Non-Binding Resolution Caught in a Bind


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Non-Binding Resolution Caught in a Bind
Written by Lloenflys

(Europeia - January 17, 2019) - A surprising development in the Senate last week saw attention briefly diverted from the reform process that has otherwise occupied the majority of the Senate’s – and Europeia’s – attention so far this term. The catalyst was an EBC Executive Midterm poll which was posted at around 2:30 pm on Sunday by Deputy Minister of Communications Whitmark, and which was closed a little less than 24 hours later. Citizen Acapais rather disappointingly noted that “These polls expire too fast” in the poll’s forum posting.

Senator Prim took notice, and decided to pursue the issue further by approaching Minister Punchwood in the Discord Communications forum. “I spoke to Punchwood right after the poll was closed for the first time. The entirety of our conversation is in the Comms discord channel, so I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be public record, but I did basically state my concern with the handling of the closing of the poll,” Prim stated in an interview several days after the incident occurred. The stated reason for the poll closing when it did, coming from Deputy Minister Whitmark and Minister Punchwood, was that the poll had reached a sufficient threshold of participants (over 30), and that leaving it open for longer was unnecessary and unlikely to result in a significant increase in participation.

The Discord conversation between Senator Prim and Minister Punchwood ended without resolution on this issue and made clear that there was lingering disagreement. While Deputy Minister Whitemark re-opened the poll for 12 additional hours at Minister Punchwood’s request, the underlying issue of poll transparency and regulation lingered. Senator Prim continued to discuss the issue behind the scenes in Discord. “I posted within the Senate discord channel suggesting a resolution on the issue, and I pinged @Senate and @Sopo. I received some expressions of support from those present, enough to decide that I would post a working draft in the Senate chamber for further discussion,” Prim stated when interviewed.

That draft would come to be known as Non-Binding Resolution S.001 (2019), and it would be presented on the floor of Senate on the night of Monday, January 9. The fairly short resolution had three clauses, addressing polling transparency (making everyone aware of the minimum duration of the poll up front); poll durations (suggesting polls remain open for at least 48 hours); and a section that provides for exceptions to the 48 hour poll requirement for pre-election “flash” polls.

Discussing the motivation for structuring the resolution in this way, Senator Prim referred back to the Discord discussion: “I mentioned that no one called this a 24-hour ‘flash poll’ and Punchwood moved on to say that 30 submissions was a good amount and he was fine with closing it." Prim added, "Personally, if the 24-hour time were posted along with the link, I would have had no issues with the entire situation. My biggest concern as the lack of transparency on the poll duration. Secondarily, I think we ought to use 48 hours as a standard duration, especially outside of time-critical periods like Elections, and especially during the week, when some people aren’t able to check the forums except for once per day or once every other day.”

While much of the early commentary on Senator Prim’s resolution seemed positive, not everyone was in agreement with it. By Wednesday afternoon, Minister Punchwood would make the decision to respond formally with a Ministry Statement. In the Statement, the Minister stated several times that he felt the Senate was overreaching its authority, stating that “it is not the job of the Senate to tell Ministries how to operate” and that the “Senate should not in any way attempt to bully the Ministry into accepting restrictive regulation that will create needless red-tape.” It further characterized the Non-binding resolution as a “knee-jerk reaction to a minor disagreement,” and encouraged the Senate to return its attention to the ongoing reform effort.

In an interview over the weekend, Minister Punchwood indicated that there was some agreement between himself and Senator Prim over the criticism that was originally levelled over the handling of the poll. “The length of time that a poll remains open for should be stated, and it was a mistake that it was not listed in the previous poll. However the poll creator should have complete authority to make changes to the timeframe if he/she decides it is appropriate,” he stated.

Of far more concern to the Minister, and the reason he ultimately chose to respond to the Non-binding resolution with a formal Statement, was his perception that his Ministry was being improperly challenged. “My Ministry was being publicly critcised and I felt a duty to defend it. The Senate could pass a NBR declaring crumpets to be the Regional Snack, that doesn’t mean they used their power wisely nor should citizens not speak up against what would be a silly policy. In this case what the Senate proposed was an over-correction that should have been left for the Ministry to decide an official position on.” Further, he does not feel that the Statement was especially notable, as he made clear when he described the Statement as “a minor statement, rebutting some inaccurate claims and recommending that the Senate does not pass something which I believe would be a mistake – it was nothing major. I believe the whole issue has been overblown quite considerably.”

In the end, the Non-Binding Resolution failed to pass, with the vote on it ending in a 3-3 tie. Despite the failure of the NBR to pass, Senator Prim stands by the reasoning for his actions, although he acknowledges that a different approach may have been more effective: “I had spoke to Punchwood and Sopo and it didn’t seem like a resolution to the problem would be coming from expressing my concern individually, so I thought about expressing my concern collectively through the Senate. At the time, everyone I had seen comment on the issue were in support of having clearer timeframes on polling, so it didn’t look like the idea would be a very controversial one. I think there is wide support for clarity and accommodation in regional polling. I think the resolution was probably the wrong way to go about it, and the vote perhaps reflected that. If this discussion had occurred in the Grand Hall, perhaps the results would have been different.”

Where does polling in Europeia go from here? Minister Punchwood is open to assessing the polling guidelines in use within the Ministry of Communication, for one thing: “There are rough Ministry guidelines on polling which perhaps do need clarifying. The difference here is that the Ministry can fully decide what the guidelines shall be and it shall not face undue pressure from the Senate and public (as the aim of NBR is to change public perceptions) to put in place guidelines that I believe would cause unneeded restrictions on polling.”

As for Senator Prim, he intends to take a wait-and-see approach before determining if further action on his part is needed: “I plan to see how additional polling happens. If polls are being clearly marked with durations and those durations are held to – then there won’t be any concerns from me. If concerns linger, I may discuss the issue with the President during the next Administrative Question Time with the Senate.”
 
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This is excellent reporting and should be noted by others for the standard required.

Excellent narrative.

It seemed like Senate tried to flex it's oversight powers on the Ministry but hasn't quite gone the full way. Or it got what it wanted which was a reaction.
 
Very interesting read and great article!
 
Excellent article, Lloen. :)
 
This is a wonderful article and delves deep into stuff that Europeia didn't know about this conflict, minor though it may have been. Great reporting!
 
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