Assembly of the South Pacific

Assembly of the South Pacific
48th Presidium
Seal for the Assembly & the Chair
Logo for the Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral of the South Pacific
History
Founded	January 19, 2006 (2006-01-19)
Preceded by	General Assembly of the South Pacific
New session started	1st November 2023
Leadership
Chair of the Assembly	BlockBuster2K43 since 1st November 2023
Deputy Chair of the Assembly	Welly since 26th April 2024
Clerk of the Assembly	Vacant since 26th April 2024
Structure
Political groups	The Cakeists      The Pieists      The Ice Creamists      Independent
Committees	Foreign Affairs Defence Domestic Affairs
Authority	the South Pacific
Website
Assembly on the Forums
Constitution
Charter of the South Pacific
Footnotes
The Assembly Gazette Office of Assembly Affairs Office of Legislator Applications

The Assembly of the South Pacific is the supreme legislative authority in the South Pacific. It has existed in some form since 2003. Members of the Assembly vote on the laws and representative officials of the South Pacific. The leadership of the Assembly is made up of the Chair of the Assembly, the Deputy Chair of the Assembly, and the Clerk of the Assembly.

Role

The Assembly of the South Pacific is made up of Legislators. Legislators may propose and vote on bills concerning the governance of the South Pacific, though they cannot vote on bills that would affect only the on-site community. Legislators vote in the Cabinet, Delegate, and Chair elections and legislator status is required to run for these positions. The Assembly also votes on appointments made by the Cabinet, such as nominations for the Citizenship Committee and the High Court. The Assembly may recall officials for dereliction of duty, abuse of authority, or violations of the law.

Any legislator can propose a bill to the Assembly. There is a debate period of three days for bills on general laws and five days on constitutional laws; after this, bills may be moved to a vote if there is a motion and a second from separate legislators.

Chair of the Assembly

See also: Chair of the Assembly

The Assembly elects a Chair of the Assembly who is elected for a term of 6 months, if the Chair is absent, recalled or generally not in office, new Chair elections will be called. The Chair is responsible for maintaining order and decorum in the Assembly, guiding debate into bills, bringing bills to vote, and recording changes to law. Alongside this, the position of the Chair performs various other administrative, maintenance and secretarial functions, this includes, bringing bills to vote, recording votes, maintaining the MATT-DUCK law index, and making records of vote and debate threads. The Chair is responsible for enforcing legislative procedure and law standards, and for determining if bills contradict the Charter or other constitutional laws.

Deputy Chair of the Assembly

See also: Deputy Chair of the Assembly

The Deputy Chair of the Assembly is the second-highest ranking official within the Assembly of the South Pacific. The Deputy Chair of the Assembly executes the functions that will assist in the day-to-day running of the Assembly, they are also responsible for helping the Chair of the Assembly with their tasks as chair. In certain circumstances, the Deputy Chair of the Assembly may issue tasks and execute the functions of the Chair of the Assembly if the Chair is absent or away. If the Chair of the Assembly resigns of leaves their position as Chair of the Assembly, the Deputy Chair will assume the acting role of Chair of the Assembly until an election can be held.

Clerk of the Assembly

See also: Clerk of the Assembly

The Clerk of the Assembly is a de facto Deputy Chair of the Assembly. However, they are usually responsible for maintaining and writing content for the countless media platforms in use by the Assembly, alongside amending any guides written by the Assembly to ensuring that they are kept up-to-date. However, their powers are defined at the start of each presidium and may be subject to change. The Clerk also does not possess the same powers and authority compared to the Deputy Chair of the Assembly.

History

The legislative body known as the Assembly was founded in late June or early July 2003, when it was known as the General Assembly of the South Pacific. The name was changed to Council of the South Pacific in July. In the Great Council of January 2006, the name of the Council was changed to the Assembly.

Until the Great Council of 2016, members of the Assembly were known as Citizens rather than Legislators. Currently, legislators refers to members of the Assembly while citizens refers to all members of the South Pacific.

Membership

Legislators are admitted to the Assembly by the Legislator Committee. They may lose legislator status if their nation leaves the South Pacific or if they do not meet the voting requirements (a legislator must vote in at least half of the votes in a month where a minimum of two votes are held).

The roster of legislators is publicly viewable here.

Further Reading

• The Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific, IV. THE ASSEMBLY
• Legislator Guide