Citizens Assembly Chair Election
Aramor vs Johnny vs Jay
Written by Johnny Costello
(Europeia, June 17, 2018) Another exciting election for Chair of the Citizens Assembly (CA) came to a close on Sunday, June 16 with a freshly returned Europeian from 2009, Aramor, coming out on top. Standing for the election opened the 10th but it would take four days for anyone to stand. Eventually, returning veteran and former president Aramor along with two newcomers, Alexandrianium (A.K.A Johnny Costello) and Captain Alexander (A.K.A Jay) stood.
Johnny posted a platform based on the ideas of a democracy with all citizens involved and focused on what seemed to be a hands-on approach to getting new citizens involved in the pre-legislative process. Running as an Independent, he offered the idea to work on specific areas of the legislative process, to focus on weekly goals and he showed support for the legislation that makes the CA possible. In conclusion, he noted that despite his newcomer status, he would be strongly motivated to lead the CA and mentioned that he would pull from a group of experienced past CA chairs to be his Deputies.
Aramor had a strongly organized platform looking to boost the ideas of education for the CA and offered the idea to a have an "Ideas/Questions" thread to bring about - as he called it - 'social mixing'. The ideas were to intermingle the veterans of the assembly to the newcomers and build a more diverse idea set. He also had an interesting idea based on the Mockingbird, the CA's newspaper, saying he would post three issues biweekly on reports of the legislative review, interviews, newcomer highlights and general interest. Aramor offered to give his Deputy Chair positions to his competitors on the basis that they have shown aptitude to be motivated and active. He concluded by saying he would be willing to adapt his ideas to lead the CA strongly. His platform was fairly popular with the community.
Jay held a platform that highlighted that his newcomer status was strictly to Europeia and not to NationStates. He brought forward his idea of organizing the educational system for newcomers and mentioned about publishing the Mockingbird twice a term instead of the standard one issue. When asked about his standing on citizen engagement he said he would look to the newcomers to bring in more activity.
When voting ended on the 17th, Aramor came out on top with 28 votes (60.9 Percent of the vote). Jay followed behind with 10 votes and Johnny came in last with 2 votes. Despite the loss, both newcomers showed enthusiasm and many citizens look forward to their future endeavors. Aramor expressed great gratitude for winning the election. "Thanks for trusting me with your vote for Chair - I think this is going to be an excellent term and I'm really excited to get started. I'd also like to extend my congratulations as well to both Jay and Johnny for a well-fought election. I intend for most CA updates to be handled through the Mockingbird." As promised in his platform, Aramor chose Jay and Johnny as his deputy chairs and announced to have the ideas of his platform in place by mid-week.
