NationStates Jolt Archive

Regional Constitution of Sparrow


Preamble: This document is hereby created to protect the rights and freedoms of the nations of Sparrow. We are a region which cherishes and promotes freedom and democracy and respects the rights of all nations to govern their own nations as they see fit while abiding by this document during their dealings in Sparrow.

The Constitution:

Clause I: The region of Sparrow shall not interfere nor dictate the internal policies and government of member nations.

Clause II: All nations have the soul right to exactly one vote from their central or master nation. Puppet states will be barred from running for election to government and from voting in elections. Exceptions to this clause are nations on “Special Assignment” which are represented in the region by a puppet nation.

Clause III: Constitutional violations have consequences of several variations. The most extreme punishment will be expulsion. This punishment will be fair and in proportion to the offence. The punishment will be decided by a full sitting of the parliament of Sparrow. In a case where immediate action needs to be taken this will be carried out by the Defence Minister in conference with the UN delegate.

Clause IV: Declarations of war or acts of aggression against other regions or nations shall not be made by any nation other then the Defence Minister after consultation with the President and UN delegate. This will then be put to Parliament for verification before action is taken.

Clause V: Amendments to this Constitution must be endorsed by seven independent nations and then proposed to the Speaker for the House of Representatives who will present the resolution to a sitting of Parliament who will then enact or reject the changes by way of a 75% majority of sitting members.

Clause VI: The Chief of Immigration has the right to contact nations they see as having the potential to contribute to the growth of the region for the purposes of invitation to join the region without interference from any nation. Should they have any concerns regarding a nation they should report this to the Defence Minister as per Clause III.

Clause VII: A recall of any elected official must be supported by 75% of sitting members of a full sitting of parliament who will then enact or reject the recall. Should the recall be approved the Speaker to the House of Representatives will call for a fresh election for the position recalled.

Clause VIII: Elections will be held by Speaker to The House of Representatives and will consist of all legal nations (refer Clause II) submitting a voting ballot to the Speaker and UN Delegate via email or telegram. The Speaker will declare when voting commences and concludes and will report the results on the regional board. The elected nations will then be sworn in.

Clause IX: Elected officials (namely the President, Vice President, Defense Minister, Immigration Minister and the Speaker to the House of Representatives) can nominate a secretary or assistant to take their office in times of absence from NationStates. These assistants may answer questions regarding to the office and take messages for the elected official but cannot enact legislation or take their vote in Parliament.

Clause X: New positions may be created at any time after approval by 75% majority of sitting members in a full sitting of Parliament.

Clause XI: State of Emergency will consist of a temporary suspension of this constitution with the President and/or UN Delegate having overriding powers but it will only come into act with the unanimous support of a full sitting of Parliament. If the threat is immediate the constitution may be suspended without consultation with the Parliament and overriding powers handed to the UN delegate in consultation with the President.

Clause XII: The President of Sparrow will be elected to a three month term with a limit of two consecutive terms served. This said, a President may serve as many inconsecutive terms as he/she likes.

Clause XIII: Elections for all offices will take place on the 15th of each month except for the office of President which is every three months and will take place on the 15th of every third month. The elections may be held over a 2 to 3 day period to ensure maximum voter turnout.

Clause XIV: The Parliament of Sparrow will be elected by the nations of Sparrow by way of a "Sports Poll" type election. From the nominated nations each nation of Sparrow will rank their preferred 10 nations in order of preference (10 for most popular through to 1 for least preferred). A tally of the votes will be taken by the Speaker for the House of Representatives and the 10 highest scoring candidates will be sworn in to the new parliament. Should this election be held to replace an inactive parliamentarian then the highest ranked candidate will be the new parliamentarian.

Clause XV: Should a parliamentarian miss two votes without prior notification to the Speaker of the House of Representatives the Speaker can expel the inactive parliamentarian from parliament and call for an election for his or her replacement as per Clause XIV.

UN delegate: The Grand Duchy of Borogravia Moldavi

Elected Government:

President- The Principality of Tygaland

Vice President- The Most Serene Republic of Eldamara

Minister of Defence- The Armed Republic of Bordoria

Speaker for House of Representatives- The Colony of Embaria

Minister of Immigration- The Armed Republic of Alluhaland



Parliamentary Representatives:

The Colony of Embaria (Speaker)
The Grand Duchy of Borogravia Moldavi (UN Representative)
The Dominion of The schizoids
The Rogue Nation of Phabreeze
The Republic of Hilke
The Borderlands of The Silver Sanctum
The Dominion of Dorkwis
The United States of Mawkistan
The Constitutional Monarchy of Eastern Newfoundland
The Democratic Republic of Nopassaran
The Republic of Bladenburg
The Republic of Jixieland


Appendix:

A full sitting of Parliament includes all available Parliamentary representatives, the elected government officials and UN delegate.

A Parliamentary sitting consists of the Parliamentary representatives and the Speaker to the House of Representatives.

Elected Officials are those elected to office by general election but not including parliamentarians.

How many nations will make up the Parliament? Also, I think we should poll the people of the Exiled States of Sparrow to see the day of the week we think we can get the best turnout for an election.

Good points. The size of Parliament will most likely be ten plus reps from satellite region and the Speaker unless most feel otherwise.
The day is negotiable, I just left is as it was before for the time being.

Sometimes things are happening in this region, on this board(the Sparrow Region board), and others not even recognize it. Since the size of that board is limited.

Proposal:
Can set up something like an "Information Minister"?
His tasks would be to inform the members of this region about changes, incidences, etc.etc. via telegrams.

Aux has set up a new message board, you'll need to register but this will make it easy to keep tabs on whats going on and to add your thoughts. The address is:

http://www.freewebs.com/sparrow_ii/

The address is also in the FactBook on the Sparrow regional page.

WHAT CONSITITUTES A STATE OF EMERGANCY? :?

Why term limits for the president? I am not sure I understand the purpose of that.

That Constitution looks very similar to the one Bradfordsburg wrote!!! Tygaland, how do you do it?

Yes, it is based on Bradfordsburg's constitution but with a few changes. Bradfordsburg did not write the Sparrow constitution but stole bits and pieces from other regions so all is fair. The other questions are good ones and one that the interim parliament will no doubt debate in the full sitting of parliament to take place shortly.

term limits are usually there to keep the president from becoming a dictator, not that it will ever happen *wink wink*

Exactly Aux, this way the President is up for re-election every three months and can if re-elected serve for 6 months straight before someone else takes over. The ex-President can then run for the following election so can , in theory be President for 9 months of a twelve month period. That is why the limit was in place. Of course if the interim parliament think this is not in the best interests of the region this part of the constitution can be reworked or even removed.
A state of emergency would be where the region was under attack by region crashers who swamp a region with UN member nations and replace the UN delegate with one of their own nations. They then expel the government of the region and claim the region as their own. In the case of a state of emergency we would need a unanimous vote in favour for it to be declared. We are a large region with a high percentage of UN membership and a well supoorted delegate so the chances of this occurring are slim but we need to have these scenarios planned for.