Finally, to the last part of the convention -- voting and debating bylaws for the new
Alliance party. Below I will post bylaws that myself and wxtransit have been working on. Feel free to submit questions, comments, and criticisms so that we can ensure our bylaws work for the whole party.
Bylaws of the Alliance Party of Atlasia
One for All
Established December 31st, 2017
Mission Statement
We seek to form an Alliance between the left and the right to fight against the two-party system and for a more representative government.
SECTION I: PARTY CONVENTIONS1. Alliance will hold party conventions in February, June, and October. These conventions will provide for the election of the party leadership, endorsement votes for President and Vice-President, along with endorsements for candidates in other races if necessary, and debates on the platform and bylaws.
a. These conventions must begin at least three weeks before the scheduled presidential
election.
2. A week before the convention is to open the Chairman will open nominations for the location, accepting one nomination per-party member during a period of 48 hours and then holding a 48 hour STV vote to determine the winner.
3. All Alliance members who sign in at the convention will be granted status of delegates, as long as they joined Alliance at least two weeks before the start of the convention.
4. The schedule of each convention is left to the party leadership.
5. The Chairman can call an emergency convention at any time as long as it is more than one month away from the most recent convention.
6. The standard voting period at convention shall be 48 hours unless otherwise specified.
SECTION II: ELECTIONS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS1. Legislative
a. Members of Alliance who are elected to serve in a national or regional legislature shall not
caucus with any party other than fellow Alliance members.
b. All members of Alliance serving in a national legislative body must submit at least one
piece of legislation every two weeks while in office.
c. All members of Alliance serving in a regional legislative body must submit at least one
pieces of legislation every three weeks while in office.
2. Executive
a. Alliance shall run a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate in each election where
those seats are contested.
b. The Alliance “ticket” shall be comprised of any of the following arrangements:
i. Two non-partisan or centrist candidates
ii. A candidate from both the ideological “left” and “right”
3. General Guidelines
a. All members of Alliance that run for office must first declare their intention to run in the
official Alliance party thread at least 5 days before the election begins.
i. All candidate declarations that are not posted in the Alliance thread within this time
frame shall be seen as illegitimate.
ii. If the number of Alliance candidates running outnumbers the seats up for election, a
primary will be held to eliminate candidates until the number of Alliance members and
open seats is even.
iii. Party members are entitled to the endorsement and full support of the party in
general elections in which they are official candidates.
iv. If there are no Alliance candidates that have filed before the official election
deadline (ex. Federal is 72 hours before voting begins), then any candidate is allowed
to run a write-in campaign with the full endorsement of the Alliance Party
v. If there are already more Alliance candidates than seats, then new write-in
candidates running under the Alliance party label shall not receive the official party
endorsement.
b. All members of Alliance that run for office shall run a campaign thread that at minimum
outlines their basic policy positions, goals, and accomplishments.
4. Primary Elections
a. If a primary election is triggered for a race, voting shall begin at the immediate order of
the Chair or Vice Chair of the party.
b. Primary elections shall take place at least four days before the start of the general election.
c. Primary elections shall last 48 hours.
i. If no votes have been cast before the deadline, then each member of the party
leadership will vote between the candidates.
ii. As soon as the 48 hours has elapsed, the Party Chair shall declare which candidates
have advanced to the general election, and ballots shall be updated accordingly.
d. Ranked-choice voting or instant-runoff voting shall be used in all Alliance primary
elections.
e. If a primary election shall be tied, then the Party Chairman will cast a tie-breaking vote.
f. All members of Alliance, including the party leadership, shall be eligible to vote in party
primaries, regardless of which region the race is held in.
g. Voting for a primary election shall take place in the Alliance party thread.
SECTION III: PARTY LEADERSHIP1. The Citizens party leadership will be comprised by a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary, all offices to be voted on at every party convention.
2. The Chairman will provide executive leadership for the party and will be in charge of overall strategy and planning.
3. The Vice-Chairman is entitled to lead the party as Acting Chairman in the absence of the Chairman, and tasked with party recruitment and GOTV efforts regarding elections.
4. The Secretary is tasked with keeping record of the party's activities, running online and wiki efforts including updating of articles and necessary information. The Secretary is entitled to lead as Acting Chairman in the absence of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman.
5. Leadership Elections will be held by Citizens at every party convention with an STV vote to last 48 hours. Should there be a single candidate for a particular office said candidate will be immediately appointed to that office.
6. The Chairman can call an emergency leadership election upon his or her resignation as long as it is more than one month away from the most recent leadership election, and the emergency election is called with substantial reason.
SECTION IV: PARTY MEMBERSHIP1. All members registered by the Registrar General as belonging to Alliance will be considered as full members of the party.
2. Party members are expected to behave in a dignified manner suitable for a political party, and therefore can be subject to censure or expulsion from the party. Motions for reprimands or expulsions can be raised by either the Chairman, Vice-Chairman or at least two party members. Censure votes require a simple majority of voting party members, and Expulsion votes will require a two-thirds majority of voting party members.
3. Party members are entitled to the endorsement and full support of the party in elections in which they are candidates, unless the number of party candidates is superior to the number of available seats, in which case primaries shall be held. The only other exception to automatic endorsements are Presidential Elections.
4. Primaries for party endorsement will be run with an STV vote organized by the Chairman, or in his absence, Vice-Chairman or Secretary.
5. Failure to comply with party bylaws shall trigger a review of party membership.
SECTION V: PARTY DISSOLUTION1. Only the Chairperson or Vice Chair of the Alliance may call for the dissolution of the party.
2. Once dissolution has been called for by either the Chair or Vice Chair, a mandatory 48 hour period of debate will begin to discuss dissolution.
a. Before the 48 hour mandatory period expires, any member can call to extend the period of
debate for any period of time.
b. A call to extend the period of debate must get a majority in favor to pass.
c. Extensions onto a period of debate will start when the mandatory 48 hours ends.
d. Members can extend debate multiple times.
3. Once the period of debate has ended, a 72-hour voting period to dissolve the party will begin. To pass, two-thirds of party members must support the dissolution of the party.
I know there is a lot to read and digest here, so I'll go ahead and give 48 hours for the bylaws to be read and objected to/debated/etc. If there are no objections, we shall move into voting procedure on the bylaws after 48 hours.
