34RZ28 - The Elected Provisional Governors (Amendment) Act

WHEREAS, division of powers in provincial governments (between a King-appointed governor, an elected legislature, and a premier theoretically chosen by the legislature) is dangerously vague and confusing, leading to a system of government which fails to work in virtually every province, with more than a dozen offices vacant and provinces with no actual leadership, and

WHEREAS, the simple “American system” of an elected Governor presiding over an elected Legislature has been successfully tested and proven to work in fifty American states, and

WHEREAS, The voters of Talossa’s provinces already elect a single official – their Senators – to the Federal Talossan government, in regular elections,

THEREFORE, the Ziu hereby resolves, and places before the people at its earliest convenience, the following alterations to Article XVII, Section 9 of the Organic Law:

1. Article XVII, Section 9d is changed to read as follows:

Article XVII, Section 9d. Rules of Order. Each provincial parliament, once elected, shall choose by majority vote of its seats the rules under which the parliament shall operate. These rules are subject to review by the Uppermost Cort to guarantee that they do not violate the rights of voters and representatives in the province. In the absence of defined rules, traditional rules of parliamentary procedure (e.g. “Robert’s Rules of Order”) shall prevail.

2. Article XVII, Section 9e is abolished, and replaced with the following:

Article XVII, Section 9e. Election of the Premier, and His Powers. Each province shall have a single elected chief executive, or Premier. Each Province selects an official title for its own Premier, according to the historic traditions of the Province. The Senator for each Province shall be, and shall act as, the Premier thereof, unless some other individual shall receive more votes than the Senator. In that case, that individual shall be Premier. The federal ballot shall contain a write-in space for voters in each province to select a different individual other than the Senator to be Premier. The Premier shall be elected according to rules for Senators, except that any voting citizen of the province may contest the election for Premier. The term of office for the Senator and Premier is the same. The Premier shall have a line-item veto over provincial legislation, which the provincial legislature may override by a two-thirds vote. He shall have no right to dissolve the legislature, which shall sit according to the term of the Cosâ.

3. Article XVII, Section 9f is added, to read as follows:

Article XVII, Section 9f. “Opt-Out” Provision. With the consent of a federal law, a province may opt out of any and all provisions for the election of its legislature and/or premier as specified in Article XVII, Section 9. A province granted this right shall hold its own elections for any and all provincial offices according to its own constitution, laws, and timetables. To do so, the province must have at least ten citizens, five or more of whom have physically signed an actual petition calling upon the Ziu in writing to ratify such a law. It must, before the law is proposed, have written its own constitution and adopted same by a two-thirds vote in the provincial legislature, with the consent of the Premier, and a majority of its citizens must approve it in a referendum. Should the Uppermost Cort find that the province has failed to hold any election on time, or that the provincial government is in gross and flagrant violation of national or provincial law, the province shall revert to the status of a territory upon the order of the Cort.

Uréu q'estadra så,
Ben Madison (King of Talossa)