November 2022 Local Council election

November 2022 Local Council election

1‒14 November 2022
All 3 seats on the Local Council
Registered	1239 regional WA members (1st)
Turnout	11.22% (1st)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Candidate Evinea Concrete Slab Canadian Dominion Party Independent Independent Independent Popular vote 41 31 18 Percentage 29.5% 23.48% 13.64%
Local Council before election Curlyhoward The free romanians Trivalve Elected Local Council Canadian Dominion Concrete Slab Evinea

The November 2022 Local Council election was an on-site election held in the South Pacific from 1‒14 November 2022 to elect a new Local Council. The three open seats were contested by 13 candidates, 11 of which appeared on the first ballot on 7 November. Former Local Councilor Evinea won the first seat on 10 November with just under 30% of the vote; the second round ended on 14 November, with Curlyhoward leading before Concrete Slab and Canadian Dominion. After this sentencing on 17 November, Curlyhoward lost the ability to hold public office until 2023, and the (delayed, in expectation of this) certification of results on the same day accordingly recognized Slab and Canadian Dominion elected.

Background

Local Council elections are scheduled regularly in the South Pacific, with all three seats up for election every March, July, and November.

The election took place under the implication of being the last Local Council election ever, with the ongoing 2022 Great Council of the South Pacific having debated the abolition of the LC for several weeks and commencing a vote on the measure two days before the start of candidacy declarations. The vote passed just as the campaigning phase began, again underlining this as possibly the last occasion an LC would be elected.

Electoral System

The Local Council Elections Act stipulates that two rounds of plurality voting will be held to determine the three winners; voters cast their single vote in each for their most-preferred candidate. In the first round, the candidate with the most votes wins a seat (First-Past-The-Post), and all other candidates move on to a second round under the same rules, with the top-two candidates winning the final seats. Due to NationStates poll restrictions, a single poll can only allow for 11 candidates and the Re-Open Nominations option at a time, so should there be more than 11 candidates running, the field is automatically reduced by disqualifying the candidate with the lowest residency score until only 11 candidates remain in the race.

The election would start with a three-day candidacy declarations period (during which candidates may already campaign), followed by a campaigning-only period of another three days, after which the polls would open. Each poll would last three days, with a day of downtime in between.

Candidates

Thirteen candidates submitted a valid bid for the office. Orcuo had shortly moved their main nation a few weeks prior and, having not yet reached a score of 120 days of residency on it again, was forced to run as The Funny Man. As the admissible number of candidates was exceeded by two, the candidates with the lowest and second-lowest residency score were excluded from the ballot in accordance with the Local Council Elections Act; this disqualified Chillicothe (with a residency score of 130.79 at the opening of the polls on November 7) and TescoPepsi (with 139.10 respectively).

Declared Candidates
Bolded candidates are incumbents. Italicized candidates withdrew from the election. Struck candidates were disqualified from the race.
Candidate			Current Position(s)	Campaign
		Ammar and Casentino	Legislator (since September 2022)	صوتوا لعمار
		A Place Somewhere	Citizen of the South Pacific (since January 2022)	A Place Somewhere for LC!!!!!
		Canadian Dominion as Canadian Goose Republic	Citizen of the South Pacific (since July 2021)	Goose The Only Solution, Vote Canadian Goose Republic
		Chillicothe	Legislator (since October 2022)	Vote for Chillicothe
		Concrete Slab	Member of the South Pacific Coral Guard (since August 2020) Expand Other offices Ambassador to The League	CS4LC5
		Confederate Mexico	Citizen of the South Pacific (since October 2021)	Confederate Mexico for LC
		Curlyhoward	Local Councilor (since July 2022)	My campaign
		Drew Durrnil	Citizen of the South Pacific (since September 2021)	Vote Drew Durrnil for LC!
		Evinea	Legislator (since September 2022)	Evinea for Local Council!
		Petea	Legislator (since October 2022)	LC Campaign - Nov 2022
		TescoPepsi	Citizen of the South Pacific (since June 2022)	TescoPepsi for LC!
		Orcuo as The Funny Man	Legislator (since August 2022)	Make TSP Greatest Again
		Stickmin	Legislator (since August 2022)	Absolute PEAK campaign
Total declared:				13
Total on ballot:				11

Ammar and Casentino distinguished themselves by stating that they would not be acting as an RMB moderator but rather as a political representative of the gameside community, pointing to their prior experience as a Legislator of the Assembly for proof.

A Place Somewhere promised to devote as much of their time to the RMB as possible, greeting new nations and running polls; furthermore, they considered "experiment[ing] with some of the rules and try to make the TSP better".

Canadian Dominion focused on his experience as a two-term former LC member, as well as their gameside community involvement, such as running the TSP Ice Hockey Championships.

Chillicothe pledged to "bring a new way of doing things" to balance freedom and security, and promised to implement monthly approval polls for government accountability.

Concrete Slab heavily pushed his experience of five previous terms on the Local Council in his campaign, additionally pointing out his six passed World Assembly resolutions and trusted status as member of the SPCG; policy-wise, he simply announced to "lay down the law [and] welcome newcomers".

Confederate Mexico's core promise was to make TSP "a stable region for everyone, not just TSP residents", claiming to be the person for the job because "a good person with a title like that trumps over anything else" and that their activity on the RMB has given them insight into the workings of it.

Curlyhoward devoted most of their relatively short campaign to summing up their past service to the region, pledging to protect and support freedom of expression on the RMB and overall to "tirelessly provide security to my beloved South Pacific".

Drew Durrnil put a heavy focus on making the RMB more relaxed and "memey" by further relaxing the rules and holding public conventions on them, and creating an official TSP meme account.

Evinea campaigned on an 11-point-plan, besides usual promises of activity and law enforcement most prominently featuring an expansion of Delegate anjo's RMB Awards programme, the creation of an "art gallery", the creation of a "purgelympics" event, and the return of the widely successful SwanVision contest from their last term.

Petea simply printed "please" as their campaign, on the RMB also frequently proclaiming that "a vote for Petea is a vote".

TescoPepsi lamented the lack of regular fun polls in the region, vowing to change this and generally sustain high levels of activity and keep the RMB discussions clean and civil while upholding freedom of speech and giving adequate explanations for every suppression if so desired.

Orcuo focused his campaign on promoting free speech "no matter how concerning it may seem", executing a zero-tolerance policy against spammers and trolls, hosting daily polls and fun-facts and other events, and holding public polls on every change in LC legislation.

Stickmin used their campaign to reflect on their near two-year journey through TSP politics, claiming that some other candidates would not go far on the LC and that voters should rather give their votes to more experienced people like themselves.

Campaign Scandal

Curlyhoward's campaign telegram

After the commencement of nominations, incumbent Local Councilor Curlyhoward pinned their Conflict of Interest dispatch for the election to the region's World Factbook Entry using their Appearance powers as a Regional Officer. Election Commissioner Kris Kringle un-pinned it shortly thereafter, publicly noting his disapproval on Discord but desisting from further action. On November 3, Curlyhoward sent out a campaign telegram to all nations in the South Pacific using the RO power of Communications. Kris Kringle immediately filed a Criminal Complaint for the crime of Corruption before the High Court of the South Pacific, and the Cabinet ordered Delegate anjo to suspend Curlyhoward's RO position for abuse of the same.

The Court formally indicted Curlyhoward on November 5, who had already pled guilty a few hours earlier. Accordingly, the Court found him guilty on November 10.

As sentence, the Court proposed a ban on holding public office until the end of the year. Curlyhoward asked the Court to consider the sentence served on account of his suspension from RO powers, but the Court denied his request in the final judgment on 17 November. Election Commissioner Kringle, who had held certification of the results of the second round since 14 November, accordingly disqualified Curlyhoward from the tally and certified runner-up Concrete Slab and third-place Canadian Dominion as the two winners.

Results

The results of the first round of the election were certified by the Election Commissioner on November 10, 2022.

Results: First Round
Green background denotes winning candidates. Red background denotes eliminated candidates. ✓ and ✗ signal victory or defeat of incumbents respectively.
Candidate		Votes
	Evinea	41	29.5%
	Curlyhoward	35	25.18%
	Drew Durrnil	13	9.35%
	Orcuo	13	9.35%
	Concrete Slab	12	8.63%
	Ammar and Casentino	4	2.88%
	A Place Somewhere	4	2.88%
	Confederate Mexico	4	2.88%
	Petea	3	2.16%
	Canadian Goose Republic	2	1.44%
	The Stickmin Empire	2	1.44%
	Re-Open Nominations	6	4.32%
	Invalid ballots	0	0%
Total ballots cast:			139
Turnout:			11.22%

The second round's were originally scheduled to be certified on November 14, 2022, but the Commissioner put the certification on hold until the High Court had passed judgment in the Curlyhoward campaign scandal case, which occurred on 17 November.

Results: Second Round
Green background denotes winning candidates. Red background denotes eliminated candidates. ✓ and ✗ signal victory or defeat of incumbents respectively.
Candidate		Votes
	✗ Curlyhoward	43	32.58%
	Concrete Slab	31	23.48%
	Canadian Goose Republic	18	13.64%
	Orcuo	9	6.82%
	Drew Durrnil	7	5.3%
	Confederate Mexico	5	3.79%
	Ammar and Casentino	2	1.52%
	A Place Somewhere	2	1.52%
	Petea	2	1.52%
	The Stickmin Empire	2	1.52%
	Re-Open Nominations	11	8.33%
	Invalid ballots	0	0%
Total ballots cast:			132
Turnout:			10.69%

Accordingly, Canadian Dominion, Concrete Slab, and Evinea were elected to the Local Council for a four-month term.