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-<H1>Debian Constitution</H1>
- <h1>Constitution for the Debian Project (v1.0)</h1>
- <h2>1. Introduction</h2>
- <cite>The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have
- made common cause to create a free operating system.</cite>
- <p>
- This document describes the organisational structure for formal
- decisionmaking in the Project. It does not describe the goals of
- the Project or how it achieves them, or contain any policies
- except those directly related to the decisionmaking process.
- <h2>2. Decisionmaking bodies and individuals</h2>
- Each decision in the Project is made by one or more of the following:
- <ol>
- <li>The Developers, by way of General Resolution or an election;
- <li>The Project Leader;
- <li>The Technical Committee and/or its Chairman;
- <li>The individual Developer working on a particular task;
- <li>Delegates appointed by the Project Leader for specific
- tasks.
- <li>The Project Secretary;
- </ol>
- Most of the remainder of this document will outline the powers of
- these bodies, their composition and appointment, and the procedure
- for their decisionmaking. The powers of a person or body may be
- subject to review and/or limitation by others; in this case the
- reviewing body or person's entry will state this. <cite>In the
- list above, a person or body is usually listed before any people
- or bodies whose decisions they can overrule or who they
- (help) appoint - but not everyone listed earlier can overrule
- everyone listed later.</cite>
- <h3>2.1. General rules</h3>
- <ol>
- <li><p>
- Nothing in this constitution imposes an obligation on anyone
- to do work for the Project. A person who does not want to do
- a task which has been delegated or assigned to them does not
- need to do it. However, they must not actively work against
- these rules and decisions properly made under them.
- </p><li><p>
- A person may hold several posts, except that the Project Leader,
- Project Secretary and the Chairman of the Technical Committee must
- be distinct, and that the Leader cannot appoint themselves as
- their own Delegate.
- </p><li><p>
- A person may leave the Project or resign from a particular
- post they hold, at any time, by stating so publicly.
- </ol>
- <h2>3. Individual Developers</h2>
- <h3>3.1. Powers</h3>
- An individual Developer may
- <ol>
- <li>make any technical or nontechnical decision with regard to
- their own work;
- <li>propose or sponsor draft General Resolutions;
- <li>propose themselves as a Project Leader candidate in elections;
- <li>vote on General Resolutions and in Leadership elections.
- </ol>
- <h3>3.2. Composition and appointment</h3>
- <ol><li><p>
- Developers are volunteers who agree to further the aims of the
- Project insofar as they participate in it, and who maintain
- package(s) for the Project or do other work which the Project
- Leader's Delegate(s) consider worthwhile.
- </p><li><p>
- The Project Leader's Delegate(s) may choose not to admit new
- Developers, or expel existing Developers. <cite> If the Developers
- feel that the Delegates are abusing their authority they can of
- course override the decision by way of General Resolution - see
- s.4.1(3), s.4.2.</cite>
- </ol>
- <h3>3.3. Procedure</h3>
- Developers may make these decisions as they see fit.
- <h2>4. The Developers by way of General Resolution or election</h2>
- <h3>4.1. Powers</h3>
- Together, the Developers may:
- <ol>
- <li><p>Appoint or recall the Project Leader.
- </p>
- <li><p>Amend this constitution, provided they agree with a 3:1 majority.
- </p>
- <li><p>Override any decision by the Project Leader or a Delegate.
- </p>
- <li><p>Override any decision by the Technical Committee,
- provided they agree with a 2:1 majority.
- </p>
- <li><p>Issue nontechnical policy documents and statements.
- <p>
- These include documents describing the goals of the project, its
- relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical
- policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian
- software must meet.
- <p>
- They may also include position statements about issues of the day.
- </p>
- <li><p>Together with the Project Leader and SPI, make decisions
- about property held in trust for purposes related to Debian.
- (See s.9.1.)
- </ol>
- <h3>4.2. Procedure</h3>
- <ol><li><p>
- The Developers follow the Standard Resolution Procedure, below. A
- resolution or amendment is introduced if proposed by any Developer
- and sponsored by at least K other Developers, or if proposed by the
- Project Leader or the Technical Committee.
- </p><li><p>Delaying a decision by the Project Leader or their Delegate:
- <ol><li>
- If the Project Leader or their Delegate, or the Technical
- Committee, has made a decision, then Developers can override
- them by passing a resolution to do so; see s4.1(3).
- <li>
- If such a resolution is sponsored by at least 2K Developers, or
- if it is proposed by the Technical Committee, the resolution
- puts the decision immediately on hold (provided that resolution
- itself says so).
- <li>
- If the original decision was to change a discussion period or a
- voting period, or the resolution is to override the Technical
- Committee, then only K Developers need to sponsor the resolution
- to be able to put the decision immediately on hold.
- <li>
- If the decision is put on hold, an immediate vote is held to
- determine whether the decision will stand until the full vote on
- the decision is made or whether the implementation of the
- original decision will be be delayed until then. There is no
- quorum for this immediate procedural vote.
- <li>
- If the Project Leader (or the Delegate) withdraws the original
- decision, the vote becomes moot, and is no longer conducted.
- </ol>
- </p><li><p>
- Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes and tallies
- results are not be revealed during the voting period; after the
- vote the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting
- period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the
- Project Leader, and may be ended by the Project Secretary when
- the outcome of a vote is no longer in doubt.
- </p><li><p>
- The minimum discussion period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1
- week by the Project Leader. The Project Leader has a casting
- vote. There is a quorum of 3Q.
- </p><li><p>
- Proposals, sponsors, amendments, calls for votes and other formal
- actions are made by announcement on a publicly-readable electronic
- mailing list designated by the Project Leader's Delegate(s); any
- Developer may post there.
- </p><li><p>
- Votes are cast by email in a manner suitable to the Secretary.
- The Secretary determines for each poll whether voters can change
- their votes.
- </p><li><p>
- Q is half of the square root of the number of current
- Developers. K is Q or 5, whichever is the smaller. Q and K
- need not be integers and are not rounded.
- </ol>
- <h2>5. Project Leader</h2>
- <h3>5.1. Powers</h3>
- The Project Leader may:
- <ol>
- <li>Appoint Delegates or delegate decisions to the Technical
- Committee.
- <p>
- The Leader may define an area of ongoing responsibility or a
- specific decision and hand it over to another Developer or
- to the Technical Committee.
- <p>
- Once a particular decision has been delegated and made the
- Project Leader may not withdraw that delegation; however,
- they may withdraw an ongoing delegation of particular area
- of responsibility.
- </p>
- <li><p>Lend authority to other Developers.
- <p>
- The Project Leader may make statements of support for points of view
- or for other members of the project, when asked or otherwise; these
- statements have force if and only if the Leader would be empowered to
- make the decision in question.
- </p>
- <li><p>Make any decision which requires urgent action.
- <p>
- This does not apply to decisions which have only become
- gradually urgent through lack of relevant action, unless
- there is a fixed deadline.
- </p>
- <li><p>Make any decision for whom noone else has responsibility.
- </p>
- <li><p>Propose draft General Resolutions and amendments.
- </p>
- <li><p>Together with the Technical Committee, appoint new members
- to the Committee. (See s.6.2.)
- </p>
- <li>Use a casting vote when Developers vote.
- <p>
- The Project Leader also has a normal vote in such ballots.
- </p>
- <li><p>Vary the discussion period for Developers' votes (as above).
- </p>
- <li><p>Lead discussions amongst Developers.
- <p>
- The Project Leader should attempt to participate in discussions
- amongst the Developers in a helpful way which seeks to bring the
- discussion to bear on the key issues at hand. The Project Leader
- should not use the Leadership position to promote their own personal
- views.
- </p>
- <li><p>Together with SPI, make decisions affecting property
- held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See s.9.1.)
- </ol>
- <h3>5.2. Appointment</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>
- The Project Leader is elected by the Developers.
- <li>
- The election begins nine weeks before the leadership post becomes
- vacant, or (if it is too late already) immediately.
- <li>
- For the following three weeks any Developer may nominate themselves as
- a candidate Project Leader.
- <li>
- For three weeks after that no more candidates may be nominated;
- candidates should use this time for campaigning (to make their
- identities and positions known). If there are no candidates
- at the end of the nomination period then the nomination period
- is extended for three further weeks, repeatedly if necessary.
- <li>
- The next three weeks are the polling period during which
- Developers may cast their votes. Votes in leadership
- elections are kept secret, even after the election is
- finished.
- <li>
- The options on the ballot will be those candidates who have
- nominated themselves and have not yet withdrawn, plus None Of
- The Above. If None Of The Above wins the election then the
- election procedure is repeated, many times if necessary.
- <li>The decision will be made using Concorde Vote Counting.
- The quorum is the same as for a General Resolution
- (s.4.2) and the default option is None Of The Above.
- <li>
- The Project Leader serves for one year from their election.
- </ol>
- <h3>5.3. Procedure</h3>
- <p>
- The Project Leader should attempt to make decisions which are
- consistent with the consensus of the opinions of the Developers.
- <p>
- Where practical the Project Leader should informally solicit the views
- of the Developers.
- <p>
- The Project Leader should avoid overemphasizing their own point
- of view when making decisions in their capacity as Leader.
- <h2>6. Technical committee</h2>
- <h3>6.1. Powers</h3>
- The Technical Committee may:
- <ol>
- <li>Decide on any matter of technical policy.
- <p>
- This includes the contents of the technical policy manuals,
- developers' reference materials, example packages and the
- behaviour of non-experimental package building tools. (In
- each case the usual maintainer of the relevant software or
- documentation makes decisions initially, however; see
- 6.3(5).)
- </p>
- <li>Decide any technical matter where Developers' jurisdictions overlap.
- <p>
- In cases where Developers need to implement compatible
- technical policies or stances (for example, if they disagree
- about the priorities of conflicting packages, or about
- ownership of a command name, or about which package is
- responsible for a bug that both maintainers agree is a bug,
- or about who should be the maintainer for a package) the
- technical committee may decide the matter.
- </p>
- <li><p>Make a decision when asked to do so.
- <p>
- Any person or body may delegate a decision of their own to
- the Technical Committee, or seek advice from it.
- </p>
- <li><p>Overrule a Developer (requires a 3:1 majority).
- <p>
- The Technical Committee may ask a Developer to take a
- particular technical course of action even if the Developer
- does not wish to; this requires a 3:1 majority. For
- example, the Committee may determine that a complaint made
- by the submitter of a bug is justified and that the
- submitter's proposed solution should be implemented.
- </p>
- <li><p>
- Offer advice.
- <p>
- The Technical Committee may make formal announcements about
- its views on any matter. <cite>Individual members may of
- course make informal statements about their views and about
- the likely views of the committee.</cite>
- </p>
- <li><p>Together with the Project Leader, appoint new members to
- itself or remove existing members. (See s.6.2.)
- </p>
- <li><p>Appoint the Chairman of the Technical Committee.
- <p>
- The Chairman is elected by the Committee from its members.
- All members of the committee are automatically nominated;
- the committee vote starting one week before the post will
- become vacant (or immediately, if it is already too late).
- The members may vote by public acclamation for any fellow
- committee member, including themselves; there is no None Of
- The Above option. The vote finishes when all the members
- have voted or when the outcome is no longer in doubt. The
- result is determined according to Concorde Vote Counting.
- </p>
- <li>The Chairman can stand in for the Leader, together with the Secretary
- <p>
- As detailed in s.7.1(2), the Chairman of the Technical
- Committee and the Project Secretary may together stand in
- for the Leader if there is no Leader.
- </ol>
- <h3>6.2. Composition</h3>
- <ol><li><p>
- The Technical Committee consists of up to 8 Developers, and should
- usually have at least 4 members.
- </p><li><p>
- When there are fewer than 8 members the Technical Committee may
- recommend new member(s) to the Project Leader, who may choose
- (individually) to appoint them or not.
- </p><li><p>
- When there are 5 members or fewer the Technical Committee may appoint
- new member(s) until the number of members reaches 6.
- </p><li><p>
- When there have been 5 members or fewer for at least one week
- the Project Leader may appoint new member(s) until the number of
- members reaches 6, at intervals of at least one week per
- appointment.
- </p><li><p>
- If the Technical Committee and the Project Leader agree they may
- remove or replace an existing member of the Technical Committee.
- </ol>
- <h3>6.3. Procedure</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>The Technical Committee uses the Standard Resolution Procedure.
- <p>
- A draft resolution or amendment may be proposed by any
- member of the Technical Committee. There is no minimum
- discussion period; the voting period lasts for up to one
- week, or until the outcome is no longer in doubt. Members
- may change their votes. There is a quorum of two.
- </p>
- <li>Details regarding voting
- <p>
- The Chairman has a casting vote. When the Technical
- Committee votes whether to override a Developer who also
- happens to be a member of the Committee, that member may not
- vote (unless they are the Chairman, in which case they may
- use only their casting vote).
- </p>
- <li>Public discussion and decisionmaking.
- <p>
- Discussion, draft resolutions and amendments, and votes by
- members of the committee, are made public on the Technical
- Committee public discussion list. There is no separate
- secretary for the Committee.
- </p>
- <li>
- Confidentiality of appointments.
- <p>
- The Technical Committee may hold confidential discussions
- via private email or a private mailing list or other means
- to discuss appointments to the Committee. However, votes on
- appointments must be public.
- </p>
- <li>
- No detailed design work.
- <p>
- The Technical Committee does not engage in design of new proposals
- and policies. Such design work should be carried out by individuals
- privately or together and discussed in ordinary technical policy and
- design forums.
- <p>
- The Technical Committee restricts itself to choosing from
- or adopting compromises between solutions and decisions which have
- been proposed and reasonably thoroughly discussed elsewhere.
- <p>
- <cite>Individual members of the technical committee may of course
- participate on their own behalf in any aspect of design and
- policy work.</cite>
- </p>
- <li>Technical Committee makes decisions only as last resort.
- <p>
- The Technical Committee does not make a technical decision
- until efforts to resolve it via consensus have been tried
- and failed, unless it has been asked to make a decision by
- the person or body who would normally be responsible for it.
- </ol>
- <h2>7. The Project Secretary</h2>
- <h3>7.1. Powers</h3>
- The Secretary:
- <ol>
- <li>
- <p>
- Takes votes amongst the Developers, and determines the
- number and identity of Developers, whenever this is required
- by the constitution.
- </p>
- <li>
- <p>
- Can stand in for the Leader, together with the Chairman of
- the Technical Committee.
- <p>
- If there is no Project Leader then the Chairman of the
- Technical Committee and the Project Secretary may by
- joint agreement make decisions if they consider it
- imperative to do so.
- </p>
- <li>
- <p>
- Adjudicates any disputes about interpretation of the
- constitution.
- </p>
- <li>
- <p>
- May delegate part or all of their authority to someone else,
- or withdraw such a delegation at any time.
- </ol>
- <h3>7.2. Appointment</h3>
- <p>
- The Project Secretary is appointed by the Project Leader and the
- current Project Secretary.
- <p>
- If the Project Leader and the current Project Secretary cannot
- agree on a new appointment they must ask the board of SPI to
- appoint a Secretary.
- <p>
- If there is no Project Secretary or the current Secretary is
- unavailable and has not delegated authority for a decision then
- the decision may be made or delegated by the Chairman of the
- Technical Committee, as Acting Secretary.
- <p>
- The Project Secretary's term of office is 1 year, at which point
- they or another Secretary must be (re)appointed.
- <h3>7.3. Procedure</h3>
- The Project Secretary should make decisions which are fair and
- reasonable, and preferably consistent with the consensus of the
- Developers.
- <p>
- When acting together to stand in for an absent Project Leader the
- Chairman of the Technical Committee and the Project Secretary
- should make decisions only when absolutely necessary and only when
- consistent with the consensus of the Developers.
- <h2>8. The Project Leader's Delegates</h2>
- <h3>8.1. Powers</h3>
- The Project Leader's Delegates:
- <ol>
- <li>have powers delegated to them by the Project Leader;
- <li>may make certain decisions which the Leader may not make
- directly, including approving or expelling Developers or
- designating people as Developers who do not maintain packages.
- <cite>
- This is to avoid concentration of power, particularly over
- membership as a Developer, in the hands of the Project
- Leader.
- </cite>
- </ol>
- <h3>8.2. Appointment</h3>
- The Delegates are appointed by the Project Leader and may be
- replaced by the Leader at the Leader's discretion. The Project
- Leader may not make the position as a Delegate conditional on
- particular decisions by the Delegate, nor may they override a
- decision made by a Delegate once made.
- <h3>8.3. Procedure</h3>
- Delegates may make decisions as they see fit, but should attempt
- to implement good technical decisions and/or follow consensus
- opinion.
- <h2>9. Software in the Public Interest</h2>
- SPI and Debian are separate organisations who share some goals.
- Debian is grateful for the legal support framework offered by SPI.
- <cite>
- Debian's Developers are currently members of SPI by virtue
- of their status as Developers.
- </cite>
- <h3>9.1. Authority</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>
- SPI has no authority regarding Debian's technical or
- nontechnical decisions, except that no decision by Debian with
- respect to any property held by SPI shall require SPI to act
- outside its legal authority, and that Debian's constitution
- may occasionally use SPI as a decision body of last resort.
- <li>
- Debian claims no authority over SPI other than that over the
- use of certain of SPI's property, as described below, though
- Debian Developers may be granted authority within SPI by SPI's
- rules.
- <li>
- Debian Developers are not agents or employees of SPI, or of
- each other or of persons in authority in the Debian Project.
- A person acting as a Developer does so as an individual, on
- their own behalf.
- </ol>
- <h3>9.2. Management of property for purposes related to Debian</h3>
- Since Debian has no authority to hold money or property, any
- donations for the Debian Project must made to SPI, which
- manages such affairs.
- <p>
- SPI have made the following undertakings:
- <ol>
- <li>
- SPI will hold money, trademarks and other tangible and
- intangible property and manage other affairs for purposes
- related to Debian.
- <li>
- Such property will be accounted for separately and held in
- trust for those purposes, decided on by Debian and SPI
- according to this section.
- <li>
- SPI will not dispose of or use property held in trust for
- Debian without approval from Debian, which may be granted by
- the Project Leader or by General Resolution of the Developers.
- <li>
- SPI will consider using or disposing of property held in trust
- for Debian when asked to do so by the Project Leader.
- <li>
- SPI will use or dispose of property held in trust for Debian
- when asked to do so by a General Resolution of the Developers,
- provided that this is compatible with SPI's legal authority.
- <li>
- SPI will notify the Developers by electronic mail to a
- Debian Project mailing list when it uses or disposes of
- property held in trust for Debian.
- </ol>
- <h2>A. Standard Resolution Procedure</h2>
- These rules apply to communal decisionmaking by committees and
- plebiscites, where stated above.
- <h3>A.1. Proposal</h3>
- The formal procedure begins when a draft resolution is proposed and
- sponsored, as required.
- <h3>A.1. Discussion and Amendment</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>
- Following the proposal, the resolution may be discussed.
- Amendments may be made formal by being proposed and sponsored
- according to the requirements for a new resolution, or
- directly by the proposer of the original resolution.
- <li>
- A formal amendment may be accepted by the resolution's
- proposer, in which case the formal resolution draft is
- immediately changed to match.
- <li>
- If a formal amendment is not accepted, or one of the sponsors
- of the resolution does not agree with the acceptance by the
- proposer of a formal amendment, the amendment remains as an
- amendment and will be voted on.
- <li>
- If an amendment accepted by the original proposer is not to
- the liking of others, they may propose another amendment to
- reverse the earlier change (again, they must meet the
- requirements for proposer and sponsor(s).)
- <li>
- The proposer or a resolution may suggest changes to the
- wordings of amendments; these take effect if the proposer of
- the amendment agrees and none of the sponsors object. In
- this case the changed amendments will be voted on instead of
- the originals.
- <li>
- The proposer of a resolution may make changes to correct minor
- errors (for example, typographical errors or inconsistencies) or
- changes which do not alter the meaning, providing noone objects
- within 24 hours. In this case the mininum discussion period is not
- restarted.
- </ol>
- <h3>A.2. Calling for a vote</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>
- The proposer or a sponsor of a motion or an amendment may call for a vote,
- providing that the minimum discussion period (if any) has
- elapsed.
- <li>
- The proposer or a sponsor of a motion may call for a vote on any
- or all of the amendments individually or together; the
- proposer or sponsor of an amendment may call for a vote only on that
- amendment and related amendments.
- <li>
- The person who calls for a vote states what they believe the
- wordings of the resolution and any relevant amendments are,
- and consequently what form the ballot should take. However,
- the final decision on the form of ballot(s) is the Secretary's
- - see 7.1(1), 7.1(3) and A.3(6).
- <li>
- The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the
- last formal amendment was accepted, or the last related formal
- amendment was accepted if an amendment is being voted on, or
- since the whole resolution was proposed if no amendments have
- been proposed and accepted.
- </ol>
- <h3>A.3. Voting procedure</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>
- Each independent set of related amendments is voted on in a
- separate ballot. Each such ballot has as options all the
- sensible combinations of amendments and options, and an option
- Further Discussion. If Further Discussion wins then the
- entire resolution procedure is set back to the start of the
- discussion period. No quorum is required for an amendment.
- <li>
- When the final form of the resolution has been determined it
- is voted on in a final ballot, in which the options are Yes,
- No and Further Discussion. If Further Discussion wins then
- the entire procedure is set back to the start of the
- discussion period.
- <li>
- The vote taker (if there is one) or the voters (if voting is
- done by public pronouncement) may arrange for these ballots to
- be held simultaneously, even (for example) using a single
- voting message. If amendment ballot(s) and the final ballot
- are combined in this way then it must be possible for a voter
- to vote differently in the final ballot for each of the
- possible forms of the final draft resolution.
- <li>
- Votes may be cast during the voting period, as specified
- elsewhere. If the voting period can end if the outcome is no
- longer in doubt, the possibility that voters may change their
- votes is not considered.
- <li>
- The votes are counted according to the Concorde Vote
- Counting. If a quorum is required then the default option
- is Further Discussion.
- <li>
- In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on
- matters of procedure (for example, whether particular
- amendments should be considered independent or not).
- </ol>
- <h3>A.4. Withdrawing resolutions or unaccepted amendments</h3>
- The proposer of a resolution or unaccepted amendment may withdraw
- it. In this case new proposers may come forward keep it alive, in
- which case the first person to do so becomes the new proposer and
- any others become sponsors if they aren't sponsors already.
- <p>
- A sponsor of a resolution or amendment (unless it has been
- accepted) may withdraw.
- <p>
- If the withdrawal of the proposer and/or sponsors means that a
- resolution has no proposer or not enough sponsors it will not be
- voted on unless this is rectified before the resolution expires.
- <h3>A.5. Expiry</h3>
- If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on
- or otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks then it is considered to have
- been withdrawn.
- <h3>A.6. Concorde Vote Counting</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>
- This is used to determine the winner amongst a list of
- options. Each ballot paper gives a ranking of the voter's
- preferred options. (The ranking need not be complete.)
- <li>
- Option A is said to Dominate option B if strictly more ballots
- prefer A to B than prefer B to A.
- <li>
- All options which are Dominated by at least one other option
- are discarded, and references to them in ballot papers will be
- ignored.
- <li>
- If there is any option which Dominates all others then that is
- the winner.
- <li>
- If there is now more than one option remaining Single
- Transferrable Vote will be applied to choose amongst those
- remaining:
- <ul>
- <li>
- The number of first preferences for each option is
- counted, and if any option has more than half it is the
- winner.
- <li>
- Otherwise the option with the lowest number of first
- preferences is eliminated and its votes redistributed
- according to the second preferences.
- <li>
- This elimination procedure is repeated, moving down ballot
- papers to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. preferences as required,
- until one option gets more than half of the `first'
- preferences.
- </ul>
- <li>
- In the case of ties the elector with a casting vote will
- decide. The casting vote does not count as a normal vote;
- however that elector will usually also get a normal vote.
- <li>
- If a supermajority is required the number of Yes votes in the
- final ballot is reduced by an appropriate factor. Strictly
- speaking, for a supermajority of F:A, the number of ballots
- which prefer Yes to X (when considering whether Yes Dominates
- X or X Dominates Yes) or the number of ballots whose first
- (remaining) preference is Yes (when doing STV comparisons for
- winner and elimination purposes) is multiplied by a factor A/F
- before the comparison is done.
- <cite>
- This means that a 2:1 vote, for example, means twice as many
- people voted for as against; abstentions are not counted.
- </cite>
- <li>
- If a quorum is required, there must be at least that many votes
- which prefer the winning option to the default option. If
- there are not then the default option wins after all. For
- votes requiring a supermajority, the actual number of Yes
- votes is used when checking whether the quorum has been
- reached.
- </ol>
- <cite>When the Standard Resolution Procedure is to be used, the text
- which refers to it must specify what is sufficient to have a draft
- resolution proposed and/or sponsored, what the minimum discussion
- period is, and what the voting period is. It must also specify
- any supermajority and/or the quorum (and default option) to be
- used.</cite>
- <h2>B. Use of language and typography</h2>
- The present indicative (`is', for example) means that the
- statement is a rule in this constitution. `May' or `can' indicates
- that the person or body has discretion. `Should' means that it
- would be considered a good thing if the sentence were obeyed, but
- it is not binding.
- <cite> Text marked as a citation, such as this, is rationale and
- does not form part of the constitution. It may be used only to
- aid interpretation in cases of doubt. </cite>
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