The March 2022 election concluded today with the emphatic re-election of Secretary Super Awesome Fun Times, albeit in the second round with a decreased vote share. SAFT, who won her first term in decisive fashion with a first-round victory in a field of eight candidates back in December 2021, needed just a little bit more this time, after falling short of a majority in the first round.

The Candidates & Their Campaigns

Secretary Super Awesome Fun Times ran for re-election primarily on continuing the work of her first term. The Leftist Library, which was announced last term but has yet to be unveiled, was promised, as was the continuation of community events on regional holidays, following the success of the Assembly Day and Constitution Day celebrations, which saw Assemblians and foreign visitors take part in game nights, as well as the Assembly Day Chess Tournament. SAFT also set the goal of reversing the population decline seen under Minister of Recruitment The final horseman during her first term, a blight on an otherwise successful term that saw the regional population fall by over 20%. During the campaign, she suggested the creation of a manual recruitment program to reverse the diminishing returns of auto-recruitment seen by TLA in recent months.

In another election, the candidacy of Speaker Podria, a long-time and controversial figure in Assemblian politics, as well as a former Vice-Secretary, would have been the biggest competitor to the incumbent. Indeed, Pod has been a perennial challenger to the post, this being their fourth attempt at running for Secretary in the last twelve months. However, Pod chose not to run a serious campaign on this occasion, as is rapidly becoming their modus operandi, instead telling Assemblians to guess what their plans were, and refusing to elaborate during the campaign.

Podria wrote:

I would like to nominate myself for Secretary. No, you don't get a platform, you have to guess what I'm going to do.

Pod endorsed SAFT shortly before voting began, though remained on the ballot as a joke candidate.

The only serious challenger to the incumbent was MGA Yong. A current member of the General Assembly and former Minister of Community Affairs, Yong was pointed out in our article about pre-election polling as a potential dark horse, though one that would struggle to defeat the Secretary if she ran for re-election. Yong had one previous executive election campaign under her belt, coming third in the September 2021 Secretarial Election. However, Yong did bring ideas to the table: both increased RMB monitoring and the introduction of a mental health resource dispatch were floated during her campaign, as well as the completion of the Leftist Library. She received some criticism around her policies being similar to SAFT's, though at least some Assemblians saw her campaign as more than just continuity, and there were certainly some policy differences.

The Results

Given her lead in pre-election polling, it was a surprise when the Secretary failed to secure a first-round majority. Super Awesome Fun Times received 17 (49%) of the 35 valid votes, just one short of the necessary 18 needed to win outright. Yong would pick up 9 votes (26%) whilst Podria won just 3 votes (9%) and was eliminated, with 6 voters (17%) casting their ballots with Seek Other Candidate as a first-preference.

Podria's votes were redistributed for the second round, and a single second-preference vote saw SAFT win a majority, and her re-election to TLA's top job. Yong also received one second-preference vote, making the final result a 18-10 victory for SAFT.

Moving Forward

Secretary Super Awesome Fun Times, having secured a second term, will not undoubtedly turn her attention to her Cabinet and Judicial picks. Whether she intends to shake things up or place her faith in her existing team is yet to be seen, but The assemblian will report on and analyse those picks when they arrive.

by Kavagrad, 13/03/2022