November 2021 Minister of Defence special election
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| Registered | 78 legislators of the South Pacific | |||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 38.46% | |||||||||||||||
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The December 2021 Minister of Defence special election was an election held in the South Pacific from 25 November ‒ 8 December 2021 to elect a new Minister of Defence after incumbent Witchcraft and Sorcery had resigned the office. The election was a race between former Minister of Media Moon and Domais, who ran a joke campaign. Ultimately, Moon defeated his opponent in a landslide.
Background
Cabinet positions usually are elected concurrently every four months. However, should an incumbent resign and more than half of the term remain, a special election for the post must be held.
On November 22nd, 2021, Minister Witchcraft and Sorcery released a statement to the public that he had decided to resign, effective the next day. Due to mental health and general real-life issues, he felt unsatisfied with his own performance yet found this unlikely to change; accordingly, wanting to quit before too much damage to his mental health and the Ministry could be done, he had coordinated the resignation with the Cabinet and the Election Commissioner for a week in advance. He thanked the Assembly for having elected him to the Cabinet for three consecutive times at that point and wished the new Minister the best of luck in the job.[1]
As more than half of the term remained, a special election had to be called.
Electoral System
The office of the Minister of Defence is a Cabinet office, all of which are to be elected using Instant-Runoff voting. A voter ranks as many of the standing candidates as they wish in descending order of preference; the worst-performing candidates are eliminated from the tally one after the other and the votes for them re-distributed according to the voters' preferences until a candidate has attained an absolute majority of votes.
The election would begin with a six-day candidacy declarations period. Three days into the declarations period, the campaigning period would start, lasting for seven days. At its conclusion, three days of voting would begin, after which the Election Commissioner would proclaim the results.
Candidates
The election was contested by Moon and Domais. Jay Coop declined their nomination, while Nakari, Belschaft, and USoVietnam never answered theirs.[2]
| Declared Candidates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bolded candidates are incumbents. Italicized candidates withdrew from the election. | ||||
| Candidate | Political office(s) | Campaign | ||
|
Moon | Officer of the South Pacific Special Forces (since August 2021) Other offices |
Moonister of Defense[3] | |
|
Domais | Legislator of the South Pacific (since September 2020) |
Domais's Campaign Thread[4] | |
Campaigns
Moon focused his campaign on bringing the SPSF into shape to continue defending effectively once the controversial Frontier/Stronghold NationStates update was implemented. For this, he wanted to continue civilian outreach, as his predecessor Witchcraft and Sorcery had planned, as well as to grow the off-update Tidal Force. However, for better recruitment and integration of SPSFers, he wanted to properly nurture the open and friendly military-internal culture in abstract, but explicitly he announced his intention to host semi-regular wargames with TSP's allies in order to strengthen diplomatic ties, keep training possible, and soldiers engaged, even in the ongoing low of raids to defend against.[3]
Domais ran a joke campaign, consisting solely of the word "Yes" (ignoring the mandatory Conflict of Interest declaration). A number of legislators questioned the eligibility of Domais to be put on the ballot because of this; however, he was able to refute all such claims.[4]
Results
On the 9th of December, 2021, Election Commissioner Kris Kringle proclaimed the results of the election, and certified them on the 16th.[5]
| Results: First Round of IRV | ||
|---|---|---|
| Green background denotes winning candidates. Red background denotes eliminated candidates. ✓ and ✗ denote the status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively. | ||
| Candidate | First-Place Preferences | |
| Moon | 28 | 96.55% |
| Domais | 1 | 3.45% |
| Re-Open Nominations | 0 | 0% |
| Invalid ballots | 1 | 3.33% |
Thus, Moon was elected to the office, with his term set to expire together with the other Cabinet ministers' after the February 2022 Cabinet election.
References
- ↑ Witchcraft and Sorcery (22 Nov '21): My future as Minister. Retrieved 9 Feb '22.
- ↑ EC Kris Kringle (25 Nov '21): Declarations of Candidacy. Retrieved 9 Feb '22.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Moon (30 Nov '21): Moonister of Defense. Retrieved 9 Feb '22.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Domais (29 Nov '21): Domais's Campaign Thread. Retrieved 9 Feb '22.
- ↑ EC Kris Kringle (9 Dec '21): Proclamation of Results. Retrieved 9 Feb '22.