The South Pacific

This election for Minister of Foreign Affairs has been messy. Somyrion, who many voters favoured, withdrew from the race just after the nomination period ended. North Prarie, who has received many public votes, has just had a criminal complaint against him accusing him of bribery.

I encourage the Assembly to vote RON. We deserve a fresh, new election. Potential candidates, who would have run if they had known that Somyrion would withdraw, deserve the chance to show themselves. Glen-Rhodes, our only candidate who has not withdrawn nor been accused of a crime, deserves to run in an election where he doesn't win by default because he is the last one standing. North Prarie, if innocent, deserves to run in an election where he isn't accused of bribery half-way through the vote

What will happen if RON wins? The Cabinet will need to appoint a new temporary Foreign Affairs Minister for the length of the new election, as I will either resign to become Minister of Military Affairs, or I will happily step down from being MoFA.

And most importantly, we will have a fresh new election.

Vote RON so that we can start this again.

I have run an above-board campaign. I’ve put in more work and debated more than my opponent. North Prairie might have committed misconduct, but I haven’t and so I shouldn’t be punished for their actions.

Voting RON is not, as Nakari is saying, voting against a tarred election. The election is not tarred, North Prairie’s campaign is. If you don’t want to vote for him, then don’t. But seeking to take down the whole election necessarily punishes me for something I haven’t done. It’s not a consolation to say, “But you can run again, Glen!” I shouldn’t have to work twice as hard to run for office because of something I didn’t do.

There are 2 candidates in the race. If you don’t like NP, don’t vote for them. If you don’t like me, don’t vote for me. But it’s not right or okay to launch a campaign to get everybody to change their vote to RON, when one of the candidates hasn’t done anything wrong.

So you say that those who do not favour you should vote for you regardless?

I prefer a fresh election. A clean slate to start over. Do not believe you have the right to that office if the voters do not support you, despite being the only candidate.

(02-12-2019, 12:34 PM)Ryccia Wrote: [ -> ]So you say that those who do not favour you should vote for you regardless?

I prefer a fresh election. A clean slate to start over. Do not believe you have the right to that office if the voters do not support you, despite being the only candidate.

No, vote for Prairie if you think he hasn’t done anything wrong. Vote for RON if you don’t support either me or NP. That’s different than calling for everyone to vote for RON by claiming the entire election is now under question. It’s not, because I have not done anything wrong or illegal.

I also have to question the motivations here. If you’re going to campaign for RON, Nakari, you should disclose who you supported prior to this. Because if it was RON, then this campaign isn’t exactly above board either.

I originally supported RON because I thought that Somyrion withdrawing so close to voting time had already impacted the election. I didn't feel that strongly about it, though. Then the election was even more severely impacted by the bribery case, at which point I felt about it strongly enough to campaign for a fresh election.