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By Ryan Strong
It is my contention that the current STUCO system is without a doubt one of the greatest catastrophes to befall the school. With its simplistic use of the popular vote and its lack of complexity, there are few checks and balances and nothing to stretch the mental abilities of students. As a result, the system must be completely revamped in order to ensure that a proper political system is established, with as many complexities and nuances as possible. We shall begin with the election of the President. The election of the president of STUCO is one of the most essential areas of reform. In fact, all other elections for STUCO executives will be abolished besides the election of the President. This will be explained in subsequent paragraphs. The simple fact is that current electoral contests are based merely on the popularity of the person, rather than on the actual qualifications. Thus, only upstanding students should be allowed to elect such a sacred position. However, the major issue that is that this situation could result in a brutal oligarchy. Thus, an electoral college will have to be formed in order to allow only those upstanding members of our school. The way in which an electoral college will work is simple. Students will be divided up according to their common ground groups. Then, one elector would be apportioned per 10 students, with rounding instituted for decimals. Then, those students that would gain three recommendation letters from three of their teachers would work to caucus together within their common ground group to form slates of electors. These slates would be equal to the number of open elector seats, and would revolve around agreement on those pressing issues facing the school. On election day, electors would make speeches together in the thirty different common ground groups, and then voting by secret ballet would occur. That slate which won the greatest number of votes would then be selected as the electors of that common ground. This, however, is only the beginning of the process. Regional- nay, numerical- caucuses would then be formed. Thus, six numerical caucuses from the common ground groups would be formed being: 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30. Each of these numerical caucuses, which would only include the electors who had been selected, would then select one candidate through a process of single- transferable vote with one winner per caucus. These candidates would also have to be upstanding students of the school, and would have also submitted an application to be President. It should be further noted that chairs for SHASMUN would be selected to moderate debate in each caucus. Of course, none of the chairs who would moderate debate and selection in each caucus would be a member of the specific common ground caucus that they were moderating. One day after the selection of the six candidates, all electors would meet in the PAC at 7:55. Promptly, they would be locked inside in order to prevent interference from the outside world. However, the election proceedings would be live streamed to the Commons in order to prevent corrupt bargains. Then, they would listen to speeches from each of the six candidates, question the candidates, and discuss among themselves. All of this would be presided over by the Secretariat of MUN. After four hours of debate, voting procedures would begin promptly at 12:00. Using single-winner single transferable vote, a winner will be selected who gains the majority of the electors votes after various transfers. The new president will then be summoned, and they will then immediately dissolve the electoral college. After the election of the President, the election of the legislature will proceed. Each grade will be granted five senators. These senators candidates will have the same requirements to e candidates as will the president. Then, on a day chosen by the president, grade level meetings will be held to elect the five senators. Voting will be through single transferable votes with multiple winners, necessitating the distribution of fractional votes in order to ensure that full proportionality is achieved. The vote quota that will be used is (Total votes/(Number of Candidates +1))+1. After votes are counted, the senators will be declared the winners. However, the system is still not complete! After the election of the senators by the general public, the president will summon them to a session of congress. There, he will nominate one of the senators from the senior grade in order to become Chancellor of STUCO. He will then request that the congress cast a motion of confidence in the new Chancellor. If it fails, the President will have to nominate someone else. If it any point the Chancellor or the President displeases the Senate, the Senate may cast a motion of no-confidence in the Chancellor. If this motion passes, the Chancellor is fired and the president nominates a new Chancellor. Finally, in order to decide on anything, “legislation” must be passed in STUCO. The President will submit the legislation , which will contain the actions required for STUCO to the senate. The Chancellor will then read it out to the Senate. After three hours of debate, the Senate will either reject or accept it by simple majority, leading to the actions either being taken or ignored. This, of course, is merely a simplistic overview of the entire new political system that will be implemented. I made no mention of the appointment of the Commission of Public Safety or the Supreme Court. But that is a tale for another time. Editor's Note: The views expressed in this opinion article are the author's own and are not not representative of Pudong Press' views or beliefs.
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October 2018
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