How the MDU works

What the MDU is

A micronation founded in 2024. It holds no territory and claims none, so its law is about how its members behave and how the Union runs itself, rather than about a place.

There is no parliament. Roughly a dozen citizens vote on things directly, and a President who holds office for life. That combination is unusual, and most of what follows is the machinery that keeps it from being a problem.

Who does what

Citizens

Vote, sign petitions, propose laws, and can stand for Vice President. Everyone gets one vote, and together they hold three quarters of the voting power.

The President

Head of state, for life, and cannot be removed by anyone - that is written into the Constitution and cannot be changed. Holds a fifth of the voting power and decides what gets put to a vote. No veto, though: if the citizens vote together they win.

The Vice President

Exists mainly to take over if the President dies or resigns. Elected by the citizens, holds a twentieth of the voting power. The post is currently empty, which is a bigger deal than it sounds - see continuity.

Registry staff

Process citizenship applications and issue documents. Administrative only. A registry staff cannot take your citizenship away; only a vote can.

How a law gets made

1. Someone proposes it. Any citizen can write a proposal and publish it.
2. Everyone argues with it for a week. Comments are public and attributed.
3. The proposer answers the serious objections, in public. They cannot skip this if anyone commented.
4. It goes to a vote - opened by the President. Three days of notice first, with the wording frozen, so nobody votes on something they read for the first time that morning.
5. If it passes it becomes law automatically and appears in the legal code. Nobody types it in by hand.

Changing the Constitution itself works the same way but needs two thirds instead of half, and can only add - nothing in it can ever be removed.

Petitions, and their limit

Any citizen can start a petition. If a tenth of citizens sign it, the President has to answer it publicly and give reasons. They are not allowed to ignore it or sit on it forever.

But an answer is not a decision. As things stand a petition cannot become a vote on its own, because only the President opens votes. Changing that is open to the citizens: any citizen may propose a law, and whether the Union adopts one is for the citizens to decide.

How voting works

Not one person one vote. Citizens share three quarters of the power between them, the President has a fifth, the Vice President a twentieth. With six citizens voting, that works out at six votes to the citizens and two to the President.

You can change your vote as often as you like until voting closes, and only your last one counts. That is there so that nobody can buy your vote or stand over you while you cast it - you can always quietly change it afterwards, so there is nothing worth buying.

Your vote is secret. You get a receipt so you can confirm it was counted, and when the result is published anyone can recount the whole thing themselves without trusting us. The arithmetic is here.

What the Union knows about you

Your name, date of birth, country and a way to contact you, all stored encrypted. The photo ID you send when applying is deleted as soon as your application has been decided.

You can see every time anyone opened your file, including yourself, and you can export or delete your data whenever you want without asking permission. The Union does not record anyone's ethnicity or religion, and does not publish how many citizens it has.