EURO538IA ELECTION LIVEBLOG
Europeia Decides, and the EBC posts
Europeia Decides, and the EBC posts
Palace of the People, Oval Room - Hello, Europeia! EBC Senior Political Correspondent McEntire here, bringing you all of the election-related analysis, gossip, and tea that your little heart desires. We are here outside of the Oval Room, anxiously awaiting the opening of the vote.
To recap where we've been, incumbent President Rand is standing for re-election with strong approval ratings after a productive term. He is being challenged by a ticket comprised of his Communications Minister, Pland Adanna, and his Grand Admiral, Forilian. Incumbent Vice President Writinglegend has been swapped out for Outreach Minister Maowi, who herself is one of the officials with the highest approval and one of the most sought-after candidates in pre-election polling.
Initial EBC polling indicated that Rand started out with a lead, and likely with just over majority support. The Pland Adanna/Forilian ticket has put in a lot of effort, though, and there are some indications of late-breaking developments in the race:
- The Pland/Forilian ticket had been criticized for a new Executive structure in which they would divide much of the coordination between two "advisors." To quell the criticism, they released (live on EBC Radio, and then later in their campaign thread) the names of these advisors, Kazaman and Istillian. These are two popular and weighty names, so we will see if this release successfully dispels concerns about the advisor system
- Pland/Fori also received the endorsement of influential Senator UPC
- Pland sharpened his attacks on the previous term, saying:
Look, Rand was an energetic participant in discussions in several ministries. For example, Foreign Affairs and Outreach benefited greatly from his attention, but he simply was not able to provide such attention to every ministry, leading some ministries to be given vague plans and mostly left to their own devices. This won’t happen under Fori and my leadership. We will make sure to be involved in the day-to-day running throughout the executive. We will regularly check in on each of our ministers personally (without a weekly questionnaire that just adds work!) and offer help with projects. Basically, I have a tentacle for each of our ministries.
I feel the sassy octopus emerging from within me and I apologize for that—attacking is not my style!!—, but we also have to note that this administration did come up short on several key initiatives. Over-ambitious tech plans did not come to fruition, yet Rand has proposed even more ambitious plans for next term. The president did not follow through on state visits, ambassador engagement, or community gaming events, and he seemed to drop the ball on the Presidential Leadership Fellows program, RMB WA discussions, and a couple of cultural events. More importantly, thesenatorpresident has had all term to try out ideas to boost our WA population and endorsements, but our numbers still haven’t risen. Rand, you’re a smart, thoughtful, energetic person and I love you for that , but I think it’s time for fresh leadership.
It remains to be seen whether any of these developments change the state of the race, but without any polling we are flying blind to how the contours of this race may be changing. We should also note that Rand is out of town and not able to be his usual active self during this time. One thing is for sure: even if this race didn't initially seem competitive, it's staying contested until the end.
We are awaiting statements from the campaigns on their feelings on this election day, and will be bringing you those statements and more analysis throughout the day today and until this election reaches its close.
Now I want to bring in our EBC Election Correspondents, @Gem, @Writinglegend, and @Caius. For each of you, what do you think is the current state of the race? Are these late-breaking moves by the Pland Adanna campaign enough to overcome their initial polling deficit?