Unlike previous discussions, the meeting around the proposed Campaigning Act was anything but consensual, since both extreme cases — no limits to campaigning whatsoever, to carefully supervised campaigning with a lot of restrictions, were defended and argued for equally. While it was relatively consensual that the currently approved legislation does not fit to what citizens wish, and a change is necessary, it was not clear which direction this change should take.
It was also clear that there is little point in creating new legislation if there isn't a mechanism to encourage candidates to comply with the rules. Overseeing is important, and so is any form of deterrent to deal with candidates that disregard the laws. However, previous legislation did not always make clear who is supposed to oversee and regulate campaigning (except for purely administrative purposes, e.g. getting a list of candidates). The suggestion that the Scientific Council, being the only branch that doesn't get elected, should be the appropriate governmental organisation to oversee the elections of the other two branches (legislative and executive), was formally rejected by the Dean of the Scientific Council on the last general elections, where it became clear that the SC didn't read the Constitution as attributing that power to them: they just validate the results, but not "police" the campaigning (except, of course, in case of formal charges against a candidate; in that case, the SC will act in its role as judicial branch of the CDS).
After some deliberation, the need of an independent election overseeing commission has been raised, since the proposed bill will affect both the RA and Executive elections, and clearly none of those are supposed to oversee themselves, so this commission will formally request a hearing with the SC to request further assistance in establishing the amount of involvement the SC might be willing to have in this process.
This independent election overseeing commission would have the role to oversee, supervise, and enforce the campaigning laws during election time. The composition of that independent election overseeing commission was only briefly discussed; it was immediately clear that this branch would overlap roles with the Executive (which does the "policing" regarding Covenants, for example) and the Scientific Council (which oversee a few aspects of the election procedures). Clearly, any suggestion for an independent election overseeing commission would first require a thorough discussion with the Scientific Council to establish boundaries and clarify eventual overlapping functions before coming up with a new law.
Taking all this into account, and keeping in mind that a few citizens suggested dropping all restrictions during the campaigning weeks whatsoever, this is the best proposal that this commission could make:
Campaigning Act
1. Campaigning starts officially two weeks before the last election day.
2. Candidates are encouraged to use good taste and common sense in conducting campaigns, keeping a balance between limiting spam and allowing freedom of speech, while always following the established Covenants. Final arbitration of any disputes shall be handled by the Scientific Council, or such duly appointed electoral oversight commission.
3. Violations of point 2. may include warnings, suspension of campaigning activities, or even exclusion from the poll, depending on severity and reincidence, to be applied by the Scientific Council, or such duly appointed electoral oversight commission.
4. The Scientific Council, or such duly appointed electoral oversight commission, shall collect notecards/pictures from candidates representing what they stand for.
5. The Scientific Council, or such duly appointed electoral oversight commission, shall post this information, at the beginning of the campaigning period, via an attachment on a notice to the official CDS group.
6. The same information shall be placed in a board or similar device on a public area by the Scientific Council, or such duly appointed electoral oversight commission.
7. The Scientific Council, or such duly appointed electoral oversight commission, shall organize events where citizens can fairly meet all candidates.
8. Candidates are encouraged to hold information/meet and greet events, and to announce such events via the official channels.
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It was also discussed that this legislation would not apply to the official CDS forums or other Government-endorsed websites which allow citizen participation. These are already moderated by the Scientific Council as per the Constitution.
Also note that access to "the official channels" is being currently discussed by the Communications Commission and does not require specific addressing on this proposed act, except where noted (point 5).