I am submitting a motion at this time for the recall of Prime Minister Drew Durnil under Article XI(1)a of the Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific for dereliction of duty. I apologize for not getting to this earlier as I was out of town, but I think it’s been clear for a few weeks now that the PM is not providing active leadership or direction to the Cabinet, does not have a concrete agenda for the term, is neglecting communication in core areas of responsibility, and has complete disregard for thoughtful public communications.
Issues with Drew Durnil’s administration have been brewing for a while. Despite being given ample opportunity to explain their agenda for the term, the PM has left unanswered key questions regarding the following items:
What guidance they have provided to their Cabinet and what the agenda/goals of each Minister in the Cabinet are for the upcoming term
What their plans are for WA voting in the current term. The MoFA and Delegate have had to repeatedly prod the PM for votes on significant WA matters, with the PM providing at-best delayed and more commonly arbitrary WA voting advice and recommendations. The PM has also declined to identify the process they use for deciding WA votes or appoint a Director of the Office of WA Legislation or any similar WA official.
The Minister of Culture has been almost entirely self-directed in running events, which is completely fine, but there has not been connection between these events and other parts of the PM’s agenda or communication about those events to members of the general public.
There is an appointed Minister of Role Play but seemingly no evidence that they have done or intend to do anything. There has been no indication from the PM about what the intended agenda for this Minister is.
In the most clear opportunity for the PM to communicate their agenda and goals, the Midterm State of the Coalition address, the PM generally did not articulate their past accomplishments or future goals for the term to the public. They did not answer questions raised about what their goals and agenda for the term are.
Given the long running pattern of non-response to essential questions, asked both on Discord and the forum, there is no reason the Assembly should continue to extend the PM the benefit of the doubt that they will eventually shape up and provide direction to their Cabinet. If we did choose to retain the Prime Minister at this point, we need to be able to answer very clearly what the PM has done this term and is planning to do and how that will benefit the region. From my perspective, no such answers exist at this time, hence my submitting this recall motion.
I have to object to the notion that I “have not done anything.” I stated when I was appointed that I would be working on infastructure for the RP community. To that end, the first thing I did was updatethe mainpage, which had not been updated for over a year before I updated it.
I have also started A new edition of TIR To make up for its loss over 2 and a half years ago.
I will admit that I have not done everything that I promised to do as MoRP, especially regarding the completion of the guides and the filling in of the pages for the NPNs in the Tiyanki Territories for A1-0. But I find the idea that there is “no indication that I plan to do anything” insulting. I will not debate your concerns regarding WF affairs or the PM’s leadership, but I wanted to clear this up, since I suppose to someone not in the roleplay of community it could appear that I haven’t been doing a lot. I still plan on attempting at the very least to finish the Pacifica guide and update the pages for the Tiyanki nations before the end of the term, regardless of whether the PM is recalled or not, as this is what I promised to do in the first place.
Not generally, although I did ensure that all roleplayer roles were pinged when the TIR redux was started. In hindsight, I do suppose it would have been beneficial (if only for public support reasons) to communicate this more effectively. This is a weak defense, but I am new to government in general and the lack of advising from anyone did not help me in this case.
Although I agree and support the motion in general, I disagree with the part that talks about Flaming.
Despite not being a member of the RP, I can see that they are doing good work in this Ministry, and I don’t think anyone doubts that.
Yes, the communication was a failure, but as they said, they’re new to this, so I think we should give them a vote of confidence. There was a lack of advising, and the Prime Minister should have done it.
I did state that it was a weak defense, meaning I don’t think that the lack of advice absolves me in any way from the fact that I didn’t do something that I should have done. It didn’t help, certainly, but it’s not enough of an excuse to say that it’s not my fault.
I am conflicted in this matter, because I do feel that the PM could have done a much better job. However, I am supportive of the current cabinet in general, and it also feels as though the time for a recall to happen has already passed.
The relevant section of the Elections Act on vacancies says that in this circumstance the scheduled election would just be cancelled if the motion passes, so hopefully that allays that concern at least.
I find this the most concerning part of your response. I absolutely sympathise with your position, which is why having an involved Prime Minister is so important. If you did not have the knowledge or experience to handle the “public accountability” side of the job, and that’s fine because we all have to start somewhere, the Prime Minister should still have known better and been there to either provide guidance to you or to personally account for the government’s actions.
This isn’t intended to single you out and emote any negative reactions, to clarify, but if you or anyone else who is new to the government feels like they are receiving a lack of advice or direction, and double-checking/triple-checking (depending on your personal feelings of confidence in the boss) with the PM led to nothing, you ought to feel comfortable enough to be able to ask other members of Cabinet for advice or guidance on some of the smaller things, like here (#cabinet-office on Discord) or otherwise resign because you can’t actually complete your job.
Despite the last few posts, the Minister of Roleplay is not the subject of this topic, and they are not facing a recall or a motion of no confidence. Only the Prime Minister is.
I too have been dissatisfied by the lack of communication from the prime minister and am inclined to support this motion to recall. Unless the prime minister can sufficiently explain themselves and answer the questions asked of them, I plan on voting yes on the recall.
Since a number of folks have asked questions along these lines both here and on the Discord (and since I wanted to work through this for my own understanding), I thought it might be helpful to outline what I understand to be the practical impact of this resolution passing.
If the resolution were passed and the ensuing special election conducted on the fastest possible timeline, the practical effect would be as follows:
The current Prime Minister would leave office on April 8.
The CRS would appoint a caretaker Prime Minister, who would serve from April 8-April 18, during which period a special election would be held to fill the role.
The Prime Minister elected in the special election would have a thirteen-day longer term than normal, serving from April 18-July 31.
Below is how I arrived at these conclusions, if anyone would like to check my work.
Show My Work
This resolution must be debated for at least three days, so the earliest it could be put to vote is April 5. (Legislative Procedure Act 1.(2).d.)
It must then be voted on for three days, so April 8 is the earliest it could be passed and the current PM recalled. (Legislative Procedure Act 1.(3))
Upon passage, the CRS must “promptly” appoint a caretaker PM to serve while a special election is held. (Elections Act 6.(1).a.)
The special PM election will take eight days, from April 8-16. (Elections Act 4.(1).b-c.)
The results of the special PM election are finalized and announced on April 17, the day after voting closes.
The newly elected PM will take office on April 18. (Elections Act 6.(1).b. (providing that the “caretaker Prime Minister shall hold office until the day after the date on which the Election Commissioner finalizes the results of the special election.”)).
Since less than half of the current PM term remains, the newly elected PM will serve the remainder of the current term and the entire next term, i.e., from April 18-July 31. (Elections Act 6.(1)b.)
Per Article XI(1)b of the Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific, 3 days of debate is required before
a vote on a recall motion can proceed. Indeed, 3 days has passed since HS put forth the motion.
I understand that there hasn’t been much in the way of actual substantive debate in these 3 days on the matter at hand, but with the PM failing to respond to the concerns raised by members in this Assembly in these 3 days, and with the sincere hope that the citizenry of the South Pacific can restore a functioning head to the executive government promptly, I solemnly motion to vote.
For the purposes of legal clarity, I would also propose that the Chair of the Assembly recognize the motion to recall as a recall resolution by this Assembly, following the specific wording used in Article XI(1) of the Charter.