[A Little Legalese] Europeia Elects Huge, Star Studded Senate -- September 2019 Senate Elections






Europeia Elects Huge, Star Studded Senate
September 2019 Senate Elections

Written by GraVandius and Prim




(October 3, Europeia) - A little over one week ago, Europeia elected one of the largest Senates in recent memory, with nine members of the community being elected to the prestigious legislative body. In order of votes received, Drecq, Lloenflys, Darcness, Malashaan, Calvin Coolidge, Astrellan, Rand, JayDee, and Snowball all took their seats on Saturday, September 21.

This hefty Senate is effectively the polar opposite of the result of the previous Senate Election. The June election was the first in recent memory to be wholly uncontested as GraVandius, Rand, Astrellan, DictatorAnna10 (DAX) and UnitedPeoplesOfCentrism (UPC) were elected to the minimum number of Senate seats against the option to re-open elections. Further, the June Senate was mostly comprised of newer members, with DAX and UPC both serving their first terms and Astrellan coming back after a partial term.

The enlarged field was greeted with strong support from Europeian citizens, who were ready for a competitive election. The eagerness was palpable from the candidates as well, as new candidates were added to the standing thread very quickly. At the peak, there were 12 standing candidates, though some dropped out for various reasons.

The first day of standing saw Lloenflys, Malashaan, Cuddles, Whitmark, GraVandius, and Rand throw their hats into the ring. These candidates quickly got their platforms rolling, though GraVandius unstood two days later, saying that he was "only going to run to make sure there was finally a competitive election ... again." When the strong numbers began coming in for this election, he was satisfied with the field and decided to unstand to allow for a "more energetic member" to win. The surprise of the day was definitely veteran legislator and current forum administrator, Malashaan, throwing his name into the race. He stated that the new Arnhelm City Council project was his main impetus, among others, for standing as well as his "excitement about helping build that project from its early days."

Seeing Malashaan stand also drew more interest from other potential candidates, as Drecq decided to stand the following day, stating in #Eurochat, that "being in the Senate with Mal is fun ... Alright. Ive [sic] convinced myself. Im [sic] standing." The second day of standing also found Darcness and JayDee standing as well, also surprising many as both Darcness and JayDee have not served in the Senate for a while. Astrellan and Snowball both stood the following day. Several days into the standing period, with only 4-5 days left before the election, Calvin Coolidge and Bowzin both returned from long absences and decided to run for election, needling each other in #Eurochat in playful competition.

The platform questioning was strong in the early days of the standing period and several hot button issues were raised in this election period. Whitmark came out strong in support of extending the voting duration from 24 hours to 48 hours, with strong responses on both sides. However, this thread devolved into some bickering about Whitmark's previous performance in cabinet, tensions rose, and ultimately Whitmark decided to drop out of the race during a dispute with Kari. With Whitmark and GraVandius both out of the race, the total candidates dropped to 11 and, thus, the maximum number of Senators that people could vote for in the Senate size election was 9, ultimately what the people chose.

Another strong flash point in the election occurred when Calvin Coolidge decided to stand and made one of his platform points questioning the direct election of the chief of state. Both former Chief of State Kuramia and current Chief of State Prim cited reservations about the Senate election system and urged a discussion on the issue. This prompted responses from other Senate candidates and discussions began in earnest even before the Senate election was held.

The final hot button issue brought up during this election was the Senate's authority for executive oversight, some arguing that more ought to be done to cement formal procedures into law to ensure continuity, while others noted that the Senate should begin exercising its current oversight powers, working with the executive officers to establish practices before moving to formalize procedures into law. The debate is still ongoing in the Senate.

The vibrant mix of experienced legislators with fresh Senate hopefuls was also warmly received by many, noting that the strong skills from Malashaan, Drecq, and Darcness were definitely a prime opportunity for new Senators to learn solid procedure and process. Drecq was very quickly positioned to become the Senate speaker and a motion for unanimous consent was agreed to and passed in the first two days. With that concluded, Drecq quickly organized and brought the topics to a first reading. Even with this packed Senate, they still have a lot on their plate. At current count, there have been nine threads with active discussions, with several having already been passed and sent to the first minister's desk, along with several executive oversight threads in the Conference Hall being opened. It will definitely be an interesting and fast-paced Senate to watch for the next 90 days.



 
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Well written as always, GraV and Prim! Very useful to have a clear, concise summary of this Senate election without having to trawl through the various and extensive platforms and discussions. You demonstrate a penetrating clarity of mind with this analysis.
 
This is a good article, and a wonderful analysis of a very exciting event in our region. Well done.
 
I love how this reads like a story, but is purely an account of the actual events, it's really well written too! Definitely goes to show the political storm that Europeia brews when Senate platforms are made.
 
This election and the many competing ideas really reinforced why we are the primary region for politically interested users. I'm pretty happy with the outcome and must admit this Senate has done a formidable job so far. I hope they don't lose their steam!

Prim, thank you for the article!
 
I certainly love our Senate so far this term; I've found myself actively reading threads again in the Senate. I used to only read the threads that were either of particular interest or pertained to one of my roles in some way.
 
I certainly love our Senate so far this term; I've found myself actively reading threads again in the Senate. I used to only read the threads that were either of particular interest or pertained to one of my roles in some way.
It definitely is much more interesting, and as someone who just went through nomination questioning, it is scary knowing there are so many senators, and so many excellent ones, that I will have to be answering questions from.
 
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