Rand Emerges Victorious in Senate Recall Referendum, Kari Disputes Referendum Administration
Written by Deepest House
(Europeia - July 29, 2019) – Senator Rand emerged from the recall referendum initiated by political rival Kari with his seat intact. Nearly 63 percent of respondents voted to keep the senator in his seat, with 37 percent voting for removal. Kari, a citizen without office in the region, initiated the referendum process by starting a petition on Wednesday, July 24. Senator Rand had been absent from the region’s senior legislative chamber for nine days without posting a formal leave of absence.
“I am normally fairly lenient on this sort of thing (after all, it happened to me too as my time as [first minister] wore on), but the longer we go without a response other than ‘I was busy,’ the higher the bar would be for me to vote to retain him in his office,” said former First Minister Lloenflys during the mandated 72-hour debate period triggered when the petition reached the required number of signatures. Others, such as Sopo and Aexnidaral Seymour, joined Lloenflys in wanting to hear from the senator directly.
“I apologize for my absence this last week,” Rand said in a statement explaining his absence. “I know things in the Senate were counting on me to move forward. I know I made a commitment to serve on the Senate this term. This last week, I let everyone down. I am sorry.”
In fully acknowledging his absence and disregard for his duties as a senator, Rand explained that his unannounced leave of absence was due to real life work pressures, summer travel, and lack of emotional strength to publicly confront his absence.
Kari was unimpressed by the senator’s explanation, and continued her attack on his senate seat in response to his statement. “Your explanation is not satisfactory in the slightest,” she said. “The only factor in your statement that stands up to scrutiny is being exhausted after a 70 hour work week; which also would not have prevented you from taking the 20 seconds required to post a LoA … . This all reeks of entitlement.”
While others were questioning Rand and his absence, HEM questioned if people were being inconsistent in their treatment of Rand compared to how they would treat others in the same position. “I can’t help but wonder if some are being less forgiving because it’s Rand than they would’ve been if it were say, Sopo,” he remarked. HEM’s sentiment was not unique to himself.
“I cannot help but see this referendum as a petty, gleeful attack on a political rival, rather than the thoughtful act of a worried citizen,” said one senior Europeian politician who has occupied the highest offices in the region, requesting anonymity to speak freely about the subject. “There is cause to call for the referendum, but the manner in which it was done makes the true goal obvious.”
After Senator Rand’s statement and as the debate period progressed, multiple citizens evaluated the situation and announced that while Rand’s unannounced leave of absence was troubling, they would not support the referendum.
“Rand has been an active and avid participant as a Senator for pretty much his entire tenure until this unexpected unannounced LoA,” Lloenflys said, after evaluating the merits of Rand’s statement. “I often disagree with his positions and occasionally disagree with his tactics, but he has demonstrated that he has much to contribute to the region. … When this referendum comes to a vote, I intend to vote against removal.”
Both Sopo and Kuramia, as well as Deepest House, concurred with the former first minister’s statement, and pledged their support for Rand in the referendum vote.
With voting underway and the outcome of the referendum becoming clear, Kari took a new approach and launched an attack on this author, Deepest House, the referendum administrator, perhaps in an attempt to invalidate its result or simply to attack someone she views as an adversary.
“Given that the Vice Chancellor that held this poll is known to be ‘ignored’ &/or ‘blocked’ by citizens of the region, which by extension means that they can not access this thread unless directly linked to it: I would like to request that in the future the Vice Chancellor in question is not employed to conduct elections or referenda … .”
Kari’s attack on the referendum administration received swift, decisive, and near universal condemnation from the Europeian public.
“Frankly, if you choose to block DH, that is not DH restricting a citizen’s voting right. That is a citizen restricting their own right, and that is not the fault of DH,” said United Vietussia shortly after Kari’s grievance. “This is frankly a non-issue, and I don’t know why it’s being raised.” Other citizens such as Astrellan, UnitedPeoplesof Centrism, and DictatorAnna10 strongly echoed these sentiments.
Others joined in reproaching the complaint. Vice Chancellor Drecq argued that Kari’s complaint amounts to a request for Deepest House to be removed from his post as vice chancellor.
“We in the Chancellery do not have control over who blocks us. DH took no action that in any way, shape, or form restricted Citizens from viewing, accessing, or voting in this thread. He has no control over what Citizens do themselves do to restrict their ability to do so,” he said. “He should certainly not be removed from his post, and removing his ability to administer elections and referenda would essentially mean he could no longer do the job of Vice Chancellor, for the actions of others that he has no control over.”
Izzy was shocked at Kari’s claim that there are others in the region blocking the vice chancellor. “There are people other than you blocking DH?” he asked. Kari’s claim that multiple citizens have blocked Deepest House remains unsubstantiated.
Minister of Radio Carathetopia was in the midst of an EBC Radio program covering the referendum when news broke that Kari had registered a complaint regarding the referendum administration. “The vote right now is 14 to 25 in favor of not removing Senator Rand. So if I’m even allowed to say this, one can speculate … I would speculate that the vote is in favor of not removing Senator Rand, and [Kari] is doing whatever means necessary to have something wrong with the vote so we can vote again. It’s kind of like someone saying to recount. … I hope Kari doesn’t eat me alive, that would be bad.”
As the fervent disagreement with Kari’s ploy to undermine the legitimacy of the referendum mounted, Supreme Chancellor Lethen did step in to encourage people not to pile on Kari for the controversial behavior. “Can we please not turn this into a ‘let’s [expletive] on Kari’ fest?” the Supreme Chancellor asked. “While I don’t agree with the way she raised her concerns, I do think she raises a very good point that raises some questions to me.” He then asked some questions that furthered debate.
Kuramia also encouraged people to limit the debate to Kari’s actions and not her character. Even with these pleas, the public found Kari’s behavior fair game for criticism.
“I can not think of another player in this region has been nearly as prominent as Kari, who consistently instigates conflict based on downright absurd and absolutely bonkers opinions, and at no point afterward ever admits that their opinion was way off base,” said Speaker of the Senate GraVandius in harsh rebuttal to Kari’s gambit to undermine the referendum process. “It is a pattern that is fairly consistent and thus, a healthy bit of ridicule is fine in my book.”
Ultimately, both Kari’s effort to unseat Rand and her ploy to undermine the administration of the referendum by calling attention to her own blocking of the referendum administrator failed. As the referendum vote was underway, Rand expressed thanks for the words of encouragement and hope for a positive referendum result for him.
“Thank you, everyone, for your understanding and words of encouragement,” he said. “I’m looking forward to (hopefully) continuing this term.”
Edit @ 4:50 to correct formatting error
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