View from Benacia/Issue 55: Elections and Celebrations
This imported article was originally posted at http://viewfrombenacia.blogspot.com/2005/01/issue-55-elections-and-celebrations.html at 01/27/05.
Today marks an especially momentous day in Shireroth as several separate occasions coincide: the union of Shireroth with Arminy, the two-thousandth anniversary of the Apollo Sector, and the first popular elections in Shireroth for the post of Imperial Ombudsman.
The signing ceremony of the Treaty of Arminsbur3 began today in the Kaiser's Court. The ceremony began with his opening speech, which linked the inclusion of a new culture in Shireroth with the Apollo anniversary. Noting Shireroth's connection with the Apollo heritage through the citizenship of several Apollonians and the emphasis of Apollo nations on cultural development, he said,
"...this is something we in Shireroth understand; indeed, we might be said to surpass it. For not only do we have those dear traditions that bind us together as a whole, but we have also those local variations of culture that make Shireroth interesting: Hyperborean, Yardistani, Benacian. And now, a new culture is coming to call Shireroth home, to share in our traditions as we will delight in theirs."
The Kaiser offered the pen first to the Emperor of Arminy, who signed the treaty, and then the Kaiser signed it himself, thus officially establishing the bill as law. The Kaiser has asked Sir Iain de Vembria to speak, and will presumably allow other speeches as well.
Aside from the ceremony, other efforts to bring Arminy fully into its new home have already begun. The traditional "Flags of Shireroth" emblem on the forums, containing the flag of Shireroth and the six ducal flags (three to either side), has already been amended to reflect the the appearance of Arminy as the seventh Duchy, although the positions of the flags are open rearranging. Also, Arminy's new forum has already appeared in Shireroth, and we would like to encourage all Shirerithians to stop in and say hello. The Election Begins
With two candidates having been nominated and seconded in the nomination round, the voting round opened today with two candidates available for the post of Imperial Ombudsman: Harvey of Shirekeep and Rakesh of Amarr.
The Kaiser compiled a list of eligible voters using data from the last two censuses, using those individuals who were neither nobles nor minors. The list as it stands is fairly short (12 citizens), in part due to the large number of Ruling and Honorary nobles, and its importance is muddled by the fact that four of the citizens on it have been inactive for some period of time. Therefore the Kaiser has decided, for the purposes of this first election, that only the remaining eight that have shown some form of activity shall count toward the voting quorum required for the results to be valid. His Majesty is apparently planning on ways to avoid this tactic in the future, perhaps by requiring frequent activity and/or filling out of the Census in order for citizens to keep their voting rights.
As we go to press, five of those eight votes had already been cast, with Harvey having four and Rakesh having one. KIRS Hits the Air Again
Scott Alexander, who has been continuing his quite-successful KIRS broadcasts, recently released broadcast #4, which can be found here. The broadcast, which also features Eoin Dornan as co-anchor, made note of the Shirerithian annexation of Arminy, elections in Antica, the re-founding of micro-nations.org as micro-nations.net (not to be confused with micronations.net) and the appearance of the Definitive Micronational Index created by Foghorn, a citizen of Antica.
The staff here at the View, as ever, thanks Scott for his efforts with KIRS; we would also like to congratulate Eoin for breaking into radio, and to apologize to him for how we were (until now) pronouncing his name in our heads.
