Congress Elections; Columns

Day 2,257, 11:17 • Published in Netherlands Slovakia • by Willem The Conqueror


Dear Readers,

With the Congress Elections lying ahead I have a brand new article for you.

This time I haven't got any interviews for you, this time I have 2 columns for you. For the people who don't know what a column is; here is a short explenation;

A column is just a piece of text were the write (columnist) tells his vision about for example the Congress Elections.

This time we have NoTie112 and Lancer450 as our columnists. I hope you will all enjoy!



The first column is from NoTie112;

Congress Elections January

This month is promising to bring along yet another interesting Congress Elections, as the top 5 position is being challenged harder than ever before: Democratisch Nederland, the Revolutionary Party (a last-minute merger with Bilderberg and Dutch People's Party), Libertas and Iron & Wine are all in the run for Congress, and one of them is likely to fall out.

Another interesting factor this month is the fact there will be only 20 available seats, as we are limited to 2 regions (instead of the four we're supposed to have). On the question whether this is a good or bad thing, it swings both ways. On the other hand, it gives us only the most experienced and active (old) Congress members, meanwhile the chance for new citizens to get involved in politics and the establishment has been radically decreased.

Overall, the balance of power is not likely to be changed from last months. The GPN-VVN alliance is likely to even out with the opposing parties. Most parties seem to stick around the same amount of members lately, but this gives a false light on the situation. In fact, we've lost over 20% of the population during the last month, the members counts only being held up by immigration and revival of older accounts.



The Second (and last) column is from Lancer450, Hope you will enjoy it!
(Note: His column was based on the information he got on the 23rd of January, so some information may be out of date!)

lancer450’s Expectations from the Congress Elections

Hello everyone! I was asked by Willem to write a column discussing my expectations and predictions of the upcoming congress election that is to be held on the 25th from the point of view of a member of a party that is not currently in the top 5, specifically the Dutch Revolutionary Party (DRP). I agreed and I would like to thank Willem for asking me to partake and I would also like to commend him for his substantial contributions to our nation’s media since he joined eNL. Before I continue and discuss my thoughts on the upcoming election, let me just say that I’m going to try my best to stay as neutral as possible. I’m simply going to be commenting on what I see to be the likely result from this month’s election.

To begin, at the current moment I am writing this it appears as if the same top 5 parties in last month’s election will again be participating in this month’s election. They are: GPN, DemNL, VVN, Libertas, and Iron & Wine. Little has changed over the past month within the top 5. In fact, I believe the order is exactly the same as it was last month. However, as some may remember last month, this order does not always necessarily translate over to votes nor does it always accurately predict election performance.
Last month the largest party in the country, GPN, garnered approximately 31.69% of the votes cast on Election Day, the most of any party, with a total of 45 votes. That result was as expected as I just said they are the largest party in the nation and one would expect the largest party to receive the most votes. Because of this and similar results in elections before that, I personally expect the same this month. GPN has maintained their #1 position within the top 5 and are likely to have the same performance they have had in the past as it seems they are also able to maintain similar activity levels each month. So I expect them to remain in 1st place this election.

The party that came in 2nd place last month was Iron & Wine. So how could the party in 5th place for the election place 2nd on Election Day? Simple. For those who are unaware, Iron & Wine and the DRP combined forces last month in order for the DRP, a party outside of the top 5, to have representation in government. This contributed to the inflation of I&W’s numbers on Election Day. This resulted in I&W/DRP garnering 35 total votes which was about 24.65% of the total votes cast. This month, however, may be very different. This month the DRP had considered running with I&W again but ultimately decided not to do so. While the DRP very much appreciated I&W’s offer, DRP was wanting to explore other options including possibly trying to run on their own which would require more recruitment on their behalf. Because of these developments, it is quite likely that Iron & Wine will have a not-so-stellar performance compared to last month’s meaning they will likely end up at the other end of the spectrum, possibly 4th or 5th place.
While DemNL is currently in 2nd place in regards to total members, they seem to have had a drop off in activity the past couple months from my perspective. Last month they had a similar amount of members as they do now if I’m not mistaken, around 30 or so. Yet they managed about 20 votes in total. If they have a repeat performance like last month, they seriously risk dropping down to 4th place yet again. I am not a member of DemNL and, thus, not as familiar with the party so perhaps they will see a rise in activity this month. One thing that possibly could have had an effect on their performance last month could have been the fact that the election last month took place on Christmas Day. I understand this is not the greatest excuse as I’m sure other parties had a very similar problem as DemNL had since we all know Christmas is celebrated by people regardless of in-game party affiliation. 😉But, perhaps their members were effected more so during the holidays and were afk. If that is the case, then I suspect DemNL could possibly outperform my current expectations that they will likely fall right in the middle of the pack on Election Day. But that remains to be seen.

Because of the predictions and analyses above and because of the little change within the top 5, I feel the results for this month’s election will look something a little like this:

1. GPN
2. VVN
3. DemNL
4. Libertas or I&W
5. Libertas or I&W

Now, normally I would have discussed the possible effects that those outside the top 5 would have on the election at a much more extensive length. I have not done so. Why? Because I personally don’t see it having that much of an effect at all this month. The DRP has decided not to run alongside I&W this month so this means that many of their members will likely not vote in the election at all unless DRP makes it into the top 5 by Election Day. I also expect that much of BG’s membership will either vote for GPN and/or VVN which will keep GPN in 1st and could possibly keep VVN in 2nd. If DemNL does see an increase from last month they will probably have to overcome a little extra cushion provided to VVN, a party where old BG leaders had moved to a couple months ago, by a few members from BG. Bottom line: I expect DPP and BG’s votes to be split amongst several parties, ultimately having little effect on the ending results. I expect DRP members to either not vote at all or to split just as I have predicted for DPP and BG. And Hollands Glorie, the smallest party in the country and notorious for its focus on the language issue, will have no effect whatsoever.

Thanks for reading my pre-election analysis and my predictions and expectations for this month. Again, thanks to Willem for asking me to provide my perspective. I appreciate it. Lastly, good luck to everyone standing for election!




Well that was it for today, I hope you will like these columns, and if you have any ideas for my newspaper for the future please PM me!

Also after the Congress Elections there will be again some interviews with the Party Presidents, the questions are the exact same, so if you have any good ideas for a couple of questions please PM me!

Your press director,
Willem The Conqueror