Common-Sense Politics Resigns







Senate Speaker Leaves Office
Written by Unmighty Hezekon









In a post made yesterday, April 28, Common-Sense Politics (CSP) announced he would be resigning all roles in Europeian government, citing personal reasons. "I’ll be back," the former Speaker says, "hopefully before long and will hope to have your help in finding a way for me to contribute in the future in a sustainable way." Last week, on April 22, Winged Bear was removed as senator due to inactivity, which left the Senate at four seats. With CSP gone, there was left briefly a Senate with three senators and no Speaker. After holding a senator by-election for Winged Bear's departure, the votes confirmed today that Prim will replace the emptied seat. There has now been opened another senator by-election for CSP's seat, with polls to open on May 5.

With his departure (temporary, albeit unspecified), CSP leaves behind a Grand Admiralty, his Speakership, and several awards*: Order of Republica; Order of Service to Europeia; Order of the Bronze Star; Order of the Olive Branch; Order of Courage; Order of Senatia; and Order of Community 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class.

As Senator Aexnidaral has addressed, there is now a need for important senatorial decisions. "By law, we have to move forward with picking a Speaker," he says, "but depending on who we pick, and how things go, we could be rolling through Speakers." The decision is whether to choose a Speaker considering the context of the upcoming elections, or to consider the Speaker nomination only in a vacuum. This is important because, as he says, "two of the members [of the Senate are] running for an office that if they win, they'd have to vacate their Seat," which would leave the Senate back in a similar position. He is referencing Senator Lloenflys' First Minister run, as well as incumbant Kuramia's rerun for Chief of State, which has Senator Aexnidaral himself on the ticket as her deputy.

While it is not a dire position for the Senate, this does leave them, as Aex says, "in a pickle." There's even the possibility, if there's unrest at its makeup, for the people of Europeia to call for dissolution of the Senate, as per section 10 article 2 of the Legislative Authority laid out in Europeia's Constitution. And if that were to happen, it may be light chaos, as there would be another Senate election among the ongoing first minister and chief of state elections, the latter of which depend on a Senate confirmation. This could lead to a postponing of elections, which could further complicate matters. As of yet, it is uncertain how the Senate will react to this situation.

*Edit: This was poorly worded. CSP is not renouncing his awards. What was meant here was that he was leaving behind a legacy that earned him such awards. The author apologizes for his miscommunication.
 
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I'm not sure if you meant this literally, but it seemed a bit ambiguous.

CSP didn't renounce his awards, medals, or ranks or anything like that. Just his positions in Europeian Government.

Awards are permanent, unless removed by the Senate (and only under certain circumstances) --


Otherwise, this is a beefy run-down of the situation, thanks.

And yes, the Senate will be an interesting and bumpy ride in the next week or so, with two tickets now having a sitting Senator who may have to resign their seat (Lloen on an FM ticket, and Aex on a CoS ticket). At the end of all of it, technically 4 out of 5 Senate Seats could have been gained through by-elections, an interesting situation that I haven't seen before.
 
I'm not sure if you meant this literally, but it seemed a bit ambiguous.

CSP didn't renounce his awards, medals, or ranks or anything like that. Just his positions in Europeian Government.

Awards are permanent, unless removed by the Senate (and only under certain circumstances) --
Ooooops! That's quite the mistake. I have updated the article with an endnote to clarify. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
CSP will be missed. I've never seen him command anything but respect in his offices - and he's a fun fellow nonetheless.

It'll be interesting to see how the Senate is impacted by all the turnover.
 
I wonder about the possibility of a recalled Senate as mentioned in the article, or if we are going to run a series of by-elections. Personally, unless my knowledge about elections is incorrect, I'd say the last one is more costly time-wise compared to the first -- and that is not a good idea as we have Chief of State elections coming up.
 
Personally, I think a mass recall of the Senate is more hassle than it's worth.

It would very likely:
--Delay the confirmation of the First Minister nominees by possibly two weeks (out of an 8-week term)
--Extend Kuramia's current Chief of State term by an extra 45 days (approx.)
--It would delay the mechanism to refresh the justices by the same 45 day delay (the Exec Split bill has Justices serving until the next CoS election, at which time they are all vacated and new justices are nominated)
--Depending on the timing, the Chancellery would still have to run a by-election for Lloen's old seat (if Lloen wins FM) *during* the 72-hour recall discussion.


In my opinion, I think the confusion and hassle of shifting around all of these timings will do more harm to the perception of the Executive Split compared to the situation of having a few by-elections to refill the Senate. These by-elections, while cumbersome, are still elections by the people. There's almost no difference between these votes and a single general election to elect the whole Senate, in my opinion.

But I'll leave it up to others, if people wish to recall and refresh the whole Senate, that's fine, I would plan to run in that election as well. But I think it's probably not worth all the hassle.
 
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Personally, I think a mass recall of the Senate is more hassle than its worth.

It would very likely:
--Delay the confirmation of the First Minister nominees by possibly two weeks (out of an 8-week term)
--Extend Kuramia's current Chief of State term by an extra 45 days (approx.)
--It would delay the mechanism to refresh the justices by the same 45 day delay (the Exec Split bill has Justices serving until the next CoS election, at which time they are all vacated and new justices are nominated)
--Depending on the timing, the Chancellery would still have to run a by-election for Lloen's old seat (if Lloen wins FM) *during* the 72-hour recall discussion.


In my opinion, I think the confusion and hassle of shifting around all of these timings will do more harm to the perception of the Executive Split compared to the situation of having a few by-elections to refill the Senate. These by-elections, while cumbersome, are still elections by the people. There's almost no difference between these votes and a single general election to elect the whole Senate, in my opinion.

But I'll leave it up to others, if people wish to recall and refresh the whole Senate, that's fine, I would plan to run in that election as well. But I think it's probably not worth all the hassle.

I concur. Obviously, the power to do this lies with the citizenry, but I don't see a real benefit and I do see a number of things I consider negative results.
 
Personally, I think a mass recall of the Senate is more hassle than it's worth.

It would very likely:
--Delay the confirmation of the First Minister nominees by possibly two weeks (out of an 8-week term)
--Extend Kuramia's current Chief of State term by an extra 45 days (approx.)
--It would delay the mechanism to refresh the justices by the same 45 day delay (the Exec Split bill has Justices serving until the next CoS election, at which time they are all vacated and new justices are nominated)
--Depending on the timing, the Chancellery would still have to run a by-election for Lloen's old seat (if Lloen wins FM) *during* the 72-hour recall discussion.


In my opinion, I think the confusion and hassle of shifting around all of these timings will do more harm to the perception of the Executive Split compared to the situation of having a few by-elections to refill the Senate. These by-elections, while cumbersome, are still elections by the people. There's almost no difference between these votes and a single general election to elect the whole Senate, in my opinion.

But I'll leave it up to others, if people wish to recall and refresh the whole Senate, that's fine, I would plan to run in that election as well. But I think it's probably not worth all the hassle.
In retrospect, should have probably looked into how a general election would shape the other terms. Especially with the better scenario of a double by-election situation we discussed in discord, dissolving the Senate now seems like a bad idea
 
Yeah I think we have a good lineup of candidates to fill these seats.

Back, a long long time ago, if a 2nd vacancy occurred in the Senate while we were already having a by-election we would simply elect the top two vote-getters. Would be nice if we could do something like that again.
 
Yeah I think we have a good lineup of candidates to fill these seats.

Back, a long long time ago, if a 2nd vacancy occurred in the Senate while we were already having a by-election we would simply elect the top two vote-getters. Would be nice if we could do something like that again.
Unfortunately the timing of the vacancies so far has not allowed for that and likely won't, given the FM election is... Friday? I'm not sure that's enough time for existing/new candidates to adjust to a second seat being added, but maybe I'm wrong.
 
729


@Lethen for confirmation, but I'm pretty sure if Lloen and Aex both get elected, the by-elections could be synched up into one 2-seat election.

There is enough wiggle room in the timing for the SC to adjust --
Elections Act said:
(13) Standing periods for By-Elections shall be opened within three days after the vacancy occurs, or between five and seven days prior to an expected vacancy, and must be open for a minimum of three days, and no longer than seven days.
Between 0 and 3 days for opening standing, and between 3-7 days for standing to be open. Plenty of wiggle room to handle the 4-day difference between the FM and CoS elections.
 
We could do that. Assuming of course that the FM election creates a a Senate vacancy, which is not guaranteed. There is enough time there, theoretically speaking. Polls for FM close on the 4th. 72h window to open standing. Meaning we can open standing on the 7th and then simply add the second by election to the first a day later.

We could also minimize the time needed to fill the position. Assuming we immediately open standing after the potential Senate vacancy occurs and use the minimum standing period of 72h then the poll for the by election would open on the 7th. Assuming the Senate opens their poll for the CoS (which also has to be 24h in length regardless of whether all Senators have voted already) later than we open the poll for the by election then the newly elected Senator should have a little time to also vote in the CoS election before that poll closes.

The Chancellery has not decided which of these two courses of action it is going to take yet, but we are aware of both.
 
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