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This org has lain dormant since the Congressional elections last month. Time to dust it off and go over some things that have been going on.

1. What the Congressional Results meant

It meant a major shift in the way of thinking. As a country, we had two choices: cooperate or stagnate. We could either keep calling the Serbians "evil PTOers" and turn every vote (even ones that would be necessary to fixing our economy) into a major battle. OR we could try and reach out, and work together, and try and find some common ground.

It wasn't that simple, though. A lot of people were surprised when the "provisional gov't" side started changing its tune, and started acting friendly to the people we had been promising to drive away just days earlier.

Here's the fact of the matter: neither side actually trusted each other, but we had to look and act like we did. We were both shaking hands and smiling at each other in public, while in private, both sides were waiting, tensely, for any little slip-up. Both sides were ready to pounce and say, "SEE! We told you they were evil! This is why you should have voted for us!" But that all went on behind closed doors. This org had to lay dormant right after the Congressional elections to try and help the 'cooperation' that the public saw along.

And that brings me to my next point:

2. How the Presidential Elections Worked

As many of you know already, the person who has been writing these articles is Fionia. Fionia ended up getting very busy with schoolwork from basically right before the Congressional elections to right about now. After putting too much effort into the Congressional elections, she turned to almost exclusively focusing on schoolwork. As odd as it sounds, this is the main reason the Country President elections weren't strictly organized (i.e., having a primary on the forums).

What happened instead was an exercise in game mechanics and negotiation. The Party Presidents are the key people in deciding who is on the Presidential ballot. If all (or most) of them agree on one candidate, things will go very smoothly.

The first hurdle was the Serbian party. The Party President was kurojca at the time. He said directly that he would only support a candidate proposed by the "provisional gov't" side if it was a RL NZer. And so, calbe became the main candidate. After that, it was a simple matter of approaching the other Party Presidents in turn, and explaining the situation to them: we had a candidate supported by what was the "Unity" party at the time as well as the 'Serbian party'. It would be most logical to endorse that candidate, instead of splitting the country's votes.

It may have seemed undemocratic, but it was the best way, imo, to handle the situation with the limited time I had.

3. Things that Will Never Happen Again

Basically, everything that has been done so far by this org/Fionia won't happen again. The behind-the-scenes negotiation for President, and the strictly defined Congressional primary/unity ballot system. There will be some changes, some of which will be discussed later in this article, and some that will be decided in the future.

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4. Tomorrow's Party President Elections

By now, the parties need to start organizing themselves, if they haven't already. There is a whole lot of competition going on tomorrow.

That being said, the only "official" candidates are ones that have been chosen by the parties. Only two parties have been organized enough to do so, and so I present the "official candidates":

In the Peace 'n' Prosperity Party: the official candidate is Albert Neurath

In the Kiwi Social Democrats: the official candidate is Supabeasty

If you are not particularly inclined to joining a party yet, but still want to use your vote, please vote for one of these two candidates tomorrow.

5. This Month's Congressional Elections

I'd like to propose a new system. This would require the parties being organized and the cooperation of the Party Presidents, but I think that's an entirely reasonable request to make.

Simply put: the parties give me lists of who their candidates are in each region by the 21st. I supply blockers to fill out their lists (so there are 9 candidates per party per region). I also check to make sure there are no multis on their candidate lists, and if there are, discuss alternatives with the Party President.

After tomorrow's elections are finished, each of the Party Presidents will be contacted, the plan will be discussed, and more details will be released afterwards.