Concilium Praesidum

The Concilium Praesidum, formerly called The Grand Council of The Praesides, unoficially called the 'New Senate', is the Legislative Branch of KhAnubia. It has 2-5 members voted in by the 'Plurality on Large' system with each of them serving 1 month terms.

History
The Grand Council started as the Diarchic Position of the Praesides, strongly based on the diarchic system of government used in San Marino. This was due to the merit of Suggestion #926. After several rounds of discussions in #plebeian-discourse-chamber, it was decided that the position shall be elected and Both Praeses shall serve one month terms.

During the First Term, both Praesides (Wa1riz and SirBrouwer) worked on a legislation that would shape the position of Praeses. It details the duty of the Praesides as a representative of the Plebeians and its power to draft legislations. Unlike the current arrangements, The Legislations were voted on by the Staff Team.

The 2nd Term was rather uneventful with little to no changes. The Junior Praeses, Ryan submitted a legislation which was ultimately rejected by Staff. He submitted another legislation at the final day of his term, with it being intended to define important roles to the server. Wa1riz also submitted legislation for approval early on in his term but it would be rejected by staff following weeks of silence from the staff team. This term is notable as Wa1riz would become the first praeses to have served the maximum consecutive term limit for the office.

The 3rd Term saw Stuff and SirBrouwer becoming Praeses. Notably, this is the final term where the Praesides will govern using a Diarchic system of government.

Electoral System and Process
The electoral system utilised to elect members of the server to the office of Praeses has gone through some changes through out its use. Originally the office was elected using a preferential ranking system, similarly to how the old senate was elected. This system was however flawed and following the passing of suggestion #996 the system was changed to Single Transferable Voting (STV).

The election period lasts a total of 7 days, from the first day of the election where candidates are announced up until to voting day. The first day of the electoral process consists of staff and the Praesides announcing the beginning of the electoral period and candidates are allowed to announce their candidacy to the office. the days following, up until election day, candidates submit campaign posters, videos, photos, and other forms of media to support their campaigns. The competition is officially referred to as the "propaganda competition" and a winner is voted by the public who votes on the best piece of campaign propaganda. On the final day of the election the campaigning process is officially ended and voting begins utilising a voting form. By the end of the month the new Praesides will have been voted into power and their term officially begins the first of the following month.

Diarchic Era (5th Republic)
The structure of the Grand Council, during its period as a Diarchic institution, was composed of 2 praesides who would be elected at the same time and would serve for the entirety of the month. The 2 Praesides would be completely equal with neither having more power than the other.

Council Era (6th Republic)
The Grand Council of the Praesides has a substantially different power dynamic, the Praeses who received the most votes in the election is the head of the council who holds duties related to the direction of the council. The rest of the council is completely equal either be it a complete or diminished administration. All Praesides hold equal voting power, including the head of the council.

Duties and Powers
The Praesides, since their inception, are the legislative branch of the KhAnubian government. The Grand Council of the Praesides holds much the same powers as the original Praesides did while also incorporating the executive branch of government into it.

Duties
The Grand Council of the Praesides holds many duties which have been described in detail in the June 2021 Grand Council Act, written by Wa1riz. Some of the main duties held by the Grand Council are the following, the duty to fairly represent the KhAnubian people, and the duty to diligently serve the people of KhAnubia.

Legislative Powers
The Grand Council of the Praesides has the power to independently create, amend, and remove legislation without interference from an outside entity. Previously, during the Diarchic period, the Praesides could only create and amend legislation with the approval of staff, this resulted in the institution being greatly weakened. Following the passing of the June 2021 Grand Council Act, staff interference was abolished unless explicitly requested by the Grand Council. The Grand Council is also allowed to independently approve and enact legislation without the approval of an outside entity. Outside approval is only necessary if the Grand Council chooses to greatly reform the June 2021 Grand Council Act, or any electoral reform. In the aforementioned situation the reform will need to go through a public vote to pass as legislation.

Executive Powers
The Grand Council of the Praesides, following the introduction fo the June 2021 Grand Council Act, also shares the executive branch of government alongside the Staff Team. As part of the Executive, The Grand Council has the authority to grant pardons and honours (With Staff Oversight), and to Impeach and remove ineffective Praeses from the position. The Pardon covers things from muting, muting in vc, kicks, warns, and so on. In the case of Bans, the pardon must be a approved unanimously by The Grand Council and must be approved by Staff. Honours must be approved by a majority of the council if they are granted, however, the highest honour, Patrician, must also be approved by Staff.

The Grand Council also has the power to remove any serving Praeses from office through impeachment. This power can be utilized an indefinite amount of times throughout the term of a grand council with the only time limitation attached to the power being that it can only be enacted after the first week in office, any impeachment prior to that will be nullified and will hold no weight. The council must come to a vote, if the vote concludes with a supermajority (in a complete administration), or a majority (in a diminished administration), then the Praeses can be impeached. Impeachment will require the Praesides to put out a complete statement explaining the motivation behind it. No outside input from any other entity is necessary to initiate the procedure, once a final vote is submitted, staff will be expected to assist in the proceedings by promoting the candidate who did not win earlier on in the election.

Controversy
The praeses were seen as rather useless by some, in the era after the August Praeses Elections and especially in September and October months. Some praeses themselves (most notably Nlapin) even wanted to disband the praeses. Countless votes were held to either limit the power of or disband the praeses. Supporters of the removal of praeses saw the Praeses as unnecesary work and Supporters of the Praeses saw them as a part of the history and culture of the server that should not be removed.

1st September Vote
On 1st September, a vote in the Server Suggestions Channel was held by Porguin Turtle to abolish the praeses. The suggestion #1155 stated "dissolve the praeses because fuck democracy". Of the 21 people that voted, 67% wanted to keep the praeses while 24% wanted to remove them. 10% disagreed and this adds up to 101% because of rounding. Hence, the suggestion was rejected.

13th September Vote
On the 13th of September another vote was held, suggestion #1201 again by Porguin Turtle asked to "Abolish the praeses". Out of 20 who voted, 65% wanted to keep the praeses and 30% wanted to keep the praeses, while 5% abstained. The suggestion was rejected.

13th October Vote
On the 13th of October yet another vote was held, this time to reduce the role of praeses to a vanity rule. Suggestion #1227 by Prometheus suggested to "Return the office of Praeses back to the status of a vanity role, as honestly, after the first 2 or so months of legislating, there hasn't been anything major done." and a clarification being "I don't want the role completely gone because I do feel that there are some interesting politics we can have while not tying the role to any official duties." The vote was approved at the time of passing however the vote has now gotten 46% who agreed and 46% who disagreed (so a tie) out of 24 people voting total. The vote was not official however, and so 7 days later there would be a vote in the official announcement channel to confirm.

20th October Vote
An official vote was held in the Server Announcements on October 20th, 2021, for whether the praeses should keep their powers or not. 21 people voted and of them 81% said they wanted the Praeses to keep their powers. Hence the 13th October Vote was never implemented.

Another vote in the form of a suggestion was held in the Server Suggestions channel, by Agoven. "Dissolve the Praeses as they serve no purpose anymore." was suggestion by Agoven as Suggestion#1238. The suggestion was later retracted by himself. A 3rd vote was held a single suggestion later by Nlapin on the same day where it suggested "get ride of praese they don't fo anything and just troll all the time and flex like they have power and its getting annoying." This was rejected as 57% of the 14 people who voted disagreed and only 21% agreed.

17th November Vote
Despite being a praeses himself, on November 17th Nlapin suggested to "remove the praese it's litterally useless and the power it has is not being use unless if it's to give praese stuff for doing nothing. So either remove praese or maybe we could have an election of best server member, and that person may have their portrait for example and stuff like that. But the praese is a failed experiment." as suggestion#1262. An argument in the suggestion discourse channel between San Marino Duck (one of the founding praeses) and Nlapin ensued. Out of 16 people 81% disagreed and only 13% agreed, with the remaining abstaining.

18th November Vote
Just a day later, another vote was held by DuckyMuk123, a former consul and veteran of the server. He stated in Suggestion#1265 to "Purge the Praese". Out of 12 people, every single one downvoted, and the suggestion was retracted by DuckyMuk, stating that he changed his mind.

Between suggestion#926, when the praeses was first suggested, and suggestion#1265, the last suggestion so far involving the praeses, 7 votes have been held to either limit the praeses' power or disband them. This accounts for 2.1% of all the suggestions in this period.