11 months before the next federal election across the Saridan, the federal government with the Ministry of Public Administration (MOA) up front, presented a plan of an electoral administrative reform, that should highly affect the next election. During the presentation of the act, public administration minister Nelius Opperman shortly summarized his reform: "Fair and equal representation for all citizens in this chamber, for the citizens from different federal provinces and more frequent elections to ensure that governments are kept in touch with the changing needs of the people".
The 43-page plan consists of various proposals and ideas, but the biggest focus was given to the main five: public funding, local elections, electoral reform, election frequency and chamber size. Proposing a "more fair game" for the citizens, Opperman ensured that the new electoral system would not be a total game changer, but rather a technical change in the proper equal and proportional representation depending on the size of the population of provinces. Using the same population size argument, MOA's reform included an enlargement of the Volksraad number of members of parliament, from 225 to 383, with Opperman citing a "cube root rule" to explain the number chosen by the ministry. "It is a normal and quite adequate practice to use this rule since we make the number more flexible with its ability to change depending on population and how changes between the election cycles", - explained the public administration minister.
Local elections reform was not a shocker for the members of Volksraad, nor the journalists, however, the fact that it hasn't been changed yet was shocking for the minister: "It is rather disappointing that we had a rule, where the State President was the one in charge of appointing mayors in our, still, federal country. As a party, that respects and prefers federal governing of our country, it is the most wanted reform for all of us now. Neither the State President nor the federal government should intervene directly in local politics unless required by the criminal law, period".
An hour-long speech by the minister was seen as a positive move from the new government that promised a more federalist approach to the situation in Saridan, and as an interesting twist to change the rules ahead of the next election, that may shake the arena, as conservative opposition from Verenigde party climbs up in polls.