2024 Assembly End of Year Report
Esteemed legislators,
In the spirit of Christmas, I have prepared you all a gift. Sorry @Griffindor, it’s not cake this time. Better yet, it’s got graphs, it’s got… well, it’s got graphs and a few summaries. Is that a “yay!” I hear?
Best we get started before the party begins:
Assembly has nearly halved its membership
The most notable thing to talk about is the average membership of the Assembly. This year, it was 38 legislators. But it’s a far cry from the previous two years, which both held an average of 72.
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise though; it closely tracks the implementation of the Voter Registration Law in October of last year.
On the other hand, the average turn-out for legislators has gone way up from 62% in 2022 and 60% in 2023 to a whopping 84% in 2024, which leads me to believe the law met its goal of reducing inactive legislators who join in order to vote in elections.
Votes and discussions
Some of the notable discussions held in the Assembly this year included debate on the Prime Minister’s role in the military and a resolution to hold individuals involved in the 2016 coup d’état responsible, but one that kept coming up is how we should handle elections.
Two bills, [2406.AB] and [2429.AB] proposed replacing approval voting in delegate elections with instant run-off vote, which is used in elections for the prime minister. One died and the other failed at vote. [2431.AB] proposed following the U.K.'s Election Commission guidelines for ballot adjudication; it too failed. These bills were all introduced after elections this year saw a significant number of invalid ballots cast, a major talking point for the Assembly.
This year also saw a spike in the number of rejected bills: 7 in 2024, compared to 4 in 2022 and 3 in 2023. However, this is probably more related to there being more votes than the last two years: 33 in 2022, 36 (26 if combining Cabinet confirmations) in 2023, 48 (32) in 2024.
Enacted laws
This year, the Assembly confirmed 25 nominees into office. The Assembly also voted:
- A2401.01 to overhaul the Elections Act, including removing the ability to cast a public vote in elections, delegating Chair elections to the Assembly, and ensuring separation of powers in the Charter
- A2401.02 to rename the General Corps to the Admiralty, among other æsthetic changes
- A2403.01 to criminalise impersonating government officials
- A2403.02 to adopt a resolution to hold individuals involved in the 2016 coup d’état responsible
- A2405.01 to clarify accomplices to a crime are also liable
- A2406.01 to adopt a new World Assembly Act
- A2407.01 to ratify the Treaty of the Shining Seas with Europeia
- A2408.02 to invest the Assembly with the power to declare war
- A2408.04 to remove archiving posts as a duty of the Chair
- A2409.01 to remove citizenship requirements for membership in the Coral Guard
- A2409.02 to clarify persons may be denied the right to vote or hold office after a conviction
- A2411.01 to grant Appearance powers to the Election Commissioner
- A2412.01 to merge citizenship and legislator leaves of absence
Government officials
Closing words
Well, that’s all I’ve prepared for this year, but we still have another one ahead of us. Perhaps we’ll finally ban pie as Max Barry intended? “Jokes” aside, I wish each and everyone one of you a merry Christmas (or equivalent), and hope to see you for next year.
— @Cryo
