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In the Security procedures I outlined in my manifesto, and subsequently messaged to my advisory team (which included Woshiempire, Flaco and Ice_Freeze), there was a provision for a Primary election. There was no concerns raised about it. Primary elections are actually common across the world where PTO threatens, and many nations in the world are holding them now in order to aid Croatia.

Following our successes in the congress elections and party president elections, we were safe against any PTO'ers, bar a last minute party creation. So I had intended that there would be no primary election, as it was not needed. Our contestants could fight it out properly as the game intended.

However, events took a turn 4 days ago. A botnet began to create multiple accounts, one of which we have experienced recently with a certain SLC. These bots were used to vote and win congress elections previously. Coupled with that, Thailand experienced a treasury robbery, both from their national account and their orgs. This indicated a takeover of both congress and cabinet. Therefore, its only hope of survival was to win the Presidential elections this month. Admins have also recently stated they will not review and previous congress elections. Malaysia is in a similiar peril, with an open war against the Philippines. As Austrlaia is TO'ed, and if Malaysia and Thailand are taken over completely as might seemingly happen, we could be looking at a situation where Singapore is the only nation in South-East Asia which is not under foreign control. Do we really want that situation to occur?

Therefore, in conjunction with other Asian leaders, an ATO plan was formulated and is in the process of being actioned. Naturally, one does not shout these plans out from the rooftops, otherwise they can be counteracted.

So with the botnet and ATO situation abroad, I had to make the snap decision on whether to hold the election or not. If we didnt hold it, our voting base could be split against a potential multie candidate, and we would be forsaking our near neighbours and potentially endangering our security if our neighbours fell. Therefore, that's why I took the decision, even though it was at short notice. I ran the decision by many people, including Relorian, thedark ace, ABC, and I messaged both of the candidates themselves. They both agreed to it. I got a message this morning from one of the candidates that they werent informed in time. I sent the notice to each candidate received at the same time. If the candidate in question is indicating that their opponent received notice before they did, the reason for that would be because they didnt login before the other, most likely due to timezone differences. The reason why the notice was late was outlined above. I put out a newspaper article announcing it and how it would proceed which can be found here:
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http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/singapore-primary-election-to-be-held-1st-august-1472661/1/20
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There has been concern at the number of people who voted. For this reason, I offered the citizenship mass mailing list to each candidate if they wished. If they required it, all they had to do was respond in the affirmative, and then I would ask them for their email to share the google doc. One of the candidates responded, and received the list. I received the mass mail from that candidate, so I assume that all citizens were pm'ed about the process. The candidate in question who says they never received the mass mail list in never responded to my message, so I am at a loss as to how I was supposed to provide them access to the google doc with no email address. The people who voted are those who are active in Singapore, and read the news. They are certainly the most qualified to make the decision. Each candidate was offered the opportunity to mass message the population, so there wasn't much more I could do in that regard. Active votes in the last congress election were 96. I would imagine that plenty of people left the game since then, or else couldn't be bothered to vote unless it gains them an XP. The people who voted were the people who were active on that day, and bothered to vote.
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The reason the 1st of August was selected was to give time for the votes to be counted and verified on the 2nd, and plenty of time for the party presidents to log-on before the end of the 3rd of August to select their candidate. Had it been left any later, the party presidents might not have been able to particpate. I operate on a different timezone to most eSingaporeans, who are either in Asia or in the Americas. In fact, in USA where they held the Primary election a day later on the 2nd, they said if they were doing it again, they would hold it a day earlier on the 1st, as we did.
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http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/swift-fury-aftermath-1476318/1/20
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The reason it was by pm to a locked government org was simple. We needed a way to verify the identity of the voters to ensure there was no multi-election fraud. In the recent Thailand Primary election, multiple accounts were used (I have a secreenshot of a whole page of them) and they were able to identify them and discount them. I originally wanted to set up an API verification system called OAuth, which would have meant we could have voted in anonymity. However, I couldnt get the app done quickly enough, so had to revert to the PM method. The API is notoriously unreliable anyway, as was shown in the USA Primary election in the article above. I also had an independent auditor to verify the results, in case of any accusations of validity.
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If the vote came down to a draw, the candidate with the most XP would have won. In that case, the same candidate still would have won.
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This morning I was accused of being PTO paranoid. Look at Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Norway, Bosnia and plenty of other places I cannot remember. It happens. As pointed out in this article, which the accuser actually commented on, our congress and elections are used to faciliate PTO's. The accuser points out rightly so that admins should have a deportation module. Unforunately, they do not, thus we have to organise our own ATO efforts.
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http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/a-timeline-of-takeover-in-singapore-1464402/1/20
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There was a comment indicating that it seemed it was a tally, and not an election. The words 'Primary Election' indicate it was an election.
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I would certainly have hoped there would be more voters. But I can't magic voters out of the air, nor force them to bother to vote. I gave the opportunity that they could be informed through pm and articles, and that is all I could have done. It was not ill-planned, it was ill-timed. The reason for the timing have been explained above. They were circumstances outside of my control. And if the persons who believe it was a bad plan, they had ample time to indicate so, because two of them voted in the election, and all three of them had received the security procedures to their doorstep (inbox) when I was elected. There wasnt much more I could have done in the circumstances.
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This morning there was an article which seemed to indicate that my administration was 'communist' and 'totalitarian'. I will point out that living in a country which is PTO'ed or under the threat of PTO is not fun. Ask the people who live there, or the people like myself who spend hours analaysing multiple accounts and reporting them, and getting others to report them. That is what it takes to keep PTO's out. It certainly takes a lot more than writing comments in articles saying 'GTFO PTO'ers' and 'Obvious PTO is obvious'. PTO is certainly not fun. My term was the only term in recent memory in which a PTO candidate did not get elected, and in which we hold all the parties. I am proud of that. It enables Singapore to operate and focus purely on improving the country. Free will operates. Nobody was stopped running for congress because that is not possible. They were advised against it, with their reputation being at stake. When I came to this country, the first two elections I was forced to sit out because there was ATO efforts and I was selected. This is not a new phenonemon. The only difference is that this time it was successful.
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I take responsibility for my actions. There will always be those who agree and disagree. I acted as best I could. I will also not be around after this, so there's no need to worry about anymore "communist" actions from Tommy 😛
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I tried my best, and I wish Singapore the best.
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Signing off,

Tommy Aquinas
One-time Singapore President