14 Jul 2022, 23:20

Overseas Citizens Election Law passed
The elections for representitives for Duchian citizens abroad passed after being signed by High Duke Nikolai. The act passed the House of Commons, , House of Duchies , Imperial Senate and the review process of the Ducal Court for constitutionality. The system will be as originally proposed. The act passed with less votes in the House of Duchies as Unus and UoD expectedly opposed the act with this being expected as it is acknowledged by many pundits these more conservative parties are less popular abroad , a key reason why many previous governments have never passed such an act with UoD being in coalition either leading or supporting for 27 years out of the last 37 since the election system had its last major change with the Moderate party opposing major changes during the last Moderate and PSD coalition.

The change has been called for over many years with many campaigns to introduce voting for Duchian expats. The system will consist of 72 seats which will be set in proportion to total population of citizens and residents and reset every 10 years to match new date on citizenship.. This unlike the normal elections of house of commons will be decided in a separate election process using a Closed List PR system but held at the same time. Any expat citizen can run and parties can put up any candidates on the list. It is expected that representatives on a list will be selected for each major expat population with the aim of spreading campaigning work.

The second house will be elected using the Closed List PR system but instead elect 30 members the same as each of the other Duchies.Polling stations will be open in embassies , consulates and in buildings hired for the purpose in countries with high expat populations and counted like any other vote in the country. All ballots will be paper in line with the longstanding law banning Electronic Voting . Citizens may also send in postal ballots. Campaigns will also start to feature rallies in the major expat population centres such as California ,United Kingdom , Reitzmag, Spain and Inquista popular for their weather and english speaking societies allowing for easier transition. Hustings will be held in embassies with candidates on the list answering questions asked by local citizens with these hustings being online. The first election will be held on Saturday 5th November with the term to last until 2025 and the next all out election to be in line with the election cycle. The government hope to get high turnout and experts predict that the current government parties particuarly the Moderates and PSD will do well with centre right and right wing parties UoD and Unus likely to not do as well in these constituencies.