On the Board Game Geek forums there's some debate over the following issue, so I was wondering what the concensus here might be:

If the Presidency changes hands for some reason, what happens to the "keep in play" Quorum cards (e.g. Assign Vice President) that were placed during the previous President's "term of office"?

Some believe that any Quorum cards on the table are immediately discarded if the Presidency changes hands, although I can't find any basis for this in the rules and I suspect these people are incorrect.

Some others quote the FAQ which states,

Q: What happens to a player's 'keep in play' Quorum cards if he becomes a revealed Cylon?

A: They are discarded.

and interpret this to mean that any in-play Quorum cards that were played by a President-turned-revealed-Cylon are discarded. For instance, if a President assigned another player to be Vice President and then the President revealed himself as a Cylon, the Vice Presidency card would be discarded.

I disagree with this reading and believe the FAQ to be stating only that a player who has an in-play Quorum card assigned to himself (e.g. HE is the Vice President or HE is the Mission Specialist) must discard the card if he is revealed to be a Cyclon. Likewise, I don't believe this has anything to do with whether the newly revealed Cyclon was himself the President or not. Rather, I believe the FAQ simply means that revealed Cyclons can't have Quorum cards assigned to them and must discard any such cards they hold when they first reveal themselves.

So if the Presidency changes hands (because the President reveals himself as a Cylon or for any other reason) does this necessarily remove any "keep in play" Quorum cards from the board? My thinking is "no"; but some people are debating it. What do you guys say?

I also say "no". "Keep in play" Quorum cards belong to the player they are played on, not the president who played them ("Give this card to another player..."). The FAQ says discard those belonging to the player, not those played by that player.

Wibble said:

I quoted the FAQ on the BGG thread, but I think it got a little out of context. The question was specifically about what happens to the president. The rules are clear that the undrawn deck and the current hand of cards passes to the next player.

The next question was about played cards in front of the president (unless I read it wrong). If the president has any played Quorum cards in front of him/her, just like any other revealed Cylon, s/he would discard those cards in front of him/her only.

I don't think anyone advocated that Quorum cards in front of the other Humans or non-revealed Cylons would get discarded just because the president is getting canned. Cards in front of other players would remain.

So, president is revealed as a Cylon.
1) hand over the Quorum deck to the new President.
2) hand over the current hand of drawn but unplayed Quorum cards to the new president
3) discard any face-up Quorum cards in front of the president
4) Any face-up Quorum cards in front of other players remain with those players...until they are revealed as Cylons.