Rules of procedure

• Rules of Procedure for General Assembly sessions adopted on the Kazan Conference 20 April 2013.
• Inclusion of Art. 7a decided at the oGA 29.March 2015
• Inclusion of Art. 7.2.e decided at the Warsaw GA July 05th 2015

You may also want to see Rules of Procedure of PPI Board

Rules of Procedure of the PPI General Assembly

Art. 1 General

1. All references to titles or persons in the masculine form in this document apply by analogy to the feminine form as well.
2. This rules of procedure governs the course of the PPI General Assemblies meetings until decided otherwise.
3. The General Assembly is composed of all the Members of Pirate Parties International, represented by a delegate or delegates not exceeding six from any one Member Organization. (St IX(1))(St IX(4))
4. All local and remote delegates must present written authorization from a member of their respective board unless they are designated International Coordinator or equivalent on their parties official website. Each person may represent as a delegate no more than 2 parties. (St XI(3))
5. Ordinary Members of PPI are eligible to vote.
6. All Members of PPI are eligible to submit motions.(St IV(4)c)(St V(2)c)
7. Any official debate and voting may only continue when a third of Ordinary Members are represented locally or remotely.(St IX(5))
8. The Rules of Procedure must be adopted by a simple majority of the Ordinary Members present or represented and voting and enter immediately into force.(St IX(1))

Art. 2 Hearing Process

1. The Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the General Assembly shall be appointed by the PPI Board.(St XIII(1)e)
2. The Chairperson may resign during the Meeting. Then a new Chairperson is appointed by the PPI Board.
3. The Chairperson leads the proceedings, recognizes speakers, and maintains decorum and order during the meeting.
4. The Chairperson sets details of the procedure.
5. The Chairperson announces the election and referendum results.
6. Requests for the floor by local and remote delegates or PPI Officers are acknowledged in the order received. In questionable cases the Chairperson decides. Chairperson can not participate in the debate.
7. The Chairperson can yield the floor to speakers who are not members of delegations.
8. The Chairperson can yield the floor to speakers and the person who made the motion also out of turn.
9. If a speaker deviates too much from the motion at hand, the Chairperson admonishes him to speak to the subject.
10. If a speaker disregards the warnings and calls to order of the Chairperson, the Chairperson may deny him the opportunity to speak.

Art. 3  Remote delegates

1. The Chairperson appoints a proxy person through which the remote delegates may act.
2. The remote delegates must communicate with the proxy in a traceable way. (i.e. a text chat)
3. The remote delegates may request the floor to make a statement or ask a question by explicitly writing so. The proxy person will then request the floor on their behalf, be recognized by the Chairperson in turn and read the statement or question aloud. In the case, that the technical possibilities allow it, an audio or video transmission may be used.
4. On voting, the proxy will relay the full question and the votes from the remote delegates.
5. The vote of a remote delegate can be submitted by e-mail or other recordable way on the direct way to the tabulator or his proxy.

Art. 4 Agenda

1. The Board proposes an initial agenda draft.(St XIII(1)e)
2. Each Member may propose changes to the agenda.
3. The agenda must be approved before any other debate starts.

Art. 5 Motions and countermotions

1. The Members may make motions.
2. The Members may make countermotions to the motions on the table.
3. Motions and countermotions must be proposed in writing.
4. Motions and countermotions are presented, debated and handled within the appropriate agenda item.
5. Every motion or countermotion must come with a justification.
6. Every motion or countermotion must have a subject that can be voted yes or no.
7. Every countermotion has to point out clearly the difference to the original motion.
8. Motions already submitted, defeated or declared as unacceptable as such motions, can not be submitted.
9. Proposals, including the Statutes Amendments Proposals, may be changed by motions and countermotions before they are accepted only in the intention given by original proposal.

Art. 6 Voting

1. Motions independent from others are voted on one after the other.
2. Motions subsidiary to others are voted on before the main motion.
3. If Motions are competing, they are put to voting against each other. A Member can vote for as many proposals he like, and the one with the most votes wins. The Assembly votes than on the wining Motion.
4. Before a vote, the Chairperson reads the question aloud. The full question is recorded in the minutes.
5. A motion is passed by a simple majority of the Members present or represented and voting. In the event of a tie, the motion is defeated. Abstentions are not taken into account.(St XI(1))
6. Decisions concerning the admission of new Members,(St III(4)) the exclusion of Members,(St VII(2)) the determination of the annual affiliation fee(St XVI(1)) and the amendment of Statutes(St XX), shall be passed by a two thirds majority of the votes cast. Abstentions are not taken into account.(St XI)
7. The delegates vote by raising their "yes", "no" or "abstention" voting card. The voting may also be conducted with written ballots. The ballots should identify the delegation voting and are counted openly.
8. The tabulation of votes is performed by a tabulator named by the Chairperson.
9. All votes from all delegations will be recorded one by one, except for procedural motions. The results are recorded in the minutes. These delegates who wish their vote recorded may request so.
10. All votes will be cast openly. As there are only delegates present and voting, there is no need for a secret voting.

Art. 6a Elections

1. All candidates to any body of the PPI must be proposed by an ordinary or observer member of the PPI.(St IV(4)b)(St V(2)b)
2. Candidates can request for the floor during the Hearing Process for their respective elections. All candidates inside the same election should be given equal opportunity to present their candidature.
3. If there only one candidate for a position an open voting according to RoP Art.6(7) can be held. At the request of any delegate the voting is conducted with ballots.
4. If there are multiple candidates for a position the voting is conducted with ballots.
5. Elections for multiple position can be combined on the same ballot.
6. Election Method
   • a) Before the voting, the number of elected positions should be decided, if Statutes require to do so.
   • b) Every Ordinary Member may vote "yes" for any number of candidates.
   • c) The candidates that has achieved a simple majority of the "yes" votes from Ordinary Members present or represented and voting on them(St X(1)) are elected in the order determined by number of "yes" votes accumulated. Abstentions are not taken into account. In event of a tie where order matters, deciding elections are held, where only one "yes" vote per Ordinary Member can be cast.
   • d) If the decided number(Art. 6a(6a)) of positions is not filled, additional round of elections is held unless decided otherwise.
7. Other provisions from Art. 6 apply accordingly.

Art. 7 Procedural Motions

1. Procedural motions (on debating, voting, or electing) can be made and justified at any time out of normal speaking order. Requests for procedural motion is made by delegates with a time-out signal (hands in the form of a "T") to differentiate from a request for the floor.
2. Procedural motions are the following:
   • a. Procedural motion to alter the order of the agenda;
   • b. Procedural motion to table an agenda item;
   • c. Procedural motion to modify a motion; If the original proponent is not against these modifications, they are adopted.
   • d. Procedural motion to change the Rules of Procedure;
   • e. Procedural motion to retable an agenda item;
3. In disregard of Art. 5, the following procedural motions does not need to be submitted in writing. They also pass, if nobody speaks against:
   • a. Procedural motion to alter the order of the voting;
   • b. Procedural motion to suspend the meeting. A time frame must be given;
   • c. Procedural motion to limit floor time for speakers;
   • d. Procedural motion to close a speakers list; Additional speakers needs to request the floor, after that, the speaking list is closed.
   • e. Procedural motion to reopen a closed speaking list;
   • f. Procedural motion to end debate;
   • g. Procedural motion to postpone indefinitely a motion;
   • h. Procedural motion to end the agenda item;
   • i. Procedural motion to call for a straw poll; The straw pool must be able to be answered with a "yes" or "no" and be related to the question at hand. The question may not be directed at identifiable persons. The results shall not be counted, only the general outcome is recorded, and have not any additional effect.
   • j. Procedural motion to not hold additional round of elections;
   • k. Procedural motion to re-appoint the chairperson;
   • l. Procedural motion to recount the votes;
   • m. Procedural motion to revoke a decision of Chairperson; must be proposed immediately after the decision is announced.
   • n. Procedural motion to asses the quorum. If the quorum is not established, the Chairperson announce a time until that the Assembly is in recess. After the break the assessment of quorum repeats.
4. In the event nothing else is ordained, in all these cases the debate shall be suspended until the procedural motion is handled and the vote taken.
5. Procedural motions are passed by simple majority. Abstentions are not taken into account.

Art. 7a Online Assembly

1. For an online assembly all delegates are remote and therefore there is no need for a local proxy, deviating from the Art. 3.
2. Deviating from Art 5 No. 3: motions and countermotions must be proposed by email. An appropiate address will be announced by the chair at the beginning of the meeting.
3. Deviating from Art. 6: votes are given by division of the assembly having yes, nay and abstain as an option.
4. Deviating from Art. 7.: a procedural motion is indicated when somebody enters the online-room "procedural motion".

Art. 8 Minutes

1. The Chairperson appoints the keeper of the minutes.
2. The minutes record a summary of the debate and the decisions taken.
3. The keeper publishes the minutes within two weeks after the Conference on the PPI website and announce the publication by mail to all Members and PPI organs.
4. After publication the Members or PPI Board may object to the minutes within four weeks. If no objections have been tendered, the minutes stand accepted. If there are objection the keeper corrects the minutes and the respite restarts.