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Comrades! The Party Presidential elections are fast approaching and I, Cpt Chazbeard, - scourge of the feeds, misery of the IRC – am vying for the coveted position of the CCP/CW party presidency!

With Oinyo now firmly on the ballot this will perhaps turn into a humbling defeat, but hell, we might as well make a scrap of an otherwise non-eventful election.

Despite having a recent congress term I am a bit of a political nobody. Combine this with the recent PTO's then members have every right to be dubious.
In this article I hope to alleviate these fears and set out what I plan to do if elected.

WALL O' TEXT WARNING:
As many of you do not know me I can't assume you know what I'm banging on about half the time. Therefore this article is long so I can explain my intentions and reasoning in a more definitive matter.
Rest assured this THE most serious article I have ever written and afterwards I assure you that any further efforts will be far more lighthearted in approach.



Being the astute person that I am, I have noticed that this party may have been subject to a Political Take Over (PTO) these past 3 months. Name changes, communism and Rolo Tahmasee – not exactly a die hard Clan Wolf member – have lead me to wonder if something is up.

It would be erroneous of me, as a potential Party President, to simply dismiss this matter and move on. One of the few positives of PTOs is that it gives the members and hierarchy of the party some breathing space, a chance to reflect upon the party's position in the eCanadian political sphere.

The worst a PTO has the potential to do is to rip the heart out of a party and effectively kill it. Left in nefarious hands for sequential months a party's member base can grow weary and move on, swing voters from non-top 5 parties can hammer a party in the congress elections as they won't vote for a party whose house is not in order.

This has not happened with the Canadian Communist Party/Clan Wolf.

Toad's reign consisted primarily of name changes and Pat's foray into Communism was short lived. Both were taken by many in the good jest I'm certain that they were intended, both too had the respect to follow the party's wishes come the CP elections. Rolo of course did not and selected who he personally preferred. As PP this is perfectly within his rights to do so and we should be somewhat grateful he has done little else to pro-actively harm the party (hell, he even posted useful advice at one point).

Although it is a small mercy that we have remained in the Top 5, kept a decent amount of players and had a consistent congressional share (down this month but I feel a few votes went TMS's way), consistency must not be misconstrued as an achievement in politics until you are consistently moving vertiginously.

There is no point taking back control of the party if we have no idea what we are going to do with it and no direction. We as a party must get into the business of politics, to detach ourselves momentarily from the sentimentality of the party, to view it as a brand and voters as our buyers.

I won't beat around the bush; this is not going to be some overnight miracle. Being realistic we need to at least double our voter share in order to carry the same clout as the CPF and MDP, this will likely take months rather than weeks.

Before we can even comprehend vying to become a political powerhouse we must get our business affairs in order. This will be my primary goal as party president. To re-establish the brand, to lay down some solid foundations from which we can build a long term 'Third Way' Party that is attractive to new and old players alike, two-clickers and the obsessives.

The best way to begin this is to revert the party's name back to Clan Wolf, as such this I will do immediately.



Congress should be a place of debate and open mindedness. Decisions made should be in the best interests of the eNation and should be circumstantial – taxes for example may need to be altered owing to conflict or competitions. With this is mind there will be no 'Party Line' to follow nor will I seek to influence congressmen in any way, that is not to say I will not be on hand to offer assistance should you so require it.

Selection Process
Ideally I'd like a mix of young and old in congress. A few wise heads and one or two without a medal wanting to gain experience, so age will not be a debilitating factor.

Activity is key though. Someone who regularly logs in will be placed way ahead of a casual two-clicker, it should be a base requirement that congressmen are fully aware of what's going on.
Forum use is preferential but non-essential.

Bribes? Sadly not. There are too many moral fags out there who would jump on that in an instant (we'll talk afterwards).
I will be more likely to run you however if you show a keenness to be in congress. This can either be by way of a PM explaining why you'd like to run/ought to be selected or an article begging for votes for yourself and in turn the party.

I personally will not run unless we have a short list.

Coalition?
I'm of the firm belief that congress should be representative of the general population. The voting system we have in game is frankly abhorrent and denies such a basic want.
In an effort to make congress somewhat more representative I am open to running members of parties outside of the Top 5.

This will depend on two things:
1) Carrying their own
So as not to diminish our own voter share, any coalition partner must be able to cover enough votes for any prospective seat (I'd say around 7-8 votes based on a full congress). If they can do this any candidate will be placed high on the list.
2) The number of regions.
If eCanada is in possession of less than 3 regions* then it is unlikely I will run anyone from outside of the party unless we stand to gain substantially (i.e. they can offer more votes than a seat is worth)

*REMEMBER: If you candidate for congress ensure you are in Canadian held territory for the elections. I will pm candidates nearer the time to remind them.



I believe we should predominantly run our own candidate. Firstly, parties supposedly represent different ideologies about the approach to the game and should present these ideologies as different choices for the public to chose.
If parties are in such agreement that they are willing to fully back one another then they should merge. Hopefully freeing up some space for a party with a difference.

Secondly, a well fought campaign can create valuable exposure for the party.

Theoretically I can be autocratic and simply select any candidate as I see fit. This goes against the democratic process many hold dear so – bearing in mind what's been said – here is how I would place our backing in differing scenarios.

1) A lone candidate from our party wishes to run.
So long as they present a decent manifesto (fun run or srs) they will automatically be selected without a ballot.
2) More than one party member wishes to run.
Their manifestos will be presented to the party and a ballot will be held sans external candidates.
3) No members wish to run.
I will pm external candidates and ask if they would like to be placed on our ballot. The party can then select a nominee from the ayes.
4) Bitches baw and say everyone should be on the ballot cos democracy.
Feck off. The only ballot that actually counts is the election.



I will encourage the use of the feed and post relevant details in there for players to comment and discuss upon. If the need arises I will open up a chain PM with those who wish to be included.

Now that RL work has calmed down I have the time to be productive when it comes to eRep. I used to be a prolific article producer and am itching to get back into it.

I will publish two articles directly related to the 'job' of the Party President. One will cover the congress elections listing our candidates and why players should vote for our party. I would appreciate it if candidates would contribute a paragraph or two about themselves for this.
The other will be in relation to our presidential nomination. Explaining why we are backing them and a short manifesto review. Both articles will be about promotion as much as anything else.

I will release a newsletter later on in the term recapping what we've been up to and how the party is progressing. Unless something of great note occurs then I see no need to publish any more articles relating to party matters. If there is no news it's better to not highlight that in an empty article.

Aside from this other articles will be purely for run in the guise of competitions and/or satire. I would like to encourage members to start writing as much as possible and will be presenting a 'Clan Wolf Article of The Month' prize at the end of the term. (Prize tbd but it'll be generous)



1) I'm not Oinyo.
Sounds harsh but it's true (I checked in the mirror and everything!). I wish to take the party forwards and use the PTOs as an opportunity to relaunch our brand.
One tag we must shake off is that we are merely a vehicle for Oinyo, re-electing him immediately will cause detractors to assume it's same old 'Vote Oinyo Party'.

2) Activity
The activity of our current PP has been bought into question. After an intense few months of RL work and now have the time to indulge in one of my favorite hobbies, eRepublik, as I used to. This means I will be putting in a fair amount of effort.

3) Fun
One or two of you may have had the misfortune of coming across me whilst I was the eUK's ambassador to eCan ('CptChazbeard's Ambassadorial Adventures in eCan' articles) and may know that my number one pursuit in this game is fun and enjoyment.
Despite what the previous wall of text may have suggested; any srs bsns will be predominantly behind the scenes and I aim to make this month as entertaining as possible. (It is eRep after all so please don't expect fireworks flying out of my asshole.)

4) Ideas
Feed activity, competitions, development...all nice phrases to use in a PP campaign but pointless without the ideas to back them up.
With the word count ridiculously high you'll have to forgive me for not fully laying them down on the table. Also if I lose, Oinyo can just steal them and claim he's a genius...I can't allow him deceive the public like that.
I assure you though that I have many many ideas. Some dastardly, some cherubic.

5) Direction and purpose.
For almost all my time in CCP/CW we've been under PTO, so I haven't borne witness to the real CW. A downside to some I prefer to look at it in another light...I have no emotional attachment. I do not yearn for something I have never know and therefore can see things in black and white and for what they are.
As such I feel I'm an ideal candidate to kick-start a new chapter in the party's history. I do not want to go back to what once was, I want to take what we have and move forwards.




Vice President: Oinyo
Oinyo has graciously agreed to be my vice President on condition that, should I win, I actually try to work for the betterment of the party.

I approached Oinyo about this as he knows the party and its member far more than I do, it is my hope that should I attempt to do something that might alienate our core he will pull me up on it before I go all in. So it'd be more an advisory role than a policy making role.

The other roles are open to anyone should they wish to be involved. Here is what I'm ideally looking for.

Spokesman: I would like a gobshite internet tough guy for this. You will must be prepared to go mental at the drop of a hat on the party's behalf whilst I seek to take the moral high ground.

Governor (The Guv'Nor): Someone to have my back and ensure people are always appreciative of anything I do.
See this education video to get a better idea of what I'm looking for.

Councillor...meh....you can just apply and do what you want with this one.

The above version is for players who take politics seriously.
Below is a condensed version that compounds all the ideas into more digestible segments.

tl:dr
Chaz Good.Vote Chaz.