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Elections for the Cabinet and Prime Minister of the Coalition of the South Pacific are due to commence today, lasting for a total of ten days according to the timeline proposed by the Chair of the Assembly, Awe, during the Great Council.  Whilst no one has formally put themselves up for election in any thread in the Assembly, it is known that there are a number of candidates for most of the positions on the cabinet.  Who will put themselves forward for the role of Prime Minister is less certain, as many consider it to be an undesirable role.

Debate on amendments to the charter, agreed by a vote of the Assembly on 26th May, has continued throughout the last week, with some particularly fierce debate surrounding the exact nature of the delegate vote to follow.  Citizen (now Legislator, under the new charter) Belschaft proposed that a preferential voting system be used instead of the controversial First Past The Post system, whilst Sangaoguo countered that this was unnecessarily complicated for an election which is unlikely to have more than two candidates running.  The debate went back and forth for some time, with the consensus appearing to be, at the time of writing, that most people would prefer to run the election as it is and amend the voting procedures afterwards if it was considered to be an issue.

All of this is taking place on the eve of Coalition Day, the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of the Coalition of the South Pacific on 2nd June, 2003.  To celebrate, the Ministry of Regional Affairs is planning a five-day festival, with daily activities and historical trivia, as well as much, much more, to be seen on the forum, in dispatches and on the Regional Message Board.  The Deputy Minister of Regional Affairs, Roavin, has been leading a diverse team of South  Pacific nations to put the finishing touches on what is promising to be a fun long weekend.