Unicameral MMP Ziu model amendment

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

As an intellectual exercise I decided to see how hard it would actually be to bring in a unicameral MMP Ziu. Here is a draft amendment which would replace Articles III-V of the current OrgLaw with minimal changes; it mandates "one member one seat", but the precise number of seats and the counting method are left to law. Note that we retain the term "Senator" for MZs elected as individuals by IRV from each province, for ease of amendment.

NB: This would not be sufficient, as the rest of the OrgLaw would also have to be search-and-replaced to replace "Cosa/Senäts" with Ziu. (Not difficult but tedious.) Also, the whole thing would also have to get a 2/3 majority in each Chamber as under OrgLaw XII.1.

Article III: The Ziu

Section 1. The Ziu is the national legislative council of Talossa. It shall be composed of:
- one Senator elected from each province;
- a number of Party Seats, equal to or greater than the number of Senators minus one, to be apportioned among political parties, as determined by law.

Section 1.1. The Ziu may administer itself as it sees fit, within the limits set by this Organic Law.

Qualifications for Membership

Section 2. Except as otherwise provided in this Organic Law, any Talossan eligible to vote may be elected or appointed as a Senator, but only for his or her own province; and any Talossan eligible to vote may be elected to a Party Seat.

Section 3. No person may simultaneously hold more than one seat in the Ziu.

Section 4. Neither a reigning King, nor his Consort, nor a Regent during his regency shall under any circumstances be eligible to be elected or appointed to a place in the Ziu.  But if a member of the Ziu is appointed Regent, and does not wish to resign his or her seats, a temporary replacement shall be appointed who shall occupy the Regent's seats until he or she is no longer Regent or his or her term of occupation of those seats expires. The method of appointing the temporary holder of the Regent's seats shall be specified in law.

Section 5.1. The Secretary of State may request from all successfully elected Senators a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election and to be paid before they assume their seat. This fee shall be uniform for all successful candidates.
Section 5.2. Only registered political parties may obtain Party Seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their Party Seats until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law, but shall include providing a list of candidates ranked in numerical order. The Secretary of State may request from all parties which win seats a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

Section 6.1 A Member of the Ziu vacates their seat if, not being disqualified from voting by law, they do not vote on two consecutive Clarks; or if they resign from office, lose their citizenship or die.
Section 6.2 No Member of the Ziu shall ever be required to vacate his place during his term of service, due to a change in the qualifications of Member of the Ziu.
Section 6.3. Members of the Ziu may be removed from office by the Uppermost Cort, for criminal activity or for mis-, mal-, or non-feasance.
Section 6.4 The Ziu may impeach any of its members and thereby remove them from the Chamber with a two-thirds majority vote.
Section 6.4.1. If a Senator is impeached, a vote must be held within a fortnight within the home province for the duration of a fortnight with the issue of expulsion by a simple majority of participating voters. If the province votes in the affirmative for expulsion, the Senator will lose his seat immediately at the close of the polls and a new Senator selected as provided below. If the province votes down expulsion, the impeachment charges will be dropped. Following a failed expulsion, the accused Senator may not again be tried for the same offence, pursuant to the Seventh Covenant of the Covenant of Rights and Freedoms. The former Senator is not barred from running for office in future elections as long as the former Senator maintains citizenship.

Filling Vacancies

Section 7. If a Senator's seat becomes vacant before the end of the term, the executive of the province shall appoint a Senator to sit until the next General Election or the next provincial election in that province, whichever is sooner, at which time the people of the province shall elect a Senator to serve the remainder of the term. If the provincial executive fails to appoint a Senator within a fortnight of the vacancy, the King or his Cunstavál shall appoint the Senator.

Section 8. In the case of a Party Seat which had been assigned to an MZ becoming vacant between elections, the King shall appoint the next eligible unsuccessful candidate(s) on the list of that MZ's Party from the previous election to that Seat or Seats. If there is no eligible unsuccessful candidate remaining, the King shall 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 judgement.

Conduct of the Ziu

Section 9. A newly elected Ziu shall convene on the first day of the month after its general election, to coincide with the publication of the first Clark. Its term shall be equal to seven Clarks, subject to the provisions elsewhere in this Organic Law. During its last month, the King shall issue a Writ of Dissolution ending its term. Whenever the Cosâ may be dissolved, all its members shall resign.

Section 10. The Ziu shall, after every general election, choose one of its members to be the President of the Ziu to be called the Mençéi, or in English the Lord President; and as often as the office of Mençéi becomes vacant the Ziu shall again choose a member to be the Mençéi. The Mençéi shall cease to hold office if he ceases to be a senator. The Mençéi may be removed from office by a vote of the Ziu, or he may resign his office or seat by writing addressed to the King, or by public declaration.

Section 11. The Seneschal may insert between any two Clarks, or after the final Clark, a "month of recess" in which no Clark is published. No more than one "month of recess" may be declared during any one term of office.

Section 12. The Seneschal may appeal to the King to issue a Writ of Dissolution to dissolve the Ziu before its term has expired and call new elections. If the appeal is presented accompanied by the explicit support of members of the Cosa representing a majority of seats therein, the King shall dissolve the Ziu effective immediately or, should there be a Clark in progress, upon the completion of the Clark. If the appeal lacks such an explicit expression of support from a majority of the Ziu, the King shall not act on the appeal for a period of three days following its receipt, and shall then accede to the appeal but only if the Crown has not been presented during that time with a petition, supported by members of the Ziu representing more than half the seats therein, praying that the Cosa be not dissolved. A Writ, once issued, takes effect only at the end of the month in which it was issued, and may be rescinded before it has taken effect. \

Section 13. The Ziu may set and hold Living Zius (live parliamentary meetings) to coincide with a Clark as described by law, so long as all Members of the Ziu have ample opportunity to submit their votes remotely.

Article IV: Elections

Section 1 The Ziu shall be elected by universal popular vote by all adult citizens after each dissolution.

Section 2 All elections to the Ziu are to be conducted during a period beginning from the fifteenth day of the calendar month following the dissolution of the prior Ziu until 11:59 p.m. on the fourteenth day of the subsequent month. All ballots must be cast by 7:30 p.m. on the first day of the subsequent month. The first day of this period is called "Balloting Day", the first day of the subsequent month is called the "Election Deadline", and the final day of the period is called the "Certification Deadline."

Section 3. Every citizen shall have two votes, to choose:
a) a candidate for Senator from their province, ranking as many candidates as they choose to in numerical order of preference (the "Senator Vote');
b) a numerically-ranked list of candidates provided by a political party (a "Party Vote").
Section 3.1. Where a Provincial Government so requests, they may conduct the election of the Senator for that province, communicating the results thereof to the Chancery before the Certification Deadline. In the event that an election for Senator conducted by a Provincial Government appears likely to fail to proceed, the Chancery may request a Cort injunction allowing the Chancery to assume control of the Senator election in that Province.

Section 4. The Secretary of State shall, along with an Electoral Commission, certify each election to the Ziu, including any additional ballot items, pursuant to rules, regulations, and deadlines as prescribed by the Ziu; notwithstanding that any such certification must be made following the Election Deadline and prior to the Certification Deadline, unless an order be issued by a court of competent jurisdiction to stay the Certification Deadline.

Section 5. During the election period as defined in this article, the Secretary of State shall in every particular conduct the election according to the election laws in such a manner which affords to every citizen the opportunity to cast a vote for the party and the Senator of his choice, affords every citizen the opportunity the choice to vote either publicly or privately, and does not discriminate against any party or individual in the collection or tallying of votes. The Secretary of State shall make public the exact procedures by which he will comply with election law, subject to certification by an Electoral Commission as prescribed by law.

Section 6. When the Election Deadline has passed, a tally of votes is publicly announced. Any votes cast after the Election Deadline, are null and void. Furthermore, if a voter returns more than one vote at any time during the election period, the first one cast is counted and the others are ignored.

Section 7.1. In case of a tie between two or more candidates for Senator from a province, the executive officer of the province as of the Election Deadline shall break the tie.
Section 7.2. Based on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties. Each party shall receive a number of Party Seats to make its total number of seats (including Senators) as equal as possible to its percentage of the Party Vote. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of Party 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.
Section 7.2.1 The Secretary of State shall award one Party Seat in turn to the highest-ranking candidates on each party's list, excluding any who were elected as Senators, up to the total number of their Party Seat entitlement as determined above. A Party which receives more seats than it has candidates on its list may expand its list to add additional, lower-ranked candidates, up until the tenth day of the First Clark. Any Party Seats unallocated to candidates after that date shall remain vacant for the term of that Ziu.

Section 8. If a voter initially forgets to vote for a Senator, the voter may, until the Election Deadline, still cast a vote for a Senator.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

To forestall the perennial argument that a real Ziu would restrict participation, I ran the numbers on what the last election would have produced in a 20-seat MMP real Ziu, and the answer is: FreeDems 10, LCC 7, Peculiarists 3.

The actual representation in the current Ziu is: FreeDems 10, LCC 5, Peculiarists 3, others 2.

The quick answer is, a MMP real Ziu would make no significant difference; the longer answer is, it would create incentives for the Opposition to unite around a bigger party. You see, the real problem with the 200-seat Cosa is, while of course more people can theoretically become MCs, it gives an inbuilt advantage in doing this to the biggest/governing parties. The party list system weakens but does not remove this disadvantage, which I campaigned against in Opposition and still do because it is just plain unfair.