Section 1. Amendment of Legislative Procedures
(1) Section 2. Legislative Procedures shall be amended to only read:
Section 2. Legislative Procedures
Proposal and discussion procedures
(1) A minimum discussion period of three days is required before any proposal may be brought to vote. The Speaker is not required to open a vote if they determine that the proposal has not had sufficient discussion, but they may not delay opening a vote for more than seven days from when the motion to vote on the proposal was seconded.
(2) In order for a proposal to be brought to vote, a citizen eligible to vote on that proposal must make a motion to vote, and another such citizen must second the motion. A motion to vote may only be made by the initial author of a proposal unless the initial author is no longer a citizen or has not posted on the off-site regional forum for more than seven days without posting a leave of absence and has not logged on to their on-site account for more than seven days.
(1) Before a proposal may be brought to vote by the Speaker in the Assembly, a minimum four day discussion period shall be required for general proposals, and a minimum five day discussion period shall be required for confidential proposals. The Assembly Speaker is not required to open a vote if they determine the proposal has not had sufficient discussion, but they may not delay opening a vote for more than eight days from when the motion to vote on the proposal was seconded.
(2) In order for a proposal to be brought to vote, the proposal must be motioned to vote by the initial author of the proposal, with another citizen also seconding the motion. If the initial author is no longer a citizen or the author has not posted in their proposal thread for more than fourteen days, and they have not posted a leave of absence, any citizen may motion the proposal to vote. If a proposal is edited after a motion to vote is made then that motion shall be invalid. No changes to a proposal shall be accepted once the relevant vote has commenced.
(3) Only the initial author of a proposal may withdraw the motion to vote, unless they are no longer a citizen, in which case the Speaker shall withdraw the relevant motion. The motion to vote may re-motioned by the initial author at any time and such motion shall require a second before being brought to vote. If any motion to vote is not seconded within seven days that motion shall be invalid.
(4) The Assembly Speaker may determine for discussions to take place privately. The Assembly Speaker may accordingly move discussions to and from the Assembly's private forum under their discretion. However, discussion of treaties or discussions on the removal of those holding appointed or elected positions will begin as private and only viewable to Citizens. Non-citizens may comment during public discussions.
Motioning procedures during votes
(5) Once voting has begun, only the initial author of a proposal or the Speaker may withdraw the motion to vote. A motion may only be withdrawn before the end of the last day of voting and once a motion is withdrawn, voting shall cease immediately. The Assembly Speaker may only withdraw a proposal at vote without the approval of the initial author, if the initial author has ceased to be citizen, or if the vote may be in contravention of the mandate or the Regional Security Act and has been referred by the Assembly Speaker to the Court of Lazarus for a ruiling on the vote.
(6) If the vote on the relevant proposal has been withdrawn by the Speaker, and is not subject to proceedings or a ruling of the Court of Lazarus, any citizen may table a motion to overturn the decision of the Speaker:
a. After a minimum discussion period of three days, with the vote required to be held after seven days.
b. The vote will last for 5 days and if 50%+1 of the Assembly vote for the motion to overturn the decision of the Speaker, the relevant proposal will be put back to vote.
Voting procedures
(7) In the event that there are multiple competing proposals regarding the same matter in the judgment of the Assembly Speaker, the Assembly Speaker will bring them to vote one at a time, in the order they were motioned to vote. If such a proposal is enacted, the subsequent competing proposals will not be brought to vote.
(8) Votes shall take place for three days, or up to five days in the case of elections or appointments. Voters may only cast their votes by voting in self-closing polls in each voting thread, and any embellished text shall be stripped. Only elections may use text votes, on the discretion of the Assembly Speaker, in accordance with the number of candidates. The initial author of a proposal may request a private poll vote. Private poll votes shall be conducted with votes not being displayed publicly, in which case they will only become visible when the vote has ended. Citizens eligible to vote may vote using the following poll options:
a. "Aye", "Mmph" or "For",
b. "Nay" or "Against",
c. "Abstain" or "Present".
Archival procedures
(9) Private votes inclusive of appointment votes and general election votes, may be archived for public view by the Speaker or Forum Administration once the vote has passed or failed in the Assembly.
(10) Private Discussions and proposals may be archived for public view by the Speaker or Forum Administration if 28 days has passed with no activity in the thread or no on-going effort to move it to vote, and the Executive Council, Prime Minister of Lazarus or the Council of Lazarene Security does not oppose its release. The Executive Council, Prime Minister or the Council of Lazarene Security may object to release prior to or within one week of the thread being archived.
Certification procedures
(11) The Assembly Speaker may delay the certification of a vote for up to 30 days to resolve irregularities with a vote, or to revoke votes in line with a ruiling of a Criminal Review of the Court of Lazarus or a vote of the Council on Lazarene Security. Citizens revoked from citizenship during a vote shall not have their votes counted.
(3) Only the citizen who made the motion may withdraw it unless that citizen is no longer a citizen, then the Speaker may withdraw the relevant motion. A motion may only be withdrawn before the end of the last day of voting and once a motion is withdrawn, voting shall cease immediately.
(4) Only the citizen who withdrew the motion may re-motion to vote at any time and such motion shall require a second before being brought to vote. If any motion to vote is not seconded within seven days that motion shall be invalid.
(5) If a relevant proposal is edited after a motion to vote is made then that motion shall be invalid. No changes to a proposal shall be accepted once the relevant vote has commenced.
(6) Only the Prime Minister may introduce a proposal to enact, amend, or repeal a treaty or declaration of war, and only the Prime Minister may make a motion to vote on such a proposal.
(7) In the event that there are multiple competing proposals regarding the same matter in the judgment of the Assembly Speaker, the Assembly Speaker will bring them to vote one at a time, in the order they were motioned to vote. If such a proposal is enacted, the subsequent competing proposals will not be brought to vote.
(8) All votes will take place for five days. Citizens eligible to vote may vote "Aye" or "Mmph" or "For," "Nay" or "Against," or "Abstain" or "Present." Voters may cast their votes by voting in self-closing polls in each voting thread. The names of the players who voted for each option must be visible to the Assembly. Voters' posts that include additional content or embellishment will be discarded and split from the voting thread.
(9) The Assembly Speaker may determine for discussions to take place privately. The Assembly Speaker may accordingly move discussions to and from the Assembly's private forum under their discretion. However, discussion of treaties or discussions on the removal of those holding appointed or elected positions will begin as private and only viewable to Citizens. Non-citizens may comment during public discussions. All threads at vote shall be visible only to Citizens and be made in view of all Citizens.
(10) Private votes inclusive of appointment votes and general election votes, may be archived for public view by the Speaker or Forum Administration once the vote has passed or failed in the Assembly.
(11) Private Discussions and proposals may be archived for public view by the Speaker or Forum Administration if 28 days has passed with no activity in the thread or no on-going effort to move it to vote, and the Prime Minister of Lazarus or the Council of Lazarene Security does not oppose its release. The Prime Minister or the Council of Lazarene Security may object to release prior to or within one week of the thread being archived.
Section 2. Amendment of Legislative Procedures
(1) Section 4. Legislative Formatting, shall be amended to only read:
Section 4. Legislative Formatting
(1) The code block is only presented as an aid and the quote below it will be considered the official formatting.
(2) The forum name of the author will be provided in the "Proposed by:" section of a proposal. In the event that the author's forum name changes, the Assembly Speaker may amend a law to reflect the author's new forum name.
(3) Following the enactment of a proposal, the Assembly Speaker will append the month and year of enactment to the proposal's title.
(4) Unless otherwise noted, all amendments brought to vote in the Assembly will be formatted as legislation, and the amendments therein will be marked up so as to clearly delineate the changes being made.
(5) The Assembly Speaker may refuse a legislative amendment proposal being brought to vote in the Assembly, if the proposal does not clearly delineate the changes being made to the existing legislation.
(6) The Assembly Speaker may edit passed legislation to correct spelling and grammar errors, with further legislative formatting requirements in the Discretionary Powers Act (December 2021).
The code block is only presented as an aid and the quote below it will be considered the official formatting.
(2) The forum name of the author will be provided in the "Proposed by:" section of a proposal. In the event that the author's forum name changes, the Assembly Speaker may amend a law to reflect the author's new forum name.
(3) Following the enactment of a proposal, the Assembly Speaker will append the month and year of enactment to the proposal's title.
(4) An optional preamble for a proposal will not exceed fifty words.
(5) An optional credit section for a proposal will not exceed five people.
(6) Unless otherwise noted, all amendments brought to vote in the Assembly will be formatted as legislation, and the amendments therein will be marked up so as to clearly delineate the changes being made.
(7) Only general laws and constitutional laws will be subject to formatting for legislation, but all amendments will be subject to mark-up.
(8) The Assembly Speaker will not open a vote on a proposal that has not been properly formatted and/or marked up in the judgment of the Assembly Speaker, and no motion to vote on such a nonconforming bill will be recognized, until the proposal has been properly formatted and/or marked up.
(9) The Assembly Speaker may edit passed legislation to correct spelling errors, where they occur, but may not alter the grammar or wording of passed legislation.
