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So there are new political module changes. And as a result, there is sad news.

6th parties are now going to be a thing of the past in terms of being major political players.

Let's take a look at the new changes:

Starting with the 25th of September the 2012, the citizens will vote for a Party instead of voting a citizen from a specific party.

The members of the party will candidate with the same rules as now to the congress elections, but they will participate in the elections on the party list.
The party president will now see all the possible candidates in a single list for the all the country's regions.
The parties that are in top 5 on every 24th of the month at 00:00 will be the ones able to have Congress candidates.
The party president will choose the candidates on 24th of the month in the following manner:

Every party can propose a maximum number of candidates equal to the maximum number of Congress seats in that country.
Set up a national list (instead of a regional one) with all the candidates in the exact order the party president wants them in the Congress. This is very important because the chance to join the Congress is higher for the ones in the top of the list.
If the party president does not decide the order on the 24th, the candidates will be on the list based on the rule “first come, first served”.
The Party president can only decide the priority order, but he cannot choose to have less official candidates than the maximum number of seats his country has.


So what does this mean? Before, 6th parties could mobilize support from the party and friends to get their candidates elected. While they were at the mercy of the top 5 PPs with regards to state assignments, they had at least some control over getting candidates elected to Congress. And top 5 PPs knew they could not fill their entire slate, so they were willing to let other parties take those states.

Now, however things change. In order for a 6th party candidate to get elected, he'd need to be high enough on the priority list. But now you need to convince those PPs to place your candidates above their own--while certainly their blockers will be toward the end (and may not be necessary after a certain point, as PTO candidates can just be stashed at the end), how can you convince them to put your candidates above their own party candidates?

Let us assume a similar turnout to the last presidential election. There were 3070 votes cast in that election. The US currently has 58 regions. That means for every ~53 votes you get, one more Congressman on your list will be elected.

So it becomes beneficial for top 5 parties to run a 6th party congressman if they can get over 53 votes from that party. But again, how high on the list does that 6th party candidate go?

And for sixth parties, many may not be able to guarantee 53 votes. In the past, they were able to get a state, then maybe funnel in 20 votes and win it and get someone going to Congress. Now, to convince a top 5 party that it is worth running their congressman, they need to convince them that they can deliver twice, maybe even three times as many votes!

Now, many will point to these changes and say "well, now we can pretty much lockout PTO candidates IF we have top 5 PPs who are responsible", the loss of access to the political system by 6th parties is a terrifying consequence. And it will now become harder for newcomers to get into Congress, since you will basically need to be tight with a top 5 PP. I was able to run--and then win--for Congress just a few months into my eRep career. Now, it becomes harder...you would end up lower on the priority list pretty much every month. Your only hope is that the PP does not play favorites too much.

Now, an easy fix would be to let 6th parties run their own slate of candidates. Granted, this would help PTO candidates get in for sure. But the system as it is currently set up is now stacked against the small parties.

RIP 6th parties. You will not be forgotten--at least by this writer.