February 2022 Cabinet election
The February 2022 Cabinet election is an ongoing election held in the South Pacific from 1‒10 February 2022 to elect new Cabinet ministers. Six positions are up for election, namely that of the Minister of Culture, Minister of Defence, Minister of Engagement, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Media, as well as the Prime Minister of the South Pacific.
Background
Cabinet elections are scheduled regularly, taking place every four months. According to the Elections Act, a Cabinet election would have to take place on February 1st, 2022.
Electoral System
Each position in the Cabinet is elected independently from one another using the Instant-Runoff voting system; in each race, voters rank as many of the candidates as they wish in descending order of preference, or may abstain entirely.
A day prior to the opening of nominations, an amendment to the Elections Act was passed, rewording the section describing Instant-Runoff voting.[1] However, this amendment effectively didn't affect the ballot counting process, instead simply condensing its phrasing.
Prime Minister
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| Registered | 68 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | TBD | |||||||||||||||
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The February 2022 Prime Minister election was contested by incumbent HumanSanity and their predecessor, Witchcraft and Sorcery. Nominations were declined by Sandaoguo, Roavin, and Purple Hyacinth; Rebeltopia, Amerion, Jay Coop, and Nakari have not yet responded to their nominations.
Candidates
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|
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HumanSanity | Prime Minister of the South Pacific (since October 2021) Other offices |
[2] |
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Witchcraft and Sorcery | Legislator of the South Pacific (since May 2020) Other offices
Member of the Legislator Committee Commander of the South Pacific Special Forces Senior Staff in the Ministry of Engagement |
[3] |
Campaigns
HumanSanity campaigned on a platform of continuing their work from the concluding term while taking a more authoritative approach to the Prime Minister's role within the Cabinet. They highlighted a number of points they believed went well in the term, namely transparency and stability, and explained the benefits to their preferred hands-on style of being Prime Minister in achieving those things. Furthermore, HumanSanity presented a brief overview of their visions for each of the ministries and the Office of World Assembly Legislation in addition to general Cabinet-wide goals for the upcoming term.[2]
The campaign of Witchcraft and Sorcery likewise cited his previous term as Prime Minister as well as experience from other Ministerial positions. Unlike HumanSanity, he argued for a more manager-like leadership of the Prime Minister, mostly aiding the individual Cabinet ministers in achieving their campaign promises and helping the Cabinet as a whole stick together. Nonetheless, he still listed a number of objectives he'd like each Ministry to complete, which were generally similar to those of HumanSanity.[3]
A debate was held on February 3rd between the two, hosted by the South Pacific Independent News Network.
Minister of Culture
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| Registered | 68 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | TBD | |||||||||||||||
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The February 2022 Minister of Culture election was a race between Klysevia and Murelia. HumanSanity, Purple Hyacinth, and Doge Land declined their nominations.
Candidates
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|
| File:Klysevia Flag.svg | Klysevia | Legislator of the South Pacific (since April 2021) Other offices
Senior Staff in the Ministry of Culture |
[4] |
|
Murelia | Legislator of the South Pacific (since July 2021) Other offices
Ambassador to Spiritus and the East Pacific |
[5] |
Campaigns
Klysevia's campaign largely consisted of an analysis of the current term's games and events, observing the decline in attendance after the new role-specific ping system was introduced and describing possible solutions to further community engagement to tackle this issue. This mostly entailed collaboration with the Ministry of Engagement to properly "hype up" MoC's weekly games as well as trying to organize larger events, and propping all of this up with more Voice Chat activity. He furthermore expressed a desire to look into hosting interregional events in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to further community engagement. Klysevia conceded lacking knowledge about the South Pacific's roleplay community, but promised to nonetheless work with them throughout the term.[4]
Murelia similarly campaigned to organize more interregional events to the enjoyment of participants as well as South Pacifican publicity. He also talked about the weekly games introduced by incumbent Doge Land, but focused criticism on their timing, lamenting the time zone differences making it impossible for him and likely others to attend some of them; the proposed solution was to spread and circulate the times for all the events, and a dedicated Discord channel should help with publicity and attracting more participants. Murelia lastly suggested further engagement with the roleplay community of TSP by explicitly extending event invitations to the dedicated RP servers, since the associated RP events would be of great interest to them, too.[5]
On February 3rd, the South Pacific Independent News Network hosted a debate between the two.
Minister of Defence
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| Registered | 68 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | TBD | |||||||||||||||
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The February 2021 Minister of Defence election only had one candidate, incumbent Moon, run for office. HumanSanity, Roavin, Pronoun, Witchcraft and Sorcery, Belschaft, and Wizard Ferret declined their nominations.
Candidate
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Moon | Minister of Defense of the South Pacific (since January 2021) Other offices
Officer of the South Pacific Special Forces Senior Staff in the Ministry of Media Ambassador to the West Pacific and 10000 Islands |
[6] |
Campaign
The campaign of Moon highlighted the increasingly active SPSF membership, including Civilian recruitment for important liberations as well as the growing numbers of the Tidal Force, and thanked his Generals and Prime Minister HumanSanity for providing the support necessary for these achievements. He pledged to advance the Tidal Force more in the coming term, and increase integration efforts for new SPSF members to avoid overwhelming them with all the details about R/D. Lastly, Moon explained his plans for more public appearances of the Ministry, lauding HumanSanity's bi-weekly Cabinet updates and promising to revive monthly reports from the MoD itself in addition to continuing the special reports published about large-scale operations in the last term.[6]
Moon was interviewed by the South Pacific Independent News Network on February 4th.
Minister of Engagement
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| Registered | 68 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | TBD | |||||||||||||||
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The February 2022 Minister of Engagement election saw Jebediah challenge incumbent Purple Hyacinth. Pronoun declined their nomination; Griffindor, USoVietnam, and Evinea have neither accepted nor declined their nominations yet.
Candidates
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Purple Hyacinth | Minister of Engagement of the South Pacific (since November 2021) Other offices
Senior Staff in the Ministry of Culture Senior Staff in the Ministry of Media OWL Senior Staff Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs |
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Jebediah | Legislator of the South Pacific (since January 2022) |
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Campaigns
Neither Purple Hyacinth nor Jebediah have posted their campaigns yet.[7]
Minister of Foreign Affairs
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| Registered | 68 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | TBD | |||||||||||||||
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The February 2022 Minister of Foreign Affairs election was contested by incumbent Roavin and Sandaoguo. Nominations were declined by Moon and Wizard Ferret, while Jay Coop and Qaz haven't responded to theirs yet.
Candidates
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Roavin | Minister of Foreign Affairs of the South Pacific (since October 2021) Other offices
Associate Justice of the High Court General of the South Pacific Special Forces Member of the Legislator Committee |
[8] |
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Sandaoguo | Member of the Council on Regional Security (since December 2016) Other offices |
[9] |
Campaigns
Roavin's campaign started with a look back on the past term's achievements, such as the new Pact of the Centre of the Earth with Balder and general talks with a number of regions, for which furthermore the respective TSPedia pages were polished. Goals for the coming term were stated to be conducting those talks with further regions, improving ambassador recruitment and internal integration, and working with the Ministry of Media to produce regular foreign reports. Roavin further hinted at a number of in-the-works FA projects that would likely be released in the next term, and finished the campaign with an outline of general policy views, especially highlighting TSP's democratic and defender values.[8]
Sandaoguo put the main focus of his campaign on his non-compromising defender ideology, stating that a Minister of Foreign Affairs had to know how to navigate the interregional landscape for the long-term benefit. He criticized that recently, TSP's FA objective had been to achieve short-term benefits and try to please everyone, citing his "hopeful scepticism" and indifference to his own reputation in the gameplay community as prime reasons for why he could abandon this policy line in favor of a more effective, principled FA agenda. Sandaoguo expressed a desire to add an actual military pact to the Partnership for Sovereignty and placing it at the core of any South Pacifican foreign strategy.[9]
The two participated in a debate hosted by the South Pacific Independent News Network on February 3rd.
Minister of Media
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| Registered | 68 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | TBD | |||||||||||||||
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The February 2022 Minister of Media election was a race between Belschaft campaigning to abolish the Ministry and Wizard Ferret wanting to save it. Purple Hyacinth, Murelia, and BlockBuster2K43 declined their nominations, while Not Austria, Rebeltopia, Floptop, and Ike haven't responded yet.
Candidates
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Belschaft | Associate Justice of the High Court (since May 2018) |
[10] |
|
Wizard Ferret | Legislator of the South Pacific (since January 2022) Other offices
Ambassador to Ministry of Culture |
[11] |
Campaigns
Belschaft's campaign was his third attempt at being elected on a platform of wholly abolishing the Ministry of Media. He cited low ‒ although increased ‒ publication activity as well as a perceived complete redundancy of the Ministry as his reasons, and explained that any player interested in writing news articles could easily do so without the Ministry, which he believed to simply add layers of unnecessary bureaucracy. He further promised to release all assets of the Ministry, such as graphics and guides, to the public for free.[10]
Wizard Ferret campaigned mostly to present the voters with an alternative to the Ministry's abolition, but also expressed excitement at the idea of running a newspaper. Among their suggestions for getting the Ministry off the ground again were implementing a regular publication schedule, furthering recruitment and integration efforts by transforming the Ministry culture into a newspaper writing room-like atmosphere, and changing up the general feeling of articles as well as expanding the areas of NS covered by them.[11]
Results
The election results are still to be determined, with voting set to close on February 10th.[12]
References
- ↑ A2201.08 Cleaning up the Elections Act. CoA anjo, 26 Jan '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 HumanSanity for Prime Minister: Continued Growth. HumanSanity, 1 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 WS4PM: Here we go again... Witchcraft and Sorcery, 3 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Eshia for MoC!. Eshialand, 1 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Murelia for MoC. Murelia, 2 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Moonister of Defense II. Moon, 3 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ February 2022 Cabinet Election: Minister of Engagement. TSP forums. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 RoFAvin 3.0: Plain FAcking awesome. Roavin, 2 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Breaking: Sandaoguo wins close election!. Sandaouo, 2 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Abolish the Ministry of Media - is third time the charm?. Belschaft, 2 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Magic may be required to save the Ministry of Media - enter Wizard Ferret. Wizard Ferret, 3 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.
- ↑ Declarations of Candidacy. EC Kris Kringle, 1 Feb '22. Retrieved 4 Feb '22.