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With the party election behind us and the congressional election marches ever closer, many citizens will contemplate their political future. One of the easiest way for a citizen to get into high politics is to be a congressman. When I say easy, it is not a free gift but that it does require effort on your side. You need to act quick and fast to get the most out of your campaign. Like many things in real life, procreating or last minute push in many cases are not enough.

Intro to the congress

Citizens with 100 experience points from the 16th of each months to 18th of each month can declare their candidacy for congress. When you place your candidature, you are running for congress in that province so make sure it is the place you want to run in, if not you will need a moving ticket and move to a desired location. In the UNL, both the North and West are very popular location to run due to the Q5 hospital, that means that it is a lot more competitive than that of East and South. I would recommend newer candidates, especially those who are not well known to candidate in the East or South. On the 24th, the party president will choose the candidates he/she thinks will be best for the party and declare them official. This only take place if there are more than 5 candidates in the same party candidate in the same region. (Game mechanics for a 4 region state, this does not really concern UNL politics.) On the 25th, the people vote and if you get enough votes in your region, or if you get to be a wild card (game mechanics allows UNL to have 40 congressman but each region only gets 9 candidate, the candidates that gets the most votes but not enough to win in their regions are wildcard candidates) wins the election.

Manifesto

I think a Manifesto is important, it is one of the best means to communicate to the constituency. Your manifesto is your resume and your syllabus to the days to come. It tells us who you are, what are your experience, and what you want to do. Your manifesto can make you or break you, so take it seriously. It is not ideal to get drunk before you write your manifesto.

Your manifesto should following the outline.

-General Informational about yourself
-Your Experience
-Endorsements* (Optional)
-Your plans, goals you want to accomplish
-Closing/ Summary
- Endorsements* (Optional)

*Can be your in both location, up to you. Also this is completely optional especially for a congress manifesto.

General Information

This part of the manifesto should tell us about yourself. It does not need to be fancy, but it is best for your constituency to get to know you. Why did George Bush Jr. was very popular in the real US election in 2000? What he did great was that he create an image that he is human, and a person that the normal folk can relate too. Many liked him since he seems like a president that most people will like to have a beer with. This is the same thing in eRep. I want to vote for a person that I can relate to. Getting to know a little bit about yourself breaks the ice and makes you closer to you. It is like you are new in class, the first person that said hi and introduce themselves to you will most likely be your friend, or a person you trust, or be loyal to more than the bloke in the corner.

Therefore, in this part of your manifesto, you should write some general information about yourself. This can be anything from basic info of your real life as well as erep.

Example:
"Hi, I am Konrad Neumann from RL New Jersey studying political science in the masters level at Rutgers University. I am running for congress in the great region of Northern Netherlands under the GLD banner. I choose GLD since I believe that their commitment to unity... benefits our nation the best "

Something like this is a great for general information for your manifesto. Make sure you have the party that you are running under, as well as the location you are running in clearly stated. This will grab the attention of your readers, telling your party mates as well as undecided that running for party X in location Y. If they do not know, they will most likely not vote for you since it takes an effort to find you.

Experience

If you have any pass experience, it is time to brag about it. This part of your manifesto is your brag sheet. List all jobs, post, etc that will demonstrate that you will be a good congressman. Being in congress before, being in government, being a successful company owner, being in the military (especially in leadership roles), being an alliance position like treasurer of PHX etc are great examples of things you can brag about.

Writing this part is not that difficult. You can write in a paragraph form saying all of the post you had in the past with a sport explaining if need why that post will help you be a good congressman. You can also do this part in a list form. List all of your achievements etc and if you want have one paragraph explaining your achievements etc.

If you are not really experience, you should draw attention to your activity in the media, IRC, and forum. If you are not experienced held any past post/ achievements, use this part of your article by demonstrating that you can be a good candidate and not some two clicker what wants 5 gold for free. It might be a good idea to address/ brining attention to some of the problems in politics, to show that you are active and involved in the political situation of your nation.

Endorsements (Optional)

This is completely optional and is more popular in the eUS. Basically, this is when you ask famous people such as other congressman, CP, foreign leaders etc to support your run. It is simple as getting permission to post their name in your list of endorsements to having them say one or two lines in support of you. This can either be positioned under your experience or at the end in which your endorsements acts more like a sig of people who supports you. I personally likes it under my experience since I feel it is more logical to position it there.

Statement of Intent

Why do you want to be in congress? Well, most people wants to be in congress since they want to be active in politics. To be active in politics, you must have a goal or an objective to achieve. You are to write what are your goals as well as a general overview on how you want to get your agenda passed. Be sure to have realistic goals too.

I have read many statements of intents in my time in eRepublik. It is really easy to see an inexperience politician and that of an experienced. An experienced politician will make realistic goals within the range of congressional duties. Such goals are moderate changes to VAT's or taxes etc or anything reasonable shows experience. Things like "If you elect me as your congressman, I will work hard with Phoenix to improve relations...." "If you vote for me, I will fight for a Q5 hospital in all of our regions..." If you vote for me, I will make the min wage $$$$$..." screams inexperience. Also, people states they will "promote transparency" are most likely inexperience themselves. I may seem a bit harsh, but if you think about it, is it congress's job to promote foreign relations? No! It is the MoFA. The Congress do not even have access to the gov channels and forums etc, they of course do not have access to Phoenix itself. Only the MoD, MoFA, and the CP have access to PHX itself. The hospital thing is foolish since it makes defending key regions very difficult and allows our enemies to attack our regions at a cheaper price (game mechanics). The wage to $$$$$$ is just not realistic as it will either destroy our economy or a tweaking of our economy so that the $$$$$$$ is worth about the same as the original wage in the beginning. Oh and the transparency thing, what does that mean? Openness? How can this be done? We do have almost weekly MoI reports etc. You want or need more openness? Why and how comes to mind when people say they want more transparency even at this level. Like the PHX thing before, it is not congress's job.

Congress is to debate and vote yes or no on laws stated in our constitution as well as issues like changing of rates in econ and voting yes or no to constructions and MPP. You are to debate issues and there are some means to effect MoFA, MoI etc, but it is not your responsibility to promote it. Do you agree to have MPP with nation X and to loan money to nation Y etc not I will go and get war games or get a treaty with nation X or Y. If a candidate promises you the skies limit, avoid like the plague. So when you write your manifesto, be realistic. Do not make random and BS promises and goals like I stated above. If you do, you are only screaming "I AM A NUBCAKE!!!!!!!!!!"

Closing/Summary

Like all essays or piece of work, you need a conclusion. In this part of your manifesto, you should sum up what you have covered in your manifesto. You should restate some basic info about yourself and some of your experiences. Give us a short general image of what you want to do in congress. Your summary should be good enough that people can get a general image of who you are and what you want to do without reading the whole article. Also your last line should contain something like "Vote for me" in it. It is statistically proven in real life that people tend to vote more for people that have this in their ads. When RL political scientist ask the voted why they voted for that person, a lot of them said well the ad told me to and I did. It does not hurt to have it in your article towards the end.

Additional Tips and Examples

If you are new to the political game, I would advise you to keep your manifesto as close to the outline I gave in this article. Be very serious and to the point. If you gain more famous and if more and more people know you down the line, you can deviate from it and add your own style to it. People like Mr. Woldy can have fun and silly congressional manifestos while Max Mustermann cannot.
I would recommend that you clearly break your manifesto in clear sections using bold text and some images to divide sections. This will make it easier for people to read and it looks more professional. Imaging reading this whole article with no bold or clear section dividers, it is hard and almost impossible for most people to tackle.

Examples of good manifestos:
-Mr Woldy's Another Term
- CertaCito - UKRP Congressional Candidate for Eastern Region (Yet Again)
-Candidature to congress in Bavaria (MortenLond)
- Vote Konrad in Northern Netherlands

Example of Fun Manifesto:
- Yes You Can!!!! You Too Can Vote Konrad!!!

Examples of bad manifestos:
-Vote bamber on the 25th He followed the structure well but his goals are unrealistic and vague. We all wants the same thing so he tells us nothing.
-BRIGHT FOR BRIGHTER LONDON,SEPTEMBER 2008 Just stupid -.-
-Congressional Sprint (x2) What will you do in congress? Stare into the sky and play with your thumbs? List of achievements is not good enough.

Other Things I Can Do

To win a congress election, you need to get your name out. Why are people like Frerk, Kixtart, Mr Woldy, Donnie Bronco etc gets voted regardless of what they do or not do? They are famous. Most people are not a Frerk or a Woldy, so you need to get your name out there. It is a great idea to write GOOD articles especially about politics during this time so people gets to know you more. You need to be active in our media, IRC, and forum. Comment on articles and being active on all aspect of our community is vital. While many may not comment or directly communicate with you, that does not mean that they are not there. Many people get to know you better even if you do not know who they are.

Making connection is also vital. In the province you are running, try to befriend most of the citizens there. Adding them on your friends list will get them to know your name and they can receive your shouts. This allows communicating easier. To do this in the info tab follow the following path:

-Info Tab
-Ranking
-Citizen
-Country
-Province you are running.

Now you can see all of your constituencies and you can add them to your friends list easier. Also make connections with the party president as well as other top officials as they can write endorsements which can boost your name.

Requirements of a Congressman

I equipped you the basics to get into congress, should you? Well congress is something not to be taken lightly. If you looked into the political system of eRep and the RL for that matters, we are not in a direct democracy, but a representative democracy. It is not the people who choose the MPP's or tax rates etc, but the 40+1 (CP) who choose it for the people since they and they alone vote on issue on the people's behalf. So you should not take this responsibility and honour lightly. It is a duty and that you serve the nation and not the nation serve you.

People place such a great honour for you and you should serve them to your best of your ability. The well being of the nation and the people is literally in your hands. So if you want a quick buck or some quick experience points only, you do not deserve to be in congress and I urge you to not run. Congress is for serious people that wants to make a change for the nation. It is about giving not taking.

Also, it is required that all candidates should be familiar with the rules and traditions of congress. Know the law of what is protocol and proper procedures. All congressman regardless of new or old should know some basics like vote no if there are no debates in the forum etc. You do not need to be an expert but it is ideal that you know the basics. I am sure most congressmen are willing to help if you do need help or if you are confused about something.

I hope you find this guide helpful. I decided last minute to rewrite the guide and not use my old congress guide. I hope this version of the guide was more helpful and more detailed. Like all my articles, please comment and give me feedback regardless of it being good or negative once. In fact, I want more negative ones so I can improve this guide if I did miss something or if I erred. Many thanks for reading this guide and do not forget to vote it up. To all the congressional hopefuls in the coming congressional election, I wish you the best of luck. To all the readers, take care and be well.

Konrad Neumann
MoI of eNL

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