In a crowning moment for New South Scottish democracy, the Crown Dependency has successfully concluded its first elections, with 100% voter turnout. The groundbreaking territorial poll has seen four parties elected to fill the five-seat Assembly, with the Green Monarchist Party and Grand Alliance (PNRDNSS/CLANSS) holding two seats each, leaving the Assembly split. The elections come a full eight years after New South Scotland was first established as a Wessaxon colony in 2012 - a remarkable achievement for what was once a quiet, fringe territory. Under the new Legislative Assembly, the recently-formed Green Monarchist Party holds two seats, with its second member elected under a somewhat narrow second preference run-off. It stares off against Arcadius Tomson (PNRDNSS) and Silvia Paysais (CLANSS) of the 'grand alliance', which entered the elections as a joint ticket alongside the Behemoth Party. Whether Mr. Tomson and Ms. Paysais will look to transition their electoral alliance into a formal governing coalition remains to be seen. The resulting split leaves Citizen's Party MLA, Sophia Albina, in a kingmaker position, essentially having the choice of who enters government following the establishment of a legislative coalition. At present, there has been no indication by any of the party leaders as to possible coalition combinations. Once a government has been decided, the Legislative Assembly will need to turn its attention towards a number of pressing issues highlighted during the electoral campaign, including New South Scotland's international relationships, economic performance, cultural identity and activity-generating events. While the precise nature of the future government remains unclear, its monumental legislative agenda is abundantly clear. More to come. New honourable Members of the Legislative Assembly: Sophia Albina (Citizen's Party), Thomas Marios (Green Monarchist Party), Silvia Paysais (CLANSS - Grand Alliance), Remus Peroni (Green Monarchist Party), and Arcadius Tomson (PNRDNSS - Grand Alliance). Quadrangle Gazette, 13/05/2020
New South Scotland
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A spectacular twist has emerged less than twenty-four hours before the deadline for the submission of candidature lists with the establishment of the Green Monarchist Party (GMP) by Remus Peroni and Thomas Marios. Incorporating an interesting blend of green environmentalism and loyalty to the Austenasian Crown, the right-wing party now competes with the the PNRDNSS, CLANSS, Behemoth Party and Citizen's Party for election to the Legislative Assembly. Although the party's late establishment means that its leadership was unable to attend the recent election debate, the release of its official manifesto provides some key insights as to the organisation's legislative priorities. A keen focus on Austenasia's Christian and imperial heritage has been identified by the GMP as the key to the development of a strong New South Scottish identity. This differentiates the party from the PNRDNSS-CLANSS-Behemoth 'grand alliance', which has pushed for a more independent cultural identity and the Citizen's Party, which has hinted at secessionism in its manifesto despite encouraging "loyalty to His Imperial Majesty Jonathan I". Like the preceding four parties, the GMP has identified the formation of a New South Scottish economy as another major priority. To that end, Party Leader Peroni has stressed the importance of the establishment of a national bank, contrasting with the PNRDNSS' focus on the creation of an active stock market and the Citizen's Party's desire to promote economic activity via state-owned enterprises. These varying approaches to the creation of a territorial economy is likely to fuel a great amount of political discourse before and after the elections. Finally, the GMP has highlighted the possibility of leading an effort to deal with pollution on New South Scottish territory - an interesting proposal that has not been addressed by any of the preceding parties. Quadrangle Gazette, 04/05/2020
New South Scotland This article has been published by the 'Quadrangle Gazette' - the official journalistic wing of the Office of Governing Commissioner. With legislative elections having been scheduled a mere six days ago, the New South Scottish political landscape has well and truly roared into life. Already, the Crown Dependency has borne witness to the establishment of four political parties and the holding of an unprecedented election debate. A number of interesting political distinctions have emerged following the proclamation of the political parties - chiefly observed through the lens of the three party electoral alliance. This pact, known informally as the ‘grand alliance’, includes the territory’s first party, the Party for National Reconstruction and Development for New South Scotland (PNRDNSS), the Centrist Liberal Alliance of New South Scotland (CLANSS) and the Behemoth Party. Together, these parties are slated to face off against the much smaller but tenacious Citizen’s Party (CP), which was established shortly after the PNRDNSS. Despite CP leader Sophia Albina's absence from the debate, it nonetheless emerged during the proceedings that disagreements over the balance between ideology and pragmatism is the main factor driving the alliance/CP split. This emerged when each party leader of the alliance sought to highlight their individual party’s unique ideological bent, with Arcadius Tomson of the PNRDNSS touting his organisation’s status as a “a purely right-wing party”, Silvia Paysais of CLANSS underlining her party’s “center-right liberal” focus and Alejandro Whyatt of Behemoth claiming the status of a “third way party” for his organisation. This was contrasted by Ms. Albina’s remarks after the debate, which denounced the alliance’s collective ideological focus as “political grandstanding“, highlighting her party’s “technocratic pragmatism” as an alternative. THE ISSUES: Though united by a common interest in promoting New South Scotland’s cultural identity, international ties and economic performance, alliance party leaders also ventured to distinguish their respective party’s specific goals and aspirations from those of their counterparts. To that end, the PNRDNSS and CLANSS leaders each highlighted the importance of developing a unique territorial cultural identity, with Ms. Paysais mentioning the value of artistic engagement in particular. Mr. Whyatt of Behemoth, meanwhile, pointed to frequent debate between citizens on issues of macronational and ideological importance as the key to promoting domestic activity. Some differences within the alliance emerged over the question of outside engagement with the wider micronational community. This saw PNRDNSS leadership propose making formal contact with other micronations in the Crown Dependency's capacity as an autonomous Austenasian territory, identifying this as his party’s first priority, while Ms. Paysais of CLANSS said her party would focus first and foremost on using outside engagement to increase the population via immigration. This seemed to contrast with Mr. Whyatt’s rejection of the GUM and his resulting focus on domestic issues, possibly revealing a point of disagreement within the electoral pact over the motivations and necessity of New South Scottish engagement with the wider community. What unites all parties (including the CP), however, is an aspiration for the creation of a New South Scottish economy, although CP leader Ms. Albina rejected painting the issue in terms of the socialism/capitalism debate, instead suggesting drawing inspiration from Empire of Adammia’s example and using state-owned enterprises to forge an economy in her party's manifesto. Taking another approach, the PNRDNSS hopes to focus on the use of stock markets to drive growth, whereas neither Behemoth nor CLANSS appeared to offer a specific economic agenda (although their respective leaders both seem entirely committed to economic development as a matter of principle). Otherwise, the Behemoth Party and CP appear split on the matter of direct democracy, with Behemoth leader Whyatt seeming to place a focus on the use of referenda to solve the “most pressing issues” and settle disputes over the GUM, while the CP’s Albina remains resolute in her rejection of this method of public consultation. GOING FORWARD: At the time of writing, there are about twenty-four hours left for citizens to enroll as candidates on party (or independent) electoral lists, with submissions closing at 23:59 (UTC+10) 04/05/20. This leaves the door open for citizens to approach party leadership with candidate applications or start their own parties, as well as for non-citizens to apply for citizenship, join the Discord server, and do the same. Although the participating parties remain politically distinct, the grand alliance appears set on running on a single electoral list against the CP. This is expected to create tense negotiations in the coming twenty-four hours as party leaders negotiate for a favourable position on the list. This in itself may create an opportunity for the CP and other smaller parties in the near-future. Though electoral list submissions close in a day, there is still over a week before the elections themselves. According to the Office of Governing Commissioner, it is therefore hoped that a second, far more policy-oriented debate will be able to be held in the coming days. Quadrangle Gazette, 04/05/2020
New South Scotland A full eight years after its establishment as a Wessaxon colony, New South Scotland is finally on the verge of establishing genuine, democratic self-rule with legislative elections scheduled for the next fortnight. The announcement comes after the territory's population officially surpassed nine citizens - the threshold set by Governing Commissioner McFarlane KCA for the start of the election period. The election period shall see citizens aged 14 and above vote to fill the Legislative Assembly, which was established under the recently-promulgated constitution with the intention of assuming the vast majority of powers currently delegated to the Governing Commissioner. Members of the Legislative Assembly will be responsible for drafting bills, manning governmental departments and electing the Premier (the New South Scottish equivalent of a Prime Minister). Particular responsibility will lie with the territory's first Assembly, which will play the unique role of setting the course of New South Scotland for the foreseeable future. As of yet, only one law has been decreed by Governing Commissioner McFarlane KCA, leaving a significant legislative void for New South Scotland's future politicians to fill. This is believed to represent a deliberate attempt to afford the Assembly the maximum governmental flexibility possible going forward. Indeed, the first Assembly will need to decide on matters as diverse as cultural affairs, ministerial appointments, criminal law, official imagery use, language policy, community-building, media law, online sporting codes, territorial defence and perhaps even economic policy. It is likely that whatever precedent is set by the first Assembly will remain in place for months and years to come. The elections will be organised via a system of closed-list proportional representation, wherein parties and independent candidates submit lists to the Commission of Electoral Affairs eight days ahead of the election, allowing citizens to vote for entire lists as opposed to individual candidates on election day. This voting method was enshrined in the constitution on the assumption that it represented the best approach for electing multiple candidates from a singular voting district (that is, the entire Crown Dependency). According to the Commission of Electoral Affairs, the number of seats available for election will be announced at 21:59, 03/05/20 (UTC+10). The number shall be determined by dividing the Crown Dependency's population at the time of the announcement by three and then rounding up. Present calculations would see four seats put up for grabs. With many citizens having emigrated to New South Scotland expressly in the hopes of participating in the Crown Dependency's electoral process, a sense of keen anticipation has been descended across the territory in the run up to the historic poll. Official election timeline (courtesy of the Commission of Electoral Affairs):
This time frame leaves citizens willing to participate in the elections five days to organise into political parties and/or submit a list to the Commission of Electoral Affairs. These lists will not be modifiable after the closing date, at which point they will be released to the public. Due to the short distance in time between now and the closing period, it is expected that candidates and parties may want to wait until after they have submitted their lists before deciding upon the specifics of their electoral platform. Given that there are still several days before list submissions are closed, the Commission of Demography has issued a brief statement calling upon those interested in New South Scottish citizenship to "make the move and become a citizen before matters are decided for the next three months". It is believed that now might represent one of the most attractive moments at which to apply for citizenship. Further information shall be released in the coming days as political parties are formed and official election policies are announced. Office of Governing Commissioner, 28/04/2020
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