The East PacificBoard

With voters having voted officially, the SDU (Social Democratic Union) has successfully maintained a majority with the NDP (New Democratic Party) as a member of SDU’s coalition. Kazuma akasun was successfully elected President and is the first president to have been elected who is a resident of another state, such being The League of Radiance, which was admitted as a state to the union 2 weeks ago.

Currently, the main party in opposition to the SDU, lead by the Cute Furry, is the LNP (Lisseum National Party), which many describe as a party that represents the views of the right-wing libertarian population as well as promoting regional security and independence for the older Lisseum region. The NDP (New Democratic Party), which is a new party founded by Kor pantaal & Kazuma akasun, has agreed with the SDU Leader The cute furry to form a coalition once the parties gain seats. With this, the SDU leader has agreed to appoint the NDP leader as his Deputy Prime Minister.

Despite many claims from other media sources, such as the Federal Post in Thaecia, Nova Lisseum, now being a semi-parliamentary democracy, has greatly improved during a crisis where a few members of government-backed the founder in a successful attempt to overthrow the legitimate government. This was met with much outcry and led to the region of Lisseum declaring itself not part of Nova Lisseum. Despite the State government’s claims, the Democratic Republic of Nova Lisseum does not recognize the region as a sovereign republic even though the government in Lisseum reinstated the constitution of the Fourth Republic of Lisseum, which failed months ago. In light of these recent events, the founder had dissolved the establishment of an attempted Constitutional Monarchy and allowed a convention of all citizens, domestic and abroad, to come together to discuss the drafting of a new one. After 2 weeks of drafting and writing, the first constitution of the Democratic Republic of Nova Lisseum was enacted after a referendum which was approved by citizens unanimously.

The new constitution now has stripped legitimate powers from the President, only limiting them to sign bills into law, grant pardons, and make executive orders being limited by the Judiciary and the Prime Minister. The Legislature had been formed into a parliamentary system in which based on which party is a majority gets to elect a Prime Minister. So far, The cute furry, who is the current leader of the majority and the SDU, has been elected Prime Minister.

According to some sources, the Prime Minister plans on establishing a Home Office, which according to the NDP leader would be in charge of immigration policies as well as national security. They've also mentioned a Foreign Office, which would be in charge of embassy policies and foreign officers. A Ministry of Justice will also be formed to manage judicial management, law enforcement, and judicial review (management of the judicial exam, which is used for users to be employed as attorneys). The current administration plans to expand its foreign policy as well as its domestic policy in a best attempt to form greater unity between Nova Lisseum’s states and to resolve domestic issues.

We decided to do an interview with Altys, who is the Minister of Culture in Thaecia to gain an insight into the Ministry's new features it’s brought out for Thaecians and how they plan to continue moving forward with such plans.

Kor - My first question is about the Culture Ministry. What does it do for Thaecians and what are the goals of the Ministry?

Altys - The Ministry's job depends on what the Prime Minister and the Culture Minister want to do in terms of the event. I chose to go for polls (easy to make, easy to use) which were always liked by the region, to revamp the economy which was also an already existing and well-liked feature of the region (here the discord in particular) as well as update the CM Category with the same reasons as the economy. Furthermore, I also tried to get more staffers to help me do stuff (CYOAs, material for themed days, help in hosting events) because I can't be CM forever and we need staffers with more experience so that whoever the next CM is they will already have people who did some culture stuff to assist them. Finally, I've been planning (both as TEP CM & THA CM in this situation) the second edition of the Late Nite Festival, which is an event that every participant liked and I myself enjoyed hosting, though I have to admit it is a really exhausting experience.

Kor - What is the Late Nite Festival, and what is it like?

Altys - LNF is a festival that was originally hosted by me (Thaecia-TEP) with help from Lemonadia (Thaecia), The Bigtopia (Thaecia), Aivintis (TEP), Heaveria (FNR) and some more (namely The marconian state (Thaecia) who hosted the karaoke or IG and Emaha who both replaced me when I wasn't able to host). The event was officially hosted by Thaecia and friends from other regions as a gaming and cultural exchange event. We managed to get quite a lot of participants and relative turnout in the different activities. We basically all had a great time. LNF 2 is a direct sequel to the event with me still head organizer and most of the staff being Thaecia-TEP while also offering new activities to take part in. And of course, I sure hope everyone will enjoy it just like before!

Kor - So, what has your career been like? More specifically what do you think has been your greatest achievement as well as a big fail during your time as the Culture Minister?

Altys - If my career is only the one as CM of Thaecia, then I didn't have many failures or big ones that are. The only failures I can remember are the under-performing weekly games but that's not a big loss in itself since it makes us know what the population likes to play and what they don't. And my greatest achievement is certainly LNF2, though as of now it has yet to begin.

Kor - How would you describe Thaecia in terms of it's cultural identity?

Altys - Well, it's for sure a bit messy. While we have describing factors like our regional memes (which is most of what we have), we don't have a specific cultural identity. The biggest example of this is of course the idea [that] our region and flag are based in Greece, and our government is a weird mix of UK-US stuff. That's an area we should definitely expand into. Hellenising our institutions and discord would be a good thing to give us a proper theme, which would also be a plus since it would make our region more attractive.

Historia is a relatively new region that was created to preserve historical events and promote historical discussion. The region at the moment has been password protected to prevent raids but has a promising goal to spread the word of historical importance in the world. At this current moment, the executive governing body of this region, known as the Council of Lords, had initiated the creation of a new Constitution to govern the region. Historia is a region known for its thirst for foreign policy, which plans to embrace great relationships with many other regions in the NS community. Historia is also known for its interest in promoting matters on roleplay activities. According to the founder, Historia's governing body is expected to consist of the Council of Lords, Regional Assembly, and the Regional Court.

Thaecians are preparing to hit the polls on February 13, 2021, to elect new or current members of the House of Commons and Senate within Congress. Thaecia’s top candidates for the House and the Senate based on projections would be Senate Candidate Dykataar who is campaigning to make progressive changes to the legislature and other restrictions of the executive government. He has also been an advocate for needed activity within the government. We currently have no projection of House candidates at this current moment.

With Presidential Elections coming soon as well, Brototh, who has gained much support for her campaign, has been advocating for maintaining a regional military and an increased effort in foreign policy. Some isolationists have criticized her ideas, but despite that, have gained overall attention.

The South Pacific is one of the largest regions in Nationstates and holds elections twice every year to elect a new WA Delegate. Although the WA Delegate is only a symbolic figure of power in the South Pacific, it is an icon of democracy that TSP has practiced for over a decade now. The elective process for TSP is complex but is one that works for many in the South Pacific.

The election consists of two-rounds, similar to the two-round system used in IRL countries like France or Finland. The first round of the election consists of legislators voting on candidates. Legislators voted for Beepee who received 27 votes, Rebeltopia who received 26 votes, and Jay Coop who received 25 votes. The top two candidates being Beepee and Rebeltopia were able to compete in round two. With that being said, election officials announced that Beepee has won the election, thus is currently pending WA endorsements to gain the position. Unfortunately, Beepee did not have any policies or plans he addressed to enact for his term in office, but many hope that he will be a successful leader.

Officials in the South Pacific are asking all citizens to endorse Beepee. If you are a citizen of the South Pacific, be sure to do that.