Election Commissioner
The Election Commissioner is the government position responsible for running elections in the South Pacific.
Role
The Election Commissioner runs all elections in the South Pacific, with duties including the creation of election notices, the organization of election forums, the verification of candidate eligibility, the distribution and collection of ballots, and counting and verifying cast ballots. The Election Commissioner is responsible for resolving any election disputes, or for referring disputes to the High Court if they are based on a matter of law. After results are counted, seven days pass before the results are certified to allow the Election Commissioner to find resolutions if necessary.
The Election Commissioner is a permanent position, appointed by the Council on Regional Security. The Commissioner may not run for or hold an elected office during their tenure, but may resign in order to run.
History
The Election Commission was first established in May 2004 with the passage of the Election Commissions Law.[1] In its original form, the Election Commission was composed of two commissioners and a chairperson. They were appointed by the delegate, who was obligated to hold a week-long public hearing before confirming the appointment. Members of the Commission had a six month term which could be renewed after another public hearing. However, appointments were rare and for some periods there was only one member of the Election Commission.[2]
After the 2013 Great Council, the Election Commission was unelected and consisted of the Forum Administration Team.[3][4][5] However, this was criticized for potential admin abuse, especially when administrators were running in the elections,[6] and internal organizational issues.[7]
In the 2016 Great Council, the Election Commission was re-introduced. It was composed of at least one unique member from the Forum Administration Team, the Council on Regional Security, and the Forum Administration Team, or a surrogate of each; all were permanent positions. In practice, Election Commissioners were appointed shortly before each election, there was difficulty in finding a possible commissioner who was not planning to run in an election, and only one person actually ran the election.[8] In November 2018, the three-person Election Commission was replaced by the single Election Commissioner.[9]
Further Reading
References
- ↑ 26 May 2004. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thespacific/viewtopic.php?p=43535#p43535
- ↑ Todd McCloud, 14 August 2011. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thespacific/quandary-t8055.html#p188722
- ↑ Milograd, 14 March 2013. https://archive.tspforums.xyz/showthread.php?tid=1586&pid=117457#pid117457
- ↑ Election Act, 6 March 2015. https://tspforums.xyz/post-50057.html#pid50057
- ↑ Tsunamy, 6 August 2015. https://tspforums.xyz/thread-2463-post-68675.html#pid68675
- ↑ Unibot, 11 November 2014. https://tspforums.xyz/thread-1124-post-31791.html#pid31791
- ↑ Tsunamy, 6 August 2015. https://tspforums.xyz/thread-2463-post-68693.html#pid68693
- ↑ Farengeto, 16 September 2017. https://tspforums.xyz/thread-5500.html
- ↑ Amerion, 29 November 2018. https://tspforums.xyz/thread-4112-post-178372.html#pid178372