[REFERENDUM] Subject: Senate.
UNL Congress
The Congress of our country accepted to held a referendum at the forum regarding the senate.
We like to start with give you a explanation of what the Senate is, and what they do.
What is the Senate, besides ‘Chapter 7’ in the eNetherlands’ constitution?
Let’s take a closer look at what our country’s constitution says about it, and elaborate.
“article 21 - Definition of the senate
A. The Senate is the official administrative organ of the eNetherlands
B. The senate has 3 or 5 members
C. The senate´s official spokesperson is the ´head of the senate´”
The Senate is defined to be a administrative, non-political organ. It is made up of an uneven number of Senators, to avoid ties in votingrounds. The Senate has an official representative to the public of the eNetherlands and their Congress.
What does the Senate do?
“article 24 - rights
A. to help moderate the enetherlands.nl forum
B. to help moderate the official IRC channels
C. to propose emergency-procedure debates and votes in congress
D. Head of the Senate is also a maintainer of the government password list, as is the Country President.”
The Senate is mostly about moderating the official communicationchannels of eNetherlands outside of eRepublic. The Senate is also administrator of the forum and IRC. So when a new party is founded, they make sure they have their own private subforum in wich that party can discuss in private.
In emergency situations (war, mostly), the Senate can start a voting round on a subject (alliances, natural enemy, …) without going through the normal legal minimum of 24 hours debating required.
They also safeguard the passwords and login information of all the state-owned papers, companies etc. Wich means the Senate holds a great responsibility.
How does one become a Senator?
“article 22 - appointment
A. anyone who at least has a ´officer in the order of de Nederlandse Leeuw medal´ or higher can apply for senator by sending a request to be admitted to the Head of the Senate
B. Current senators vote on the proposed admissions internally
C. senators also choose who represents them as ´Head of Senate´ for the next 3 months,
this appointment must be acknowledged by the congress with a majority in a official congress-vote
D. in the case of (suspected) misconduct the congress can remove any senator (including head of senate) from their position by holding a vote of no confidence in the congress, this vote will be considered as an emergency vote instantly.”
Anybody who has proven his/her worth to the country by being rewarded a medal in the Order of the (At least ‘Officer in the Order of de Nederlandse Leeuw’, for political dedication and/or government management. See details here: http://tinyurl.com/NLmedals).
This clause is added to be sure no member of an ATO can easily infiltrate the Senate and sabotage our forum or IRC channels, and to make sure the member of Senate has extensive experience with our countries laws.
The Senators can vote to admit, or not, a new member proposed by Congress.
The Senators choose each three months their new official spokesman, the Head of Senate. Congress holds a vote to accept or reject the proposed Head of Senate.
Congress can suspend and remove any member of Senate by emergency vote if they suspect a Senator of illegal actions.
What is the duration of a legal term in Senate?
“article 23 - duration
A. Senator appointment is for a minimum of 3 months
B. Head of Senate is for a minimum of 3 months”
A Senator must at least hold his position for at least three months. He should be motivated and thorough. The same goes for the Head of Senate.
[So far the information about the congress]
Furthermore we want you to take a look at this debate inside the congress. Congress is debating there about possible changes of the congress to improve it.
Now about the referendum.
Tonie112 started a debate about the (possible) abolishment of Senate. He had several issue’s to raise this debate
- Inactivity.
- Appointment.
- Rights.
(read the first page of the debate for a bigger explanation of his concern regarding the Senate.)
Congress members and citizens joined the debate, what resulted in a proposal to held a referendum, which is accepted by congress:
Do you agree on abolishing The Senate?
Option 1: Yes (Remove The Senate)
Option 2: No (Keep The Senate)
Description of options
Option 1: Yes
Abolishment of The Senate
*The Senate will be abolished.
*Chapter 7, article 21, 22, 23, 24 will be removed.
*The Senate 'usergroup' will be removed.
*All our current Senate members will be deprived of the rights received by membership of The Senate, this includes removal of IRC/National forum administration rights and the right to maintain goverment passwords.
*All our current Senate members will receive a honourable resignation.
Option 2: No
Keep the Senate
*Nothing will change.
YOU CAN VOTE HERE*
*In order to vote in the referendum a citizen needs to register and be confirmed as an eNL citizen.
Referendum is open for 3 days
ArtemIvanov, Chairman of Congress
Mael Dunbar, Deputy Chairman of Congress
Comments
DONT VOTE.
Lets boycott this referendum and send a strong signal that we dont want referenda for things like this which the congress should do.
Ehm, the congress approved this referendum, how can you say now that you boycot this referendum, lol
All you can do is campaigning for an option to vote for. Boycotting a referendum like this is a very weak signal and does not respect a democratic decided decision the congress took.
in short, my advice to citizens who read here, is to ignore Antiko his request to boycot a referendum approved by the congress.
nope, its very logic, if congressmembers make a stupid decision to make an referendum for stupid reasons.
Then its logic that u as citizen protest against it.
In this case an very logic reason and a strong signal would be to boycott, so that congress knows they can only hold an referendum when its really important.
My name is Garmr, and I am a Senator. I would be very disappointed if you voted in favor of this referendum.
my name is Daniel Parker, and I'm the founder of the senate, although I've never been a member of the senate. I would be even more upset if you voted to abolish the senate.
My name is PerfectMelody, and I like movies, long walks on the beach and men who can cook...
My name is Sarah Voorhees and my opinion on the matter does not matter for I am not a member of congress currently. However, if I were to give an opinion it would be to do whatever is in your heart for our eCountry.
@Antiko: If congressmembers are so stupid to bother people with referenda on uninteresting topics, nobody will vote anyway.
The majority of congress deciding for this referendum means that the majority of congress thinks this IS an interesting topic. If there is no clear advantage of the senate, that would be the case.
A referendum is a chance to involve everyone in a political decision, a very democratic way of making decisions. It can help to create interest in politics.
Your remarks suggest that you are for a dictatorship, because the people might be so stupid that they actually will follow those other fools in congress. Let's just assume that the people are not stupid, and that their opinion counts as much as yours.
wanneer ik ja antwoord wordt nederland een dictactuur??
en nee is hetzelfde??
lol zeker ja doen : D
NoTie112 gave some solid reasons why the senate should be abolished.
now some pple like Antiko + parker say they want to keep it but they give no reason at all. well Antiko says the issue is not important and parker says he would be disapointed. doesnt sound like solid reasoning. now if you want to keep the senate tell us why. If noone can give a good reason to have a senate lets have the referendum and abolish it.
My name is Prutser!
@orlonski.
there are plenty of reasons to keep the senate.
we need moderators on the forum one way or another.
I dont care if we call it the senate or if those people get appointed by the admins.
However i know people want transparancy so that is why its better to have an senate.
alot of people keep screaming the 'elite' has to much power and give jobs to each other, but if u dont have the senate then u would have that even more.
My name is DeathJester and I want to know what the hell is going on in my country O_o politicians fighting over a referendum?
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/referendum-ramblings-flowchart--1730635/1/20