His Imperial Majesty the Emperor yesterday promulgated an Imperial Decree which ordered a referendum to take place on 31 August in which all Austenasian subjects will be able to vote on proposed amendments to the Constitution.
Local elections will also take place on 31 August, in which each Town will choose who to serve as its Representative in Parliament.
Several of the proposed amendments are little more than corrections to mistakes in the spelling and grammar of the Constitution, which was adopted in September 2011. The main amendments which have been proposed are:
- Local elections shall take place at least once every five years instead of at least once every two years.
- Local elections will be able to take place in Towns individually. At present, all Towns have their local election at the same time.
- The structure of the judicial system will be able to be reorganised by Parliament (it currently being entrenched by the Constitution).
- Parliament will be able to make provision for whom the Throne should pass to should the Line of Succession come to an end.
- The Monarch will be able to temporarily suspend the Constitution should there be an emergency so severe (an “existential threat to the state”) that normal government becomes completely impossible.
Subjects will have the option to vote Yes, No, or Abstain to the proposed changes.
Should over half of all Austenasian subjects vote Yes, then an Act of Parliament will be proposed to put the amendments into effect, which will require the support of over 80% of Representatives to pass.
