Senate By-Election Adds Fuel to Controversy
Written by Festavo
(Europeia - January 21, 2018) - Following the resignations of Vice President Malashaan and Verteger, a Senate By-Election was conducted to fill the vacated Senate seats. The elections concluded today, resulting in the election of Aexnidaral and Moronist Decisions. Aexnidaral, WA Delegate and Chief of Staff to the President, walked away with 46 votes while Moronist Decisions, Minister of World Assembly Affairs and Associate Justice, walked away with 43 votes. There were no other candidates in the race so their election was inevitable.
Moronist Decisions' campaign was focused on his legal background and experience, marketing himself as the logical successor to Malashaan, as well as Criminal Code reform. All of his proposed legislative ideas are related to the Criminal Code reform with him coming out in favor of criminalizing the act of the Delegate voting contrary to a directive from the President, incorporating Discord into admin-related crimes, and clarifying the separation of Admin and RP jurisdiction when it comes to crimes like obscenity. He also weighed in on other pressing Senate topics, including the hot issue of including a "Re-Open Nominations" option in contested elections. The newly elected Senator didn't come out in direct support or opposition to the idea, but he did express concerns over the practical consequences of including "RON" in contested elections, such as longer election cycles and a delay in electing a new government. He stresses that any legislative efforts on the matter should be coordinated with the Chancellory and Administrators to ensure that new procedures would be feasible and workable.
Aexnidaral's campaign strikes a different stylistic path than Moronist Decisions'. Aexnidaral's platform includes no new legislative proposals and the then-candidate himself stated that he does not have any "pet projects" for the remainder of the term. He states that his focus is on the legislative currently at hand and helping other Senators with their ideas and tweaking their language. Following suit with MD, the former Senator outlined his thoughts on the legislation and ideas currently floating around. He expressed support for tweaking the text of the Political Party Sub-Forum Amendment and the Resignation Protocol Act, but didn't bring up any major issues with the other ideas and proposals. A vocal proponent of incorporating "RON" into contested elections, Aexnidaral struck a less passionate tone on the proposal in his platform. He states that he will not push for it in the Senate and that he prefers for it to go through the Citizens' Assembly and undergo more discourse and debate with more Citizens before making its way to the Senate.
Several Citizens were vocal about their displeasure with the vote being conducted despite there being no way for either candidate to lose. Some, including Senator Vac, called the vote a "waste of time" and argued in favor of either letting the candidates assume office without a vote or including "RON" in multi-seat elections or all elections. Debate ensued over whether or not to include "RON" in multi-seat elections in particular. Speaker GraVandius and Senator Vac came out in support of the idea, but now Senator Moronist Decisions Vice Chancellor Drecq were both skeptical. Drecq came up with his own rough proposal: conducting single seat elections whenever a Senate vacancy occurs instead of multi-seat elections when 2 or more vacancies develop. Senator MD concurred with the Vice Chancellor in theory, but Senator Aexnidaral and Supreme Chancellor Lethen expressed reservations about the proposal. Although Lethen did not specify his concerns, Aexnidaral's reservations were based on his concern that the proposal would result in less competitive elections instead of more competitive elections.
Initially picking up steam with the uncontested election of President Rach, the "RON" issue seems poised to be a major topic of discussion for the rest of the term. A majority of the Senate seem to support the idea of including the option in all elections, but the proposal is still controversial and will certainly see much more debate in the coming days and weeks. The newly elected Senators have contrasting views on the topic so only time will tell which side will prevail if a fleshed out piece of legislation makes its way to the Senate floor.
