Draft of the 2022 Amendment Amendment (Version C-3)

Summary:

This draft amendment to Article 9, Clause 9.1 shall both modify Subclause 9.1.iii and create Subclause 9.1.iv in an effort to modify the existing threshold for non-executive Forestians to call an amendment to vote, in most cases significantly lowering it. Clause 9.3 shall also be amended to account for the addition of Subclause 9.1.iv.

Existing text of the target article:

9.1 Amendments to the Constitution add to, delete from, or otherwise modify the Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution may be brought forward in three ways:

i. The Head of State may call for an amendment.

ii. The Forest Keeper may call for an amendment.

iii. 25% of the total number of WA nations in Forest may publicly call for an amendment within a two-week period on the RMB.

9.2 Amendments must first be approved by the Head of State.

9.3 If and only if the amendment is brought to vote through Subclause 9.1.iii, the Forest Keeper has a one week period after the Head of State approving the amendment to choose to veto the amendment. Vetoed amendments will be voted on as outlined in Clause 9.4.

9.4 The amendment will be voted on through the polling system with the poll only being open to resident WA nations. The poll will be open for a length of three days. The poll may be created by whatever nation with polling authority chooses to do so, but must be created as soon as possible after Clause 9.2 or Clause 9.3 (depending on how the amendment is brought up as defined in Clause 9.1) is fulfilled. If the Forest Keeper has not vetoed the amendment, as outlined in Clause 9.3, a simple majority (greater than 50%) of voting nations must approve the amendment for it to pass. If the amendment is vetoed by the Forest Keeper, a two-thirds majority of voting nations must approve the amendment for it to pass.

Proposed new text with changes underlined:

9.1 Amendments to the Constitution add to, delete from, or otherwise modify the Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution may be brought forward in four ways:

i. The Head of State may call for an amendment.

ii. The Forest Keeper may call for an amendment.

iii. Either five WA nations or 5% of WA nations, whichever is numerically greater, may publicly call for an amendment on the RMB.

iv. An amendment may be called for if there is considerable interest from the Forest community, as determined by the regional government.

9.2 Amendments must first be approved by the Head of State.

9.3 If and only if the amendment is brought to vote through Subclause 9.1.iii or Subclause 9.1.iv, the Forest Keeper has a one week period after the Head of State approves the amendment to choose to veto the amendment. Vetoed amendments will be voted on as outlined in Clause 9.4.

9.4 The amendment will be voted on through the polling system with the poll only being open to resident WA nations. The poll will be open for a length of three days. The poll may be created by whatever nation with polling authority chooses to do so, but must be created as soon as possible after Clause 9.2 or Clause 9.3 (depending on how the amendment is brought up as defined in Clause 9.1) is fulfilled. If the Forest Keeper has not vetoed the amendment, as outlined in Clause 9.3, a simple majority (greater than 50%) of voting nations must approve the amendment for it to pass. If the amendment is vetoed by the Forest Keeper, a two-thirds majority of voting nations must approve the amendment for it to pass.

Anticipated impact of changes:

- The voting threshold will at present be significantly lowered in subclause iii so members will be able to realistically call a constitutional amendment to vote without having to rely on the Forest Keeper or Head of State to like it;

- Subclause iii will also have an in-built preventative measure so the region is not forced to abide by an extremely active and tiny minority if the region as a whole becomes less populous;

- More flexibility will be allowed through subclause iv so the government will be incentivized to bring to vote popular amendments that don't quite reach the mark outlined in subclause iii while still allowing for its own discretion;

- Non-WA members may also have more indirect power through subclause iv;

- Retains a concrete, quantitative clause so there is an unambiguous and objective upper minimum, while also adding a fluid, qualitative clause for a more flexible and subjective lower minimum.