.2 awards the seats:
* Org.IV.2.1 is effectively the same, but uncouples the number of Cosă seats from the number of Senators (and does increase the minimum size of the Cosă slightly).
* Org.IV.2.2 covers the equal apportionment of provincial seats between provinces and lays out the minimum and maximum number of seats individual provinces may be apportioned.
* Org.IV.2.3 is largely the same information contained in the current iteration of Org.IV.2.2, tailored to fit an MMP Cosă situation.
* Org.IV.2.4 similarly is the current iteration of Org.IV.2.3.

(2) moves the current text of Org.IV.3 to its own subsection (Org.IV.3.1) and adds Org.IV.3.2 to mimic the method for filling Senatorial vacancies when filling vacant provincial seats.

(3) really just fixes a neglect-typo in Org.IV.5 that we have tolerated.

(4) provides for the eventual folding of Senators into the Cosă should their term not be expired when the Senate is abolished.

(5) is a measure intended to prevent "gaming the system". (Leaving provincial candidates off a party's candidate list would mean that, if they win, they do not count toward a party's total seats awarded, meaning a party could have used this method to be awarded more party seats than they would otherwise be entitled to.)

[Munditenens Tresplet]

I'm opposed to abolishing the Senats. My computer isn't working currently and I'm on my phone, but there are plenty of reasons to be against abolishment, not least of which is that it's a solution in search of a problem.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

I'm opposed to abolishing the Senats. My computer isn't working currently and I'm on my phone, but there are plenty of reasons to be against abolishment, not least of which is that it's a solution in search of a problem.

This amendment does not do that.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I'm worried that adding provincial requirements to the Cosa will make it harder to actually fill seats.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

I'm worried that adding provincial requirements to the Cosa will make it harder to actually fill seats.

Not necessarily. As it happens, each province is currently represented by at least one MC.

[Munditenens Tresplet]

I'm opposed to abolishing the Senats. My computer isn't working currently and I'm on my phone, but there are plenty of reasons to be against abolishment, not least of which is that it's a solution in search of a problem.

This amendment does not do that.

This amendment is the first step towards doing that.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

I'm opposed to abolishing the Senats. My computer isn't working currently and I'm on my phone, but there are plenty of reasons to be against abolishment, not least of which is that it's a solution in search of a problem.

This amendment does not do that.

This amendment is the first step towards doing that.

Correct, this amendment is intended to help bring about the consensus reform plan.

It does not touch the Senate.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I'm worried that adding provincial requirements to the Cosa will make it harder to actually fill seats.

Not necessarily. As it happens, each province is currently represented by at least one MC.

I guess I'm confused, then? It seems like you're saying this won't change anything, since provinces are already represented in any given Cosa. But then why make this process so much more complicated?

I mean, right now the Cosa tries to be fairly reflective of the national vote. If we change it so that it is less reflective of the national vote because it also has to accommodate provincial representation, that seems like it's actively making it worse as a representative body. Unless it wouldn't actually change anything in practice, in which case... why do it?

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

I guess I'm confused, then? It seems like you're saying this won't change anything, since provinces are already represented in any given Cosa. But then why make this process so much more complicated?

I mean, right now the Cosa tries to be fairly reflective of the national vote. If we change it so that it is less reflective of the national vote because it also has to accommodate provincial representation, that seems like it's actively making it worse as a representative body. Unless it wouldn't actually change anything in practice, in which case... why do it?

As previously noted, this amendment is intended to help effect the consensus plan for Organic reform. The plan overall is intended, among other things, to make it easier to operate the various institutions of the state with the size of the Talossan population. While this particular change should not make it anymore difficult to fill seats, several contributors to the discussion expressed concerns about maintaining a degree of provincial representation in the Cosa (underlining added for emphasis):

-From the look of things, in Option 1 we'd expect Fiova to have as many seats as Maritiimi-Maxhestic and Florencia combined.  And Maricopa would have twice as many seats as Vuode.  That seems like a problem.  Likewise, it also seems like a problem that Option 2 gives no reason for anyone to care about Vuode's interests as a province.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Why were you giving Munditenens such a hard time, then?  This bill is the first step in abolishing the Senats. It doesn't happen all at once in this one bill, but the time to speak up is when the process gets started, not at the end.

Why do you want to abolish the Senats and switch to a unicameral legislature?

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Why do you want to abolish the Senats and switch to a unicameral legislature?

I think we had a whole thread of this

Nevertheless, the proposal here deserves discussing on its own merits, and I think it's a good one

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

As I recall, that thread discusses a whole bunch of different topics, since it was also offering things like a fixed election schedule and shorter term.

If this proposal is a good one on its own merits, then it would be good to hear why. So far, the only offered reason has been that it lays the groundwork for a unicameral legislature.

So that kind of leads me back to my question: why would we want that?

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I think it's a good one because it enables proportional political representation for the provinces

[Glüc da Dhi S.H.]

(5): Article IV, Section 13 is created to read:

Provincial MCs will not be eligible for award of any party seats during a Cosă term unless they appear on a registered party list for the most recent General Election.

This doesn't really address the problem.

Let's say there are two provinces.
In province A 12 voters support party X and 10 voters supports party Y. In province B 11 voters support party Y and 10 voters support party X.

There are 3 party list seats and 1 provincial seat for each province.

Party X runs a candidate for the provincial seat in both provinces.
Party Y does not run provincial candidates but instead two voters who support party Y nationally run as independents.

In province A the party X candidate wins. In province B the independent candidate wins.

For the party list seats if this were done without MMP Party X would just get 2 seats and party Y would get 1 seat, because party X has 22 voters and party Y has 21.

However party X already has a provincial seat and party Y doesn't so to make it more equal party Y gets 2 seats and party X gets 1.

As a result Party X has more supporters, but Party Y's supporters get more cosa seats (although strictly one of them is an independent, but being a party Y supporter they vote with party Y most of the time).

The independent party Y supporter not getting any party list seats does not prevent this from happening at all.