Electoral Reform Act 2023 (Monsilva)

Electoral Reform Act 2023
Parliament of Monsilva
Territorial extent	Monsilvan Republic
Passed by	Legislative Assembly
Passed	16 March 2023
Passed by	Senate
Passed	23 April 2023
Assented to by	President Chiu Zan
Assented to	3 May 2023
Effective	5 May 2023
Legislative history
First chamber: Legislative Assembly
Bill published on	10 March 2023
Introduced by	Liberal Party Leader, Gao Jingyi
First reading	10 March 2023
Second reading	13 March 2023
Committee stage	15 March 2023
Third reading	16 March 2023
Voting summary	179 voted for 68 voted against 7 abstained
Second chamber: Senate
Passed by inaction	20 April 2023
Summary
An act to reform Monsilva's electoral process from a first-past-the-post system to that resembling instant-runoff voting.
Status: In force

The Electoral Reform Act 2023 is an Act of the Monsilvan Parliament that reformed Monsilva's electoral process in its federal, senate, local and presidential elections. The Act came as the second and final part of a series political reformations introduced by opposition leaders in the parliament after Prime Minister Xu Yan stated he would not introduce any electoral reform bills in early 2022, after promising to do so before his re-election in the 2020 federal election. The first Act, the Legislative Reform Act 2023 was passed at the beginning of March. The Electoral Reform Act removed Monsilva's first-past-the-post voting system and replaced it with instant-runoff voting or alternative vote. It was put in force in May 2023.

Electoral reform had been a topic for discussion amongst the public and within parliament since the establishment of the republic in 1978. However, passing any bills relating to the topic had been difficult as most parties were pleased with the three-party system that had been running Monsilva since it became a republic. During the 2022 Luhai protests, opposition leader (later Prime Minister) Lin Yao-tang said "It is clear that the public notices the lack of will of this parliament to address their concerns over their voting rights, so I see it as my party's duty to pass this bill, whether the prime minister and his party want me to or not."

Results

Federal, senate and local elections

According to the Act, voters in federal, senate and local elections will vote for candidates for their respective constituencies using a ranked preferential voting method. Only one candidate will win, however candidates will be ruled out in a counting process.

IRV counting process which will be used in federal, senate and local elections in Monsilva from the next election

In many parts of the country, this may not affect results at all, as certain parties may have the overwhelming majority of votes, however in places where candidates only win by small majorities, this could mean constituencies with long histories with a single party could change completely.

Another change was to election names. Due to senate and federal elections taking place at the same time since the first senate election in 1984, to prevent confusion amongst voters senate election process was integrated into federal elections. The first of these combined elections is the 2023 federal election.

Presidential elections

The Act stated that presidential elections will not run the same as other elections in Monsilva, due to presidential elections being based off the popular vote rather than seats. The presidential elections, starting from the 2023 presidential election will be a two-round system. The first round uses preferential voting to determine the two most voted for candidates. The second round is a simple majority vote between the two remaining candidates, where the candidate with over 50% of the votes will be the winner.

Requirement for election

According to the previous Legislative Reform Act, a federal, and a senate election since they take place at the same time, should be called within three months of it's passing as the redrawing of the county boundaries means many voters are displaced from their original voting constituency. This means that the prime minister must call an election before 1 June 2023. This was reiterated by the Electoral Reform Act, however local elections were not included as the previous Act stated they were unnecessary since Monsilva's municipalities were not affected by the legislative reform.

Link to the Legislative Reform Act

The Act was introduced as an immediate follow-up to the previous Legislative Reform Act. As the previous Act was successful in being passed, the Electoral Reform Act was introduced to parliament nine days after the Legislative Reform Act received presidential assent.

See also

• Legislative Reform Act 2023
• Administrative divisions of Monsilva
• Politics in Monsilva