[30 November 2015]
An Act to provide for procedures concerning the election of a Prime Minister, to amend certain provisions of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2015, and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Burgesses in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited for all purposes as “The Prime Ministerial Elections Act 2015.”
2. AMENDING CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE FIXED TERM PARLIAMENTS ACT 2015
A. Section C.4 is amended to read: “The aforesaid order of business shall commence by the instruction of the Lord Chancellor or other the moderator of Parliament, who shall instruct those of the assembled Lords and Burgesses of Parliament who wish to be considered for the office of Prime Minister to step forward at once to publicly declare their willingness before the assembled Parliament. In such wise they shall be qualified to be considered for the Office of Prime Minister. Members may nominate another individual in Parliament to be considered for the Office of Prime Minister, but the member nominated must publicly accept that nomination within the allotted time for the nomination to be accepted. A period of no sooner and no later than twenty-four hours shall be allotted for this purpose.”
B. Section C.5 is amended to read: “Twenty-four hours having passed, the Lord Chancellor or other the moderator of Parliament shall read the names of those Lords and Burgesses who have signified a willingness to be considered for the Office of Prime Minister. Only citizens who have signified a willingness to be considered for the Office of Prime Minister may be nominated and appear on the ballot.”
C. Section C.6 is amended to read: “The Lord Chancellor or other the moderator of Parliament shall then advise the Lords and Burgesses of Parliament to elect a qualified colleague for the office of Prime Minister by submitting a ballot using the standard form outlined by law.”
D. Section F.2 is amended to read: “In the event that His Majesty’s Government shall resign, collapse, or cease to exist for any reason apart from the success of a Parliamentary motion of non-confidence, His Majesty shall appoint a caretaker Prime Minister with the advice of the outgoing Prime Minister or His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council who will serve until a new Prime Minister is elected. Following this resignation or collapse, elections for a Prime Minister should immediately proceed as outlined in Section C above.”
3. PROVIDING FOR EXTRAORDINARY DISSOLUTIONS OF PARLIAMENT OUTSIDE OF NO-CONFIDENCE MOTIONS:
A. In the event that Parliament passes a resolution with a 2/3rds majority to dissolve Parliament outside of the normal time set forth in the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2015, His Majesty in Council shall be empowered to dissolve Parliament notwithstanding the provisions of the aforementioned act. A1: In the event the Lords and Burgesses should sit in separate houses, both houses must pass a resolution for dissolution with a 2/3rds majority in each house.
B. His Majesty’s Government will advise His Majesty on what date to call the next Parliament, not to exceed one month from the dissolution of the previous Parliament.
C. The failure of the Government to so advise the King what date to call the next Parliament shall not constrain His Majesty from the execution of his role.
4. PROVIDING FOR A NEW BALLOTING PROCESS FOR PRIME MINISTERIAL ELECTIONS A. All elections for the Office of Prime Minister shall utilize the OpaVote Online Elections polling system which shall be managed by His Majesty.
A1. In the event His Majesty is unable to manage the polling system, the announced nominees for the Office of Prime Minister shall agree on an individual within the Kingdom to manage the elections process. In the event they cannot agree on an individual, His Majesty shall designate an individual to manage the elections process.
B. The elections must use the following settings:
B1. “Show results” must be set to “end” so that voters may only see the final results at the end of the polling.
B2. “Method” must be set to “Plurality/FPTP/SNTV”
B3. “Number of Winners” must be set to 1
B4. “Shuffle Candidate Order” must be set to “yes”.
C. After the election begins, the election manager shall e-mail all citizens a ballot using the OpaVote e-mail function.
D. The Home Secretary shall keep an maintain an up to date list of all citizen’s e-mail addresses and keep them on file in some convenient private group or place, and share these e-mail addresses with His Majesty at the appropriate time.
E. In the event a citizen does not receive an e-mail ballot or declines to share their e-mail address, an individual may be sent an election code instead using the OpaVote code generation feature.
F. In the event an individual was sent an e-mail ballot but stated they did not receive it, the Election Manager should check the voter list to ensure that their e-mail address has not yet cast a vote. At the conclusion of the election, the Election Manager should re-check the voter list to ensure a vote was not cast by the individual by e-mail subsequent to receiving a code.
G. In the event there should be any technical issues or reasonable suspicion of any voting irregularities, the Election Manager should declare the results null and void and immediately conduct a new ballot.
5. COMMENCEMENT
This legislation and all the provisions therein shall come into force upon receiving the Royal Assent.
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