Electoral Code

The Electoral Code is the current legislation that establish the procedures on elections within Karnia-Ruthenia. The Electoral Code, written by Wilhelm von und zu Hochbach in light of the principles enshrined in the Imperial Constitution of 2017 and the political and juridical tradition hitherto existing in the Empire. Although this Code represents a very significant increase in the volume of electoral laws, it was also inspired by the earlier Electoral Code of the Kingdom of Ruthenia and aimed not to contradict the past, but to refine it and improve its efficiency, always observing the democratic and representative principles that make the Empire a Rule of Law.

History
Proposed by Wilhelm von und zu Hochbach, Ministry of Justice to the Imperial Diet on 26 May 2018, it was voted by the Representatives on 06 June 2018 and confirmed by the House of Peers three days later, being the last law voted by the I Legislature. Emperor-King Oscar I approved the draft by the Imperial Decree n. 150-2018.

Main characteristics and operation
The conditions of eligibility and registration of political parties were not significantly altered; the Emperor's performance was guarded as an important factor of political harmony; and especially the fact that this code did not specified the technical means by which the voting would be carried out, relegating to the decrees this task. This choice is based on the objective of making the law a durable instrument, adaptable to the various technological and social contexts that may arise, capable of receiving different types of innovations within its institutes. One of the major concerns of the Code was to reconcile legal certainty with bureaucratic efficiency. For this reason, new requirements for political party formation and electoral enlistment were created, but only to the extent that they were necessary to ensure that parties and candidates comply with the constitutional mandates for the office, protecting the society of electoral fraud and foreigners conducting the national internal policies. In this sense, it was also made the choice to list the fundamental requirements of the internal statute of the parties. Without disrespecting their autonomy of internal organization (expressly defended in the Code), these requirements fulfill a very important role of guiding the parties in matters of greater juridical relevance in their internal statutes, ensuring that no one would be discriminated in their political activity, and that the General Assembly of its members acts as a watchdog of the statute rules. Among the new choices for this law, it is necessary to mention the qualification of social media as a condition of political capacity of the parties. This measure, which was innovative in relation to the previous law, aims to encourage that the political parties actually comply with the constitutional mandate to reinforce citizenship, avoiding the accumulation in the official registers of inert parties that do not generated active candidates. It is for this reason that inactivity was also instituted as a condition for extinguishing the party ex officio by the Ministry of Justice, whose procedure is detailed in the Code to avoid abuses. The choice of the plurality voting and district system in the House of Representatives elections was also based on the interest of maintaining efficiency and fairness. With the district model, through the constituencies, it is possible to guarantee in the Imperial Diet a real representativeness of the population; and with the plurality system, the vote counting is greatly simplified. A another innovation, the Electoral Justice acts as a temporary and periodic institution that brings together the Ministry of Justice and the Imperial Supreme Court, with the sole purpose of guiding, protecting, supervising and guaranteeing the electoral process. In this way, it is possible to distribute in a balanced way to sectors of the government the important function of guaranteeing democracy, thereby preventing the error of creating an autonomous and specialized bureaucratic structure, which is not efficient; or giving to just one person enough authority to manipulate the electoral process in a dubious way, which would be unfair. The continuity of the democratic regime, as a fundamental guide in the drafting of this Code, inspired the title that deals with the procedural defects of the electoral process. In this sense, it was established the maintenance of the electoral process as a legal principle to be considered by the Electoral Justice in the judgment of elections nullity, if necessary. It was decided not to deal with electoral crimes in this Code, relegating its normalization to the Criminal Code. This choice, in addition to encouraging the reform of the criminal law was inspired by the spirit of transforming the legal system of the Empire into an organic and coherent whole, where each kind of law is in place, avoiding extravagances to the maximum. Thought to be a dynamic and yet durable law that best meets all the needs of electoral law, the Electoral Code has the potential to contribute as an important tool of legal modernization of the Empire.