How you are digesting this huge field of candidates?
Honestly, as a newer member of Europeia and definitely not as knowledgable of the Senate and its workings, it's honestly quite intense seeing so many candidates, however it's also inspiring seeing so many candidates who are new to Europeia running, and I legitimately think this will encourage others to further engage in Europeia.
It's also nice (albeit strange to me personally) seeing so many candidates who have been in the Senate for 10+ terms and are continuing to run for it and are still suggesting ways they'll change the Senate. Due to the new circumstances such as the transition to a Frontier and Defender region as well as controversies with the last Senate, it will be interesting to see a mix of old and new Senators.
What is the status of the election results right now?
As we're 5 hours in the elections, it seems quite solid that there'll be 7 seats in the new Senate, as opposed to the 5 seats in the old senate. Despite this, there's still a chance we continue with our 5-seat senate, although with, as mentioned above, the transition to a Frontier region being new terrain for Europeia, a 7-seat senate could be more beneficial.
As for the actual election, we see that Lloenflys (with 42 votes) and Gem (with 38 votes) have largely secured seats on the Senate, being more experienced Senators. There's close competition between Prim (with 33 votes), newcomer Elio Somerset and last-minute candidate CSP, the last two of whom are drawing in terms of votes at 32. If we get a 5-seat senate, this close tie could become more important but for now, they all have secured seats, although they have threats from the close votes between Martyn (with 30 votes), ICH (with 29 votes) and Ellenburg (with 28 votes), the latter of whom at this time may not get a seat if we have a 7-seat senate. It's an incredibly close call, and McEntire (with 24 votes) and Olde Delaware (with 23 votes) still have time to possibly secure seats, although they are not as close as the above 3. We can also see that Prov (with 9 votes) and Tim W (with 3 votes) are quite far off from securing seats, and are most likely not joining the Senate this time round, but there's still time for them as we're quite early in the election.
What are the biggest questions left for us at the moment?
There's a lot of talk in the candidates' campaigns on reforming Senate oversight of the Executive, and it'll be interesting to see whether candidates suggesting reforms to this win out against candidates largely wanting to maintain the method of Senate oversight from previous terms. With the transition to becoming a Frontier alongside certain events between Senate and Executive, everything needs to change, which includes how the Senate works in relation to the Executive, and how it functions in general as there's still a few laws that need to be amended or created to fit with our status as a Frontier region. It'll be interesting to see the priorities of this new Senate in ensuring our transition is smooth.
I apologise for the long text, I just have a lot to talk about.