Congress Rules of the Netherlands

Article 1 – Forum Congress rights

• 1. The right to open debates in the Debating section of Congress.
• 2. The right to read and write in the Debating section of Congress.
• 3. The right to start votes in the Voting section of Congress.
• 4. The right to vote on proposals in the Voting section of Congress.
• 5. The right to start discussions, read and write in the Private section of Congress.
• 6. In-game members of Congress have all rights mentioned above.
• 7. The Country President has all rights mentioned above.
• 8. Members of the Government have all rights mentioned above, except for the rights mentioned in Articles 1.3 and 1.4.
• 9. All citizens of the eNetherlands have the right mentioned in Article 1.2.
• 10. Exceptions to these rules are laid down in Articles 2, 3, and 5.

Article 2 – Loss of forum Congress rights

• 1. Members of Congress lose their forum Congress rights upon the loss of in-game membership of Congress.
• 2. Exceptions to this rule can be made by the Chairman of Congress, who will state the decision and the reason for it in the Private section of Congress.
• 3. Congress can reverse the Chairman’s decision by a simple majority vote.

Article 3 – Chairman of Congress

• 1. The Chairman of Congress is elected by the members of Congress, as laid down in Article 4.
• 2. The Chairman of Congress can never simultaneously be a member of the Government. If someone attains both offices, he must resign one of them.
• 3. The Chairman of Congress has the rights mentioned in Articles 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.5.
• 4. The Chairman of Congress moderates the Congress forums.
• 5. The Chairman of Congress is senior to the Deputy Chairman of Congress; all his decisions are final and binding.

Article 4 – Election of the Chairman of Congress

• 1. The regular term of the Chairman of Congress ends on the 5th of each month.
• 2. On the 5th of each month, or when the Chairman of Congress leaves office before his term has ended, the outgoing Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress will open a topic in the Debating section where members of Congress can candidate themselves as Chairman. This candidacy period lasts 24 hours.
• 3. If there are no candidates after 24 hours, all citizens of the eNetherlands can candidate themselves for Chairman. This candidacy period lasts 24 hours and will be automatically extended by 24 hours if no candidates apply.
• 4. If there is at least one candidate when a candidacy period ends, the outgoing Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress will start a vote in the Voting section, lasting 24 hours.
• 5. If there is one candidate, the voting options will be ‘Yes’, ‘No’, and ‘Neutral’. The candidate is elected Chairman of Congress if a simple majority of Congress members votes ‘Yes’. If the candidate is rejected, a new candidacy period will be started according to Article 4.3.
• 6. If there is more than one candidate, the voting options will be the names of the candidates and ‘Abstain’. The candidate with the majority of votes is elected Chairman of Congress. If there is a draw, a new voting round will be started, the candidates being those with the highest amount of votes.
• 7. The outgoing Chairman of Congress will stay in office until a successor has been elected.

Article 5 – Deputy Chairman of Congress

• 1. The Deputy Chairman of Congress is elected by the members of Congress, as laid down in Article 6.
• 2. The Deputy Chairman of Congress can never simultaneously be a member of the Government. If someone attains both offices, he must resign one of them.
• 3. The Deputy Chairman of Congress has the rights mentioned in Articles 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.5.
• 4. The Deputy Chairman of Congress moderates the Congress forums.

Article 6 – Election of the Deputy Chairman of Congress

• 1. The regular term of the Deputy Chairman of Congress ends when a new Chairman of Congress is elected, whose predecessor served until the end of his regular term.
• 2. When the Deputy Chairman’s term has ended, or when the Deputy Chairman leaves office before his term has ended, the Chairman of Congress or outgoing Deputy Chairman of Congress will open a topic in the Debating section where all citizens of the eNetherlands can candidate themselves as Deputy Chairman. This candidacy period lasts 24 hours and will be automatically extended by 24 hours if no candidates apply.
• 3. If there is at least one candidate when a candidacy period ends, the outgoing Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress will start a vote in the Voting section, lasting 24 hours.
• 4. If there is one candidate, the voting options will be ‘Yes’, ‘No’, and ‘Neutral’. The candidate is elected Deputy Chairman of Congress if a simple majority of Congress members votes ‘Yes’. If the candidate is rejected, a new candidacy period will be started according to Article 6.2.
• 5. If there is more than one candidate, the voting options will be the names of the candidates and ‘Neutral’. The candidate with the majority of votes is elected Deputy Chairman of Congress. If there is a draw, a new voting round will be started, the candidates being those with the highest amount of votes.
• 6. The outgoing Deputy Chairman of Congress will stay in office until a successor has been elected.

Article 7 – Bills and motions

• 1. Bills are proposals for the addition or amendment of legislation. Accepted law proposals will be added to the relevant Chapter of the Lawbook of the eNetherlands by the Senate.
• 2. Motions are proposals for immediate action. Accepted motions are carried out by the relevant authority.
• 3. If it is not clear whether a certain proposal is a bill or a motion, the Chairman of Congress will have the final decision.
• 4. If the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress feels that a certain proposal may lead to wrong interpretations, he may ask the proposer to alter the proposal.

Article 8 – Debating procedure

• 1. Debates will be opened in the Debating section of Congress.
• 2. The first post will detail the reason for the debate, be it a bill, motion, or other.
• 3. Debates will be conducted in Dutch or English. Debates in another language can be closed by the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress.
• 4. After a minimum of 24 hours of debating, the Congress member who opened the debate can open a vote in the Voting section, as laid down in Article 9.
• 5. If the debate was opened by someone without the right to start votes, anyone with this right can start a vote after a minimum of 24 hours of debating.
• 6. If no vote on the topic has been started after 72 hours, any Congress member can start a vote in the Voting section, as laid down in Article 9.
• 7. If no vote on the topic has been started after 168 hours, the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress may choose to close the debate.

Article 9 – Regular voting procedure

• 1. Votes will be started in the Voting section of Congress.
• 2. The first post will detail the proposal and must contain a link to the relevant debate.
• 3. The voting options are ‘Yes’, ‘No’, and ‘Abstain’.
• 4. The quorum is 10 votes. If the country exists of only one region, the quorum is 5 votes.
• 5. A voting round lasts 24 hours. If the quorum is not reached within 24 hours, the voting round will be automatically extended by 12 hours. From the 15th of June until the 1st of September and from the 20th of December until the 10th of January, this extension will be 24 hours. If the quorum is not reached after an extension, the proposal is rejected.
• 6. If a forum administrator informs the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress that the forum was offline for at least 1 hour during a voting period, the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress will extend the voting period with the amount of hours the forum was offline.
• 7. Bills need a majority of 60% to be accepted.
• 8. 8. Motions need a simple majority to be accepted. If there is a draw, a new voting round will be started.
• 9. After the voting round ends, the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Congress will announce the outcome and close the voting topic.
• 10. If a proposal is rejected, a new vote on the same topic can be started after another 24 hours of debate.

Article 10 – In-game voting

• 1. In-game votes need to include a link to a relevant debate which was opened at least 24 hours before.
• 2. If no debate is linked to the in-game vote, all Congress members are advised to vote against it and the Chairman of Congress will open a debate on the topic.
• 3. If the debate mentioned in the in-game vote has not been running for 24 hours before the in-game vote is started, all Congress members are advised to vote against it.
• 4. Exceptions to these rules are laid down in Article 11.

Article 11 – Special voting procedures

• 1. Donation procedure: donations from the in-game state treasury to state organizations can skip the debating procedure. The in-game vote needs to include a link to the Congress topic specifically assigned to this kind of donations.
• 2. Quick procedure: the Country President, Vice President, Chairman of Congress, and Senators can use this procedure to start a voting round after 6 hours of debate.
• 3. Emergency procedure: the Country President, Vice President, Chairman of Congress, and Senators can use this procedure to start a voting round immediately after opening a debate.
• 4. Quickened emergency procedure: the Country President can use this procedure to start an in-game vote immediately. Directly afterwards, the Country President will state his reasons in the Debating section. After the in-game voting round has ended, any Congress member has the right to start a regular debating procedure. If, consequently, a forum vote rejects the proposal, another in-game vote should be held to reverse the decision, if possible.

Article 12 – Motion of no confidence

• 1. A motion of no confidence can be proposed by any member of Congress against the Government, individual members of the Government, the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Congress, and Senators, excluding the Country President.
• 2. A motion of no confidence is started by opening a debate in the Debating section of Congress, detailing the reason for the motion.
• 3. Immediately after opening this debate, a vote about the motion of no confidence can be started in the Voting section of Congress. This vote will follow the rules for regular motions, as laid down in Article 9.
• 4. If the motion of no confidence is accepted, the person(s) in question will be discharged from office immediately.

Article 13 – Congress tax

• 1. Congress members are required to pay a minimum of 50% of their in-game election reward to the state within 5 days of their election. The Party Presidents will gather all taxes and donate them to the state, submitting adequate proof of the donation to the Ministry of Finance.
• 2. The Minister of Finance will remind all Party Presidents before the deadline passes.
• 3. Congress members who have not paid their taxes after the deadline ends, will be entered on the blacklist in the Debating section.
• 4. People on the blacklist cannot have Congress member rights, as laid down in Article 1.6.
• 5. If people on the blacklist candidate themselves for Congress elections, they will get a negative voting advice in an article published before the Congress elections.
• 6. People stay on the blacklist until they have paid their debts to the state.
• 7. The blacklist, including negative voting advices, is managed by the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Congress.

Article 14 – Private section of Congress

• 1. All information on the Private section of Congress is classified.
• 2. Discussion of this information outside of the Private section of Congress is only allowed if permitted by the Chairman of Congress.

Article 15 – Transition of Congress

• 1. Voting rounds cannot be started on the 25th of each month (in-game time), except for the Quickened emergency procedure.
• 2. Congress members will get access as soon as possible after the final in-game election results are announced.
• 3. If new Congress members get access while a voting round is open, the Chairman will close the vote and start a new voting round.

Article 16 – Referendums

• 1. A referendum is a legally binding vote among all forum registered citizens with in-game citizenship of the eNetherlands.
• 2. Congress can decide to hold a referendum according to the procedures in Articles 8 and 9.
• 3. Referendums will be held on the forum of the eNetherlands.
• 4. A referendum will be open for 72 hours.
• 5. The turnout threshold is 35% of all registered citizens.
• 6. In order for the proposal to be accepted, 55% of all votes needs to be cast in favour.
• 7. An exception to this rule are referendums concerning constitutional amendments, as laid down in Chapter I, Article 9.3 of the Lawbook of the Netherlands.
• 8. The Chairman of Congress is responsible for administrating referendums.

Article 17 – Honorary citizenship

• 1. Honorary citizenship of the eNetherlands can be awarded to any person by a simple majority vote of Congress.
• 2. Honorary citizens have all rights that in-game citizens of the eNetherlands have, as laid down in Article 1.9.

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