| Delegate Election Special |
The South Pacific’s January Delegate elections are now well underway, with campaigning set to continue until January 8th. The first round of voting will be from the 8th to the 11th for forumside legislators. The top two candidates will progress to a gameside poll, which will run from the 11th to the 18th and will be open to all native WA members. This election has proven to be a popular one, with nine candidates representing a mixture of experienced and new nations. Incumbent Delegate Drugged Monkeys is not seeking re-election, explaining ‘I am not able to devote my time to NS as I did once before,’ which leaves the door open for a new Delegate. The World Assembly One of the main talking points in this election is the Delegate endorsement levels, with Drugged Monkeys currently having the lowest endorsement count of any Feeder Delegate. Tim Stark’s half-serious campaign puts great focus upon his endotarting skills. Tim, a former Osiris Delegate, claims that ‘I'm a really good tarter, and under me we can see a ton of endorsements come through and grow us to not be the lamest in endorsements.’ Other candidates are also emphasising their tarting skills, with Seraph (Erinor) noting that he is the highest ranked non-CRS member for endorsements, Midand claiming to endotart at least once a day, and Glen (Sandaoguo) explaining that he made a tarter, a script which assists with endotarting, that the entire CRS currently uses. However, other candidates are more sceptical of a purely endotarting based approach, with Farengeto wanting ‘to pursue better solutions’, citing a TNP-style development program as a potential goal. Tsunamy, who reached 500 endorsements as Delegate last winter, stated that ‘the problem isn't exactly with the delegate not endorsing enough’, and also referenced TNP as a long-term aim for the region. Glen, while in favour of a TNP-style system, was sceptical about how it would be implemented, given the difficulty of scripting such a system, while Drall (Mostly Benevolent Tyranny) drafted his own system, though it would require a team of people to maintain. A WA development program, whether similar to TNP or not, has been brought up in the last few elections, but so far nothing has been done. Could our next Delegate be the one to spearhead a boost in regional endorsement numbers? The RMB With TSP’s Delegate being a more gameside focussed role than the Prime Minister, there have been some differing viewpoints over how active our Delegate should be on the RMB, and what its relationship should be with the Local Council. In response to criticism about his lack of RMB activity, Glen asserted ‘The Delegate isn't the ruler of the RMB. It doesn't make any decisions for the RMB community at all’. Other candidates were quick to disagree, however, with Farengeto quoting the Charter, and North Prarie stating ‘the Delegate cannot completely ignore the RMB alltogether’. With the current laws in the Charter concerning the job of the Delegate being quite vague and ambiguous, the level of activity of the Delegate in the various communities within TSP will always be up for dispute, with different candidates bringing their own opinions and style of Delegacy to the position. New Candidates Go Up Against Experience There are three (or rather four, but more on that later) inexperienced candidates in the field, who have never run for any position before. Tsar Peter (Theytonia) is the newest of the three, having been founded fewer than two weeks ago, and has opted for a Question and Answer style campaign, though has not been particularly active. North Prarie has had a busy start to his NationStates life, having been a member of the infamous TSP Next, before quitting as they began to reveal their fascist tendencies. He then started the Island Democratic Party, and will be their first representative in an election. His ambitious campaign involves re-opening relations with The West Pacific, and having a TSP-drafted General Assembly resolution pass. The predominantly RMB-based Midand’s campaign focusses mainly on RMB moderation, with preventing spamming and trolling top of his agenda. There have been complaints about the way that newer candidates are being questioned, with North Prarie saying that the older candidates are being given much easier questions compared to the ‘grilling’ that the new nations received. Tsunamy countered by claiming that the questions he’d been asked, particularly about his previous terms, weren’t easy, while according to Seraph, the more experienced candidates aren't asked the same questions because their answers are clear in their prior action and reputation. This may, however, raise a philosophical question about how we should approach our democracy. Newer nations should be encouraged to get involved, rather than being unfairly grilled whenever they run for anything. However, nobody should get a free pass on proving themselves worthy of a position, particularly one as important as the Delegate. How this problem should be approached will always be a matter of taste. A Controversial Candidate The final candidate in this election caused waves in the short time they were here, and not in a good way. Newcomer Taoiseach (Ifreann fuilteacha)’s campaign began in a confident manner, but quickly descended into flaming, which culminated in a three-day RMB ban by the NationStates moderators. In recent weeks, The South Pacific has been beset by a significant number of trolls and spammers. The new Delegate may be under pressure to act on this, either through regular patrolling of the RMB or by pushing through legislation, which gives greater power to the CRS to ban troublesome nations. A Healthy Democracy There are ten candidates on the ballot for this election, double the number of any Delegate election since the 2016 Great Council. This may be a sign that participation in our democracy is increasing, with a mixture of experienced nations and newcomers from all branches of the TSP community running. Only time will tell whether this is just a temporary uptake in activity, or a long-term trend. Did some LC, MoRA, CRS stuff in the past. Do a lot of World Census stuff now.
Personally, I think I asked almost the same or similar questions to most candidates and did not grill as much as I usually do this election because of some rl\other stuff. However, considering how significantly important the delegate position is - I think I will be sure to engage in more then lightly grilling or toasting next time for sure!
Also, new to TSP? How about joining one of the great wonderful ministries that can be joined and contributing and establishing a record of service! After all, its not like we let anyone take office in America. I mean at this point we have learned from the travesty of 2017 Trump that the process should be made more firm and firmier. Escade ~ Positions Held in TSP ~ Delegate | Vice Delegate Minister of Regional Affairs, | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Military Affairs ~ The Sparkly One ~ My Pinterest |
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