Socialist Party

[Murica!]

I'll join here.

Welcome!

[Хahar 🤔]

I think we should elect a Parliamentary Leader/ Prime Ministerial candidate, what does everyone else think?

A leader is a fine idea, but it's worth noting that given the system we have it's possible (and, I would think, even likely) that there will be times when the Prime Minister is not the leader of his party.

[PJ]

Now that we know elections will use closed list, another question to consider is whether or not we want to employ the use of primaries to decide the ordering of the list, and if so, how the primaries will be conducted.  

[Murica!]

Now that we know elections will use closed list, another question to consider is whether or not we want to employ the use of primaries to decide the ordering of the list, and if so, how the primaries will be conducted.  

What does everyone think about doing Primaries?

[Cranberry]

I guess primaries are the fairest way possible to determine ranking on a closed PR list, and IRV would probably be the best way to conduct them. If people want to, we could always just take the "winner" of this primary as leader/prime ministerial candidate/grand mufti/whatever we want to call the position, or elect that on a separate ballot, whatever is the consensus or the preferred option.

[Murica!]

I guess primaries are the fairest way possible to determine ranking on a closed PR list, and IRV would probably be the best way to conduct them. If people want to, we could always just take the "winner" of this primary as leader/prime ministerial candidate/grand mufti/whatever we want to call the position, or elect that on a separate ballot, whatever is the consensus or the preferred option.

I agree that it should be done by IRV, though I think we should have a separate ballot for the Prime Ministerial position.

[Cranberry]

So a potential ballot would have something like that:

Party Leader: (I personally prefer this name for the PM candidate, as he is our party's leader, if not in an administrative position)

Person A
Person B
Person C [X]

FPTP or IRV for that?

General Secretary: (or whatever name you wish)

Person A
Person B [X]

same question as above

Party list

1 - Person A
2 - Person C
3 - Person D
4 - Person B

[Murica!]

So a potential ballot would have something like that:

Party Leader: (I personally prefer this name for the PM candidate, as he is our party's leader, if not in an administrative position)

Person A
Person B
Person C [X]

FPTP or IRV for that?

General Secretary: (or whatever name you wish)

Person A
Person B [X]

same question as above

Party list

1 - Person A
2 - Person C
3 - Person D
4 - Person B

OK anyone who wishes to run for Party Leader or Chairman please announce with in the next 24 hours. (Also we'll be doing it IRV)

I will be running for Chairman.

[Cranberry]

6 hours might be a bit short, given we have a variety of players from different time zones here, so I would propose 24 hours minimum for any voting / announcement / nomination period.

On topic though, why not, I'll be running for party leader.

[Murica!]

6 hours might be a bit short, given we have a variety of players from different time zones here, so I would propose 24 hours minimum for any voting / announcement / nomination period.

On topic though, why not, I'll be running for party leader.

Yeah I'm going to change it to 24.

[Ban my account ffs!]

This all seems reasonable so far.  I, of course, would be interested in being on the party list for parliament.

[Murica!]

This all seems reasonable so far.  I, of course, would be interested in being on the party list for parliament.

I'm planning on putting everyone on the list unless they say otherwise so you don't have declare your candidacy for Parliament.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I will run for leader.

[PJ]

I like Al's proposal for the platform, and there haven't been any objections in the last 24 hours, so it should be adopted in the OP.

I'm under the impression that IRV is used for single member constituencies, so we should probably use STV for party list candidates.

This all seems reasonable so far.  I, of course, would be interested in being on the party list for parliament.

I'm planning on putting everyone on the list unless they say otherwise so you don't have declare your candidacy for Parliament.

I disagree with this. If we were to do extraordinarily well in an election, we might end up electing inactive party members who don't show up for parliament (they may not even log in often enough to say they are not running, for example), and that would reflect badly on our party.

Here's my proposal for a rough draft of the party constitution:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Article VI: Membership
a. Any person agreeing to the party platform shall be allowed to join the Socialist Party of South America.

Article VII: Conventions
a. A convention shall be called once per year by the General Secretary at a time of his or her choosing.
b. All members of the party shall be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the convention.
[/quote]

I'd suggest officially discussing this after the leadership elections, but I figured we might as well get a discussion started.

I will run for a spot on the party list.

[Хahar 🤔]

All these methods are too complicated. The list should be chosen by the elected party leadership and subjected to an up/down vote of the membership.

[Cranberry]

All these methods are too complicated. The list should be chosen by the elected party leadership and subjected to an up/down vote of the membership.

No, not at all. If we are truly the "Socialist Party" we need to reflect that in party policy as well, and the best way to do that in regards to party lists is to elect them in the most equal, most "socialist" way possible, which is through participation of every party member.

Also, I withdraw my candidacy for party leader (go Crabcake!) and instead run for General Secretary/Chairman/whatever the name.

[PJ]

Agree with Cranberry. The proletariat ought to be able to directly elect their representation. Also, I declare my candidacy for Deputy General Secretary.

[Murica!]

I like Al's proposal for the platform, and there haven't been any objections in the last 24 hours, so it should be adopted in the OP.

I'm under the impression that IRV is used for single member constituencies, so we should probably use STV for party list candidates.

This all seems reasonable so far.  I, of course, would be interested in being on the party list for parliament.

I'm planning on putting everyone on the list unless they say otherwise so you don't have declare your candidacy for Parliament.

I disagree with this. If we were to do extraordinarily well in an election, we might end up electing inactive party members who don't show up for parliament (they may not even log in often enough to say they are not running, for example), and that would reflect badly on our party.

Here's my proposal for a rough draft of the party constitution:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Article VI: Membership
a. Any person agreeing to the party platform shall be allowed to join the Socialist Party of South America.

Article VII: Conventions
a. A convention shall be called once per year by the General Secretary at a time of his or her choosing.
b. All members of the party shall be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the convention.

I'd suggest officially discussing this after the leadership elections, but I figured we might as well get a discussion started.

I will run for a spot on the party list.
[/quote]
Once we elect the Party leadership we should debate this.

[Hash]

This is none of my business, but if you want a logo, you should probably go with the logo of the Chilean Socialist Party. It's rather appropriate.

[Murica!]

This is none of my business, but if you want a logo, you should probably go with the logo of the Chilean Socialist Party. It's rather appropriate.

Yeah it is quite appropriate and I quite like it, what does everyone else think?


Oh and here it is just to make it easier for everyone

[Filuwaúrdjan]

How can we have internal elections for posts that we have not even established yet? I motion that any internal 'elections' are immediately suspended until we officially adopt a Party Constitution.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is the norm for socialist parties (of whatever stripe) to have a permanent National Executive of some kind, which functions as sovereign on internal Party matters at all times when there is no Party Conference/Convention/Congress. I recommend that we adopt this system ourselves. I would suggest an Executive of five seats: one for the Leader, one for the General Secretary and three to be directly elected by the Members. Alternatively we could have two directly elected seats and one seat elected by the members of our affiliated organisations. This would also mean that there would be no need for a Deputy General Secretary (which would make the Party less top heavy). A National Executive would also make it easier to have reasonable disciplinary procedures: having such a body suspend or end someone's membership would obviously be preferable to an individual taking such decisions.

[Murica!]

How can we have internal elections for posts that we have not even established yet? I motion that any internal 'elections' are immediately suspended until we officially adopt a Party Constitution.

I second the motion and call for a debate on the proposed constitution above.


Personally the only part I have a problem with is having only one party congress a year, I feel that it would be better to have one every three months.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyway, I would like to announce the formation of a Party faction to be called Socialist Unity. We stand first and foremost for a strong Party structure.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Made a couple of modifications to PJ's (actually pretty good) draft:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Article VI: Membership
a. Any person agreeing to the Party platform shall be allowed to join the Socialist Party of South America.
b. Any member who brings the Party into disrepute or who engages in anti-Party activities is liable to have their membership suspended or canceled by the National Executive.
c. Any member who runs in an election against a duly nominated candidate of the Socialist Party of South America shall be automatically expelled from the Party pending appeal to the National Executive.

Article VII: Conventions
a. A convention shall be called once per year by the General Secretary at a time of his or her choosing.
b. All members of the party shall be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the convention.
c. Convention is absolutely sovereign over all Party matters when in session.
[/quote]