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New Cabinet Takes Seats


The newly elected Cabinet took their seats on Friday 21st of February. The new cabinet consists of Prime Minister Roavin, whose campaign pledged to create a World Assembly Advisor and to codify cabinet policies; Ministry of Military Affairs Heliseum, who pledged to create allied training exercises and to "reward SPSF members for their hard work"; Minister of Regional Affairs Qvait, whose campaign stated that he would launch the Ministry of Regional Affairs into a "new era" by establishing a "TSP Encyclopedia" project and "promoting roleplay" amongst other projects and Minister of Foreign Affairs Omega, who promised to reform the ministry’s structure and appoint more advisors. 

Nearly all races were uncontested aside from the race for Prime Minister, which featured former Prime Minister Roavin, outgoing Minister of Regional Affairs Agalaeisa and newcomer RichRaccYT.

Roavin won on the second round against Agalaesia by a 25-10 vote. 

Once in office Prime Minister Roavin announced the appointment of Concrete Slab as World Assembly Advisor, stating that “he will be responsible for advising the regional vote in the General Assembly and Security Council, as well as build a culture of World Assembly authorship within the South Pacific.” Concrete Slab currently serves as a Local Councillor. Newly elected Chair of the Assembly PhoenixoftheSun14 was also appointed as an advisor for Military Affairs; the Prime Minister stated that “phoenixofthesun14 has been one of the most active soldiers in the South Pacific Special Forces, and has nearly completed training for Officer rank.” She also serves as the Senior Fellow for Events Planning for the Ministry of Regional Affairs. Agalaesia, Penguin and Rabbitz have also been appointed as Deputy Ministers for Cultural, Educational and Media Affairs, respectively.  

Belschaft Introduces Amendment to Discard Approval Voting; Argues for Ranked Choice Voting Across the Board

Belschaft has introduced an amendment to the Elections Act that would discard approval voting, the method currently used to elect the Chair of the Assembly and select the two candidates who can move forward to the gameside round in Delegate elections. Belschaft has long argued that approval voting is inadequate for the region and leads to a “high percentage of players casting null-ballots by approving every single candidate”.

The amendment would also adopt instant runoff voting (IRV) and single transferable vote (STV) as the two default voting methods in regional elections and directs the use of IRV for Delegate and Chair elections. This has found initial support from those participating in the discussion, namely Roavin and Jay Coop, recently elected Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Affairs, respectively, who have both offered edits to the initial draft of the amendment. 

Amerion’s Newspaper Heralds a Possible Return of private media 

Former Prime Minister Amerion announced on February 20th the establishment of the Southern Cross Herald, a privately-owned newspaper with an initial focus on weekly news updates. As he described it in his announcement, the newspaper “will feature all the news that can feasibly fit a dispatch and provides TSPers — gamesider and forumsider alike — with a one-stop-shop for all your information needs”. 

This newspaper, whose first weekly issue has been published already, along with the recently revived South Pacific Independent News Network, could signal a return to the regular publication of private media, which severely dropped after the establishment of the state-owned Southern Journal and its successor, the Coconut Press. It is also possible, depending on how they evolve in the coming weeks, that both private and state media could coexist, providing multiple sources of information for the general public.

 SPINN RELAUNCHED 

The South Pacific Independent News Network has been relaunched, following a five year period of inactivity. The publication of the first Weekly Edition of S.P.I.N.N. (which was published on Friday the 28th February) comes shortly after the launch of the Southern Cross, another independent Newspaper run by former Prime Minister Amerion. 

The newspaper will seek to uphold a practice of editorial anonymity where the author requests it, and will release Weekly Editions every Weekend on the forums, and eventually on gameside dispatches. 

(This post was last modified: 02-28-2020, 11:28 PM by Amerion. Edit Reason: Corrected the bold text as per mod request )

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