CAMPAIGN STATEMENT: RON Concedes Election Despite Voting Irregularities
^{For general release 8AM Friday 16 October 2020}
_{Issued by Abigail Stain, #RON2020 Campaign Manager}

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Early this morning political outsider and leader in the fight for freedom RON appeared at a public breakfast with Admiral Delegate General Amerion and other members of the Fudgetropolis Establishment, brining to an end to days of growing tension over the contested results of the election for Minister of Crazy. As previously reported by SPINN Election Commissioner Somyrion shocked the region by altering voter eligibility rules, declaring all but one vote for Minister of Crazy to be invalid. It has been widely speculated that RON would challenge the results in the High Court, demanding that all ballots be counted, potentially causing weeks of drama and delaying the new cabinet from formally taking office.

Whilst confident that he would be victorious in such a challenge, RON has has made the difficult decision to concede the election for the sake of regional unity despite the overwhelming evidence that he had been victorious in the popular vote. Over the last few days RON has been meeting with senior advisors to Admiral Delegate General Amerion, and whilst we are not in a position to announce any agreement they may have made RON is confident in the future of the South Pacific and will continue to lead the fight for freedom.

During the breakfast RON delivered the following remarks;

"Admiral Delegate General Amerion, Prime Minister Penguin, Colonel Llama, Chief Justice Kringle, Chair Hyacinth, the distinguished nations here, you ladies and gentlemen. I was going to say fellow South Pacificans here, but we cannot forget all those who are watching from a distance including all those nations in raider and imperialist regions who I know are looking for a cause around which to rally and which I believe we can give them.

Admiral Delegate General, these wonderful people here in the South Pacific have given myself quite a welcome. That, plus your kindness and generosity in honoring us with your endorsement will give us a memory that will live in our hearts forever. Watching on discord these last few days I’ve seen also the warmth with which you have stood up for your aide Colonel Llama and you also filled my heart with joy when you did that

As you know I have now conceded the election for Minister of Crazy, and I thank you all for giving me this last chance to speak to you all. There are cynics who say that a regional address like this from someone who lost is something that no one bothers to read and it doesn’t very often amount to much.

Whether it is different this time than it has ever been before, I believe the South Pacific has a government elected with an agenda that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastel shades. We have heard a call to arms, based on that agenda. And it is also a call to us to really be successful in communicating that agenda and to reveal to the all of NationStates the difference between this great freedom loving region and regions like Balder and the Pacific.

If I could just take a moment, I had an assignment the other day. Someone asked me to write a letter for a time capsule that is going to be opened in Government Island three years from now, on our twenty year anniversary. It sounded like an easy assignment. They suggested I write about the problems and issues of the day. And I set out to do so, looking at the glorious blue seas of our region on one side and the luscious green islands and golden beaches on the other, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be that beautiful three years from now as it was on that day.

And then as I tried to write it - let your own minds turn to that task. You’re going to write for people three years from now who know all about us, but we know nothing about them. We don’t know what kind of region they’ll be living in. And suddenly I thought to myself, if I write of the problems, they’ll be the domestic problems of which the Admiral Delegate General has spoken; the challenges confronting us, the erosion of freedom taken place in this region, the controls and restrictions on the activity of the great free region that we enjoy. These are the challenges that we must meet and then again there is that challenge of which he spoke that we live in a world in raider and imperialist regions have aimed and poised at us and the other free regions their horrible means of destruction, those updater forces that can in a matter of seconds arrive in other regions and destroy them.

And suddenly it dawned on me; those who would read this letter three years from now will know whether those forces succeeded. They will know whether we met our challenge.

Whether they will have the freedom that we have known up until now will depend on what we do here. Will they look back with appreciation and thank Max Barry for those people in 2020 who headed off that loss of freedom? Who kept us now three years later free? Who kept our region from destruction?

And if we fail they probably won’t get to read the letter at all because it spoke of individual freedom and they won’t be allowed to talk of that or read of it.

This is our challenge and this is why we’re here. More than we’ve ever done before, we've got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to all the nations of the game that we may be few in number but we carry the message they're waiting for. We must go forth from here united, determined to show that what a great Delegate said a few years ago is still true: There is no other region in NationStates like TSP."