--
Home-|-Please Explain-|-Capital News-|-Weekly Herald-|-Southern Monthly
--

--
Edition One-
--

(This post was last modified: 02-20-2020, 10:33 PM by Amerion.)

Reply

--
ASSEMBLY
--

Chair of the Assembly Election Results (February 2020 Election)

Click here to view a full resolution image

The elections for Chair of the Assembly saw phoenixofthesun14 emerging victorious over Amerion with a final tally of 24–22 votes. phoenixofthesun14 previously served as Deputy Chair under Chair Nakari and ran a campaign of 'Attention, Continuity, and Engagement'. The new Chair has pledged to continue the longstanding practice of Discord pings and dispatch notifications to keep Legislators apprised of new votes in the Assembly as they occur. It is expected that Chair phoenixofthesun14 will appoint a Deputy Chair within the next two weeks.

[Passed] ’Pax Poukai’ Non-Aggression Pact with Lazarus (A2002.01)

Legislators have ratified a treaty with Lazarus. The non-aggression pact with the sinker game-created-region, named ’Pax Poukai’, comes nearly two years since the region was couped by Imki and transitioned into a corporation-themed democracy. Now led by long-term native resident Treadwellia, the region which has witnessed a number of upheavals over the past 3 years has gradually stabilised on the domestic front and is now expanding its foreign and military affairs portfolios.

The Boardroom (Assembly) of Lazarus has similarly approved the pact and it is expected that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will soon enter the treaty into its official diplomatic documents depository.

[Passed] Alteration to the Assembly Archives (A2002.02)

The Assembly has amended a requirement that defunct forum threads be relocated to an archive. It is now at the discretion of the Chair of the Assembly whether discussion threads are removed from the main floor of the legislative body.

The requirement was first proposed and passed in January 2019. “This amendment is introduced with the intention that it will prevent Legislators from obstructing progress in this legislature through various means.” the bill’s author, Legislator Bzerneleg argued, “ as well as clearing up the legislative process to make it more functional and transparent.”

Despite its passage in the legislature, the Assembly’s administration led by then-Chair Amerion along with successive Chairs did not proactively implement the legislation; between the time the bill was enacted to its repeal, no forum thread was relocated.

[Passed] Cooling-off Period for Failed Legislation (A2002.03)

Legislators have adopted a measure requiring a cooling-off period for bills which are substantially similar to legislation which had just failed at a vote.

The proposal came after the at times heated debate on elevating various departments — culture, media, World Assembly, and home affairs — of the Ministry of Regional Affairs to the cabinet-level. These discussions resulted in several competing bills which ultimately all failed on the floor of the Assembly. A number of Legislators suggested afterwards that another attempt would be made at the end of the new Cabinet term in June.

[Passed] SPSF members on Deployment during Elections now given a Means to Vote (A2002.04)

The Elections Act has been amended to provide South Pacific Special Forces (SPSF) on deployment for the duration of a gameside regional election poll with access to the ballot box.

As is the standard practice with such polls, only members of the World Assembly who are native residents — having more influence in the region than in any other region — in the Coalition are eligible to cast a vote. This practice was questioned during the recent Delegate election in January when members of the SPSF were deployed in the region of Iran for a substantial stretch of the election period. These members were later recalled back to the homeland after the operation ended in success.

In the aftermath of the election, then-Election Commissioner Amerion proposed an amendment which would make allowance for these situations. Although some Legislators felt the amendment was not necessary due to the unique circumstances of the Iran operation, others voiced an opinion that it will cover a loophole which would otherwise exist.

[Passed] Charter Amendment to expand definition of Administration Team (A2002.05)

Assembly members have amended the Charter to expand the purview of the Administration Team to include off-site resources as well. Previously, the region’s original constitutional law had defined the administration team in terms of the forum only. In his opening post, Legislator Jay Coop noted that most if not all of the forum’s administration team already function in an unofficial capacity as the moderation and administration team on the region’s Discord server. “It might,’ he suggested, “be worth it to amend the Charter to take into account the evolving nature of regional offsite communications.”

--
CABINET
--

Cabinet Election Results (February 2020 Election)

Click here to view a full resolution image

The race for Prime Minister began on an even footing with the top two contenders Roavin and Agalaesia receiving the same amount of first preference public votes in the first two and a half hours. By the day's end, however, Roavin started to pull away and solidified his lead by the midway point of the polls. With the vote moving to a second round of counting, the candidate who received the least amount of first preference votes, RickRaccYT, was eliminated with his supporters going towards Agalaesia. Ultimately, this increase in support was not significant enough to overcome Roavin's substantial lead and the final result of 25–8 votes in Roavin's favour meant that the four-time Prime Minister was returning to Capital Island for a unprecedented fifth term in office.

The remaining votes for the ministerial positions were predictable given the uncontested nature of the elections. Jay Coop and Omega handily dispatched the option to re-open nominations (RON) and secured the positions of Minister of Regional Affairs (29–2) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs (31–2), respectively. Notably, in the race for Minister of Military Affairs, sole-contender Heliseum was met with a greater showing for RON but prevailed in the end with a vote count of 23–8.

The newly-elected Cabinet begins the Transition Process

In a tweet published a day after the election result was declared, the incoming Tweeter-in-Chief, Prime Minister-Designate Roavin announced that the new Cabinet was in the midst of preparing to take office.

The internal conversations about creating a World Assembly department follows recent legislative discussions on the matter which resulted in a bill to create a WA ministry failing in the Assembly. The Prime Minister-Designate had highlighted the establishment of the department as one of the central planks in his election. "We don’t have a World Assembly ministry by law at the moment, but there is nothing stopping the Cabinet from establishing a dedicated department — and that’s exactly what I intend to do in my first week," Roavin pledged in his campaign thread.

The inclusion of Concrete Slab in these discussions suggest that Cabinet will select him to lead this new initiative. Concrete Slab has over the past months spearheaded an effort to revitalise the World Assembly Centre and in a pre-election poll, was chosen as voters' first preference for the hypothetical Ministry of World Assembly Affairs.

Reply