The Coda Principles

The following principles are made as constitutional law:

  1. All heads of state, and those elected to the national legislature and national executive shall
    1. Be prohibited from directorship, shareholdings, membership of, allegiance to, or any financial benefit from any other organisation or person.
    2. Shall disclose and divest all previous directorships, shareholdings, assets, membership of, allegiance to, or any financial benefit from any other organisation or person.
    3. Be prohibited from claiming expenses for their office.
    4. Be prohibited from taking action or influence in a matter by which their family may distinctly benefit in a financially material sense.
    5. Be remunerated solely by state salary at ’N’ (’N’: a numbered amount, applied as a multiple to the median income, which is adequate to be wholly competitive to the earnings of the leading executives in private industry in a nation state) multiple to thenational median salary.
    6. Upon conclusion of their term of office, be prohibited from receiving any material financial benefit from any source other than state salary and pension.
    7. Upon conclusion of their term of office, shall be remunerated by pension at ‘N’ multiple to the median salary, unless they have been placed on ‘special measures’.
    8. A candidate for leadership shall be prohibited from receipt of funding other than from the state fund, and shall be prohibited from acting in concert with a third party to receive a material benefit in furtherance of an election campaign.

 

  1. ‘Special measures’:
    1. Where Coda 1.1, §1.2 or §1.4, or §1.8 are breached, or where an elected leader is convicted of a criminal offence attracting a potential sentence of at least 12 weeks’ imprisonment, that elected leader shall be deselected from office.
    2. Where a leader is deselected under 2.1 or breaches §1.6, punishment shall include (i) confiscation of all assets from all direct recipients of a material benefit; (ii) confiscation of all assets from any individual facilitating a material benefit to a leader; and (iii) thereafter remuneration to be at a subsistence level indefinitely for the former leader, and for five years for direct recipients of the material benefit and for facilitators of the breach.
    3. A leader may also be deselected by an extraordinary vote by the constituent citizens, as may be provided in ordinary domestic electoral laws.
    4. Where a candidate for leadership has breached 1.8, punishment shall include (i) confiscation of all assets held by the candidate or leader; (ii) confiscation of all assets from any individual who acted in furtherance of the breach; (iii) remuneration to be at a subsistence level indefinitely for a former leader or candidate, and for five years for any individual who facilitated the breach.
    5. Where a candidate has breached 1.8, they shall be disqualified from future candidacy for public office thereafter. Where another person has facilitated a breach of §1.8 they shall also be subject to a term of imprisonment, in addition to §2.4 financial penalties.

 

  1. Elections to the national legislature and national executive shall be funded by the public purse only.

 

  1. Election media reporting shall require that any media output during the 12 weeks prior to election must describe:
    1. Where that media company may have more than 50% of its ownership held by non-national citizens;
    2. Where any media output has been paid for by a third party, the identification of that third party, and the source of their funding; and
    3. Breaches of 4.1 or §4.2 shall result in a fine of not less than 5% of annual global turnover for the media company.

 

  1. A fourth branch of state shall be created and maintained, the CC, by which citizens as selected by ballot shall:
    1. Investigate and prosecute any breach of these Coda principles without hindrance;
    2. Protect whistleblowers as to corruption of the state offices and elections;
    3. Oversee election integrity and the funding thereof;
    4. Create and maintain a ‘commons’, by which effective platforms shall be provided for use by citizens to exercise free speech and association rights; and
    5. Only be selected by ballot where that citizen has completed the fourth branch’s civic competence qualification.