The election for Delegate proved to be a one-sided affair as yours truly, His Most Benevolent Cakeness, Your Lord and Savior, the Emperor, Mother, and Delegate of the South Pacific, Ebonhand/Griffindor, ran unopposed in what could only be described as the effects of a highly successful year-long tenure as Head of State. I now enter a renewed term of office lasting six months!

I announced my plans for the upcoming term (which can be viewed here: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/delegate-griffindor-and-the-prisoners-of-pie-a-reelection-thread/5972). To put it briefly, my plans are to continue operating under the agenda I set out with at the beginning of my last two terms. You know what they say... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

When the RMB had a chance to vote in the second round via regional poll, the Delegate commanded an 84-vote victory over our long-time foe, RON! This proved to be an even larger margin of victory than the previous election, which was already one of the largest landslides in regional history! Thank you to all who voted; I mean that from the bottom of my heart! To celebrate, everyone gets a slice of cake for each Delegate election we've won! 🍰🍰🍰

The Prime Minister election proved to be a competitive election, seeing the (at the time) Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sporaltryus/ProfessorHenn run against the (at the time) Office of World Assembly Legislation Director Differences-In-Differences/LordNwahs to succeed (at the time) Incumbent Prime Minister PenguinPies, who did not choose to seek reelection. When the dust settled, and the results were announced, LordNwahs emerged with just under two-thirds of the total vote in the first round, securing his election for a three-month term.

Delegate:
Round 1: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/july-2024-delegate-election-voting/5992/2
Round 2: page=poll/p=303428

Prime Minister:
https://thesouthpacific.org/t/july-2024-prime-minister-election-voting/5993/2

As is tradition within the South Pacific, the region, while it elects the Prime Minister, votes on the "Craziest Person" title, which is to be held by the winner until the next election. When Election Commissioner Kringalia/Kris Kringle announced the results, the true winners, Fluffy the Three-Headed Dog, Noodle the Basilisk, and Buckwings the Hippogiff, were not the winners, and Kris' own pet, Indiana, as well as himself were given thousands of fraudulent and imported votes! A recount was demanded yet non occurred. This is simply disgraceful! ;) See this stolen election for yourself here: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/july-2024-prime-minister-election-voting/5993/2

First, in what should at this point be a post-election tradition, the Assembly is once again debating how it can legislate that people learn how to read the instructions before they cast their vote in an election to ensure that it is not invalid. This is the most substantial debate on the matter in history, with several simultaneous discussions and votes occurring.
- One such discussion seeks to eliminate approval voting (which is how the Delegate is elected) in favor of solely using Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). The idea behind this proposal is that if we only have one vote-counting method, then citizens will be less likely to cast the wrong type of ballot in an election. This proposal went to vote and narrowly failed.
- Another proposal seeks to compel the Election Commissioner to interpret invalid ballots so that only truly invalid ballots can be discarded. This proposal is a vote and is projected to fail massively. However, it should be noted that there was a motion to cancel the vote that was rejected because a few legislators felt the draft was not complete before it was voted upon. The vote will likely end as scheduled and debate will resume on this bill so that it can be finished.
- The third proposal is the status quo. Several legislators within the Assembly believe it is a citizen's personal responsibility to read the instructions and vote correctly, and as such, the current system should be maintained. This proposal has generally won the day, but it will be interesting to see if the status quo option will survive this post-election discussion. Stay tuned!

Second, now that they are in office, Prime Minister LornNwahs submitted their list of nominees to the Assembly for a confirmation vote. The nominees are as follows:

Sporaltryus/ProfessorHenn as Deputy Prime Minister
The Lombard League/Coltranius as Minister of Defence
Concrete Slab as Minister of Foreign Affairs
Peoples Guerilla Armed Coalition/Jay/xshotss as Minister of Culture
Lile Ulie Islands/Maluhia as Minister of Integration
7 Trees/NoOne as Minister of Engagement

All of the above-named nominees were passed by overwhelming margins in the Assembly and have since assumed office. However, before they could be voted on, there was an issue regarding who had the authority to make appointments and when. The Prime Minister-elect had nominated their ministers before assuming office, so in the opinion of the Chair of the Assembly, Great Lothian/BlockBuster2K43, the nominations were not valid until their first day in office, which also meant that the debate/voting period was to be delayed. This started a discussion in the interim on how to avoid this issue in the future. For now, it seems like the issue, being settled, will allow the problem to go unresolved until the next election. However, we shall see. Stay tuned!!

This spoiler will detail the remainder of the Assembly business that has taken place since the last Fortnightly Telegram.

First: I delivered (later than usual) the State of the Coalition speech on behalf of the then Prime Minister, PenguinPies. Afterward, several questions were asked by legislators to gather a more in-depth answer. You can read the address and read the questions that were asked here: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/state-of-the-coalition-july-2024/5961

Second: Legislator Virifortis/Silva began a discussion on returning the Cabinet to pre-2023 changes, i.e., returning all ministers back to an election rather than just the Prime Minister. After a year of fully trying out the new system, the question was bound to have been asked eventually. The general consensus that developed was that the old system was preferential to the new system and cited reduced activity or a misconception that the Prime Ministers of the day did not have the authority to order the elected ministers around. However, a major question on how to increase activity (and prevent elections from being uncontested) was made, to which no real answer was formulated. The discussion then died out as the election process went into full swing. It will be interesting to see if discussion resumes in the coming weeks and what comes of it.

Third: Discussion on amending the Military Code was resumed and subsequently died again. The resumption of discussion came as the original proposal was amended and scaled back from what had been presented in previous Fortnightly Telegrams. A point of contention raised was why the military is not purging its ranks of inactive/CTEd members. Will the discussion resume, or will it remain inactive? Stay tuned!

Fourth: The discussion on Assembly activity continued as people generated ideas on how to keep the Assembly active in holding the executive accountable. The idea of "Prime Minister Questions" was raised and how the Assembly could best accomplish that while creating a culture of (nicely) holding the executive to account.

Fifth: A minor amendment was presented that would seek to reduce the amount of time the Chair of the Assembly has to process legislator removals at the beginning of the month from seven days to three days. The proposal met some resistance on reducing the leeway afforded to the Chair and discussion shifted more toward the discretion that the Citizenship Committee has in processing citizenship removals. The discussion has since been inactive.

Sixth: A discussion on creating Agencies within the executive government that handle infrastructure and work differently from ministries was floated. An interesting concept to be sure, and I actually missed this when it was first discussed, so I'll have to get back to y'all on it in another Fortnightly Briefing (assuming the discussion is still active by then).

Seventh: Legislator Drew Durrnil/Banexet noted that Declarations of War are not well defined in the law and proposed an amendment to the Charter to codify the Assembly's ability to declare war. An initial draft gave much of the war-making decision to the Prime Minister and contained provisions allowing the Admiralty to possess and exercise executive power during a war. In addition, declaring peace was only able to be done by the Prime Minsiter, with the consent of the Assembly thereafter. The initial draft faced a fair bit of resistance and was eventually slimmed down to only include the ability of the Assembly (and the Assembly alone) to make war and peace. The slimmed-down proposal ended up passing by a large margin, though notable dissenters wondered why the idea of "Assembly Supremacy," a hallmark of the region, was not assumed to also cover the ability to make war and peace. Some of those dissenters preferred a brief mention within the Assembly Article of the Charter rather than a whole new Charter article being created.

Eighth: The Chair of the Assembly, Great Lothian/BlockBuster2K43 introduced an amendment that seeks to change the requirement of the Chair to archive inactive or voted upon topics. The idea behind this amendment was to utilize the forum's ability to automatically remove inactive topics from display on its own, which would serve as an archival. This is different from the region's previous forums, which did not have that function, and a Chair had to manually lock and then move threads to an archival area. The proposal is currently at the vote and expected to pass overwhelmingly.

Ninth: This item should have been mentioned in the previous Fortnightly Update, but I did not think to check the Private Halls of the Assembly (or the voting area) for it! The South Pacific has upgraded its treaty with Europeia from a Non-Aggression Pact to a Mutual-Defence Treaty. The Pact of Orohena was thus repealed and replaced by the Treaty of the Shining Seas. You can read the updated treaty here: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/treaty-of-the-shining-seas-with-europeia/5942

If you made it to the end of this Assembly update, you deserve yourself a slice of cake! 🍰

Case 1: Petitioner Roavin argued that the aforementioned Resolution was, in actuality, a Bill of Attainder (which is a punishment imposed by a legislature without a trial by a Court). Several individuals have made amicus briefs to answer the question, and now the Court is tasked with determining the answer to that question. Stay tuned! The case link: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/2404-hq-constitutionality-of-the-resolution-to-restore-regional-accountability/5971

Case 2: Petitioner Roavin submitted a second case (after a misunderstanding of the law) that clarified and seeks to determine whether the Resolution to Restore Regional Accountability is an Ex Post Facto law (a law that criminalizes past actions that were "legal" at the time). Amicus briefs for this case are undoubtedly going to shape the case in the coming days, so stay tuned for this as well! The case link: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/2405-hq-constitutionality-of-the-resolution-to-restore-regional-accountability-2/6084

NOTE: I have been assigned as the Secondary Justice for these two cases, so that means my discussion of these cases is limited to what is publically available, and I will not provide my views on the case when explaining the public thread here! 🍰

First, Kringalia/Kris Kringle was appointed as a Senior Moderator within the South Pacific. This is an OOC role, to which Kris was already an Admin.

Second, Sandaoguo/Glen recently announced his resignation from the Council on Regional Security, citing a personal lack of activity in the region this past year. Send Glen a thank you telegram for all of their many years of service to the region!

First: Minister of Defense The Lombard League/Coltranius appointed Drew Durrnil/Banexet as Deputy Minister of Defense and will assist the Minister as needed, including in a scheduled absence at the beginning of next month.

Second: The SPSF issued a rare Dishonorable Discharge to one of its members, Jamangland, for participating in a raid of a frontier region while a member of the SPSF. The statement reiterates that the South Pacific is a defender region and that such actions are not tolerated by the SPSF.

Aidenfieeld
Amerion
Ebonhand
Land Without Shrimp
Sporaltryus
Tepertopia
Tsunamy

The South Pacific Coral Guard

by The Government Program of Southern World Assembly Initiative

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Home | Guide | Endotarting | SWAN Knights | Coral Guard | Awards | Track your progress | Endo cap | FAQ
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The South Pacific Coral Guard (SPCG)

The South Pacific Coral Guard (SPCG) is a group of trusted nations who maintain a high-endorsement count and are one of the most crucial lines of defense against external and internal security threats alongside the Council on Regional Security (CRS).

For the safety and security of our region, we ask that all World Assembly (WA) member nations in the South Pacific endorse the members of the SPCG, as well as the Delegate. There is no requirement to do so but endorsing the SPCG and the Delegate will make those who do a SWAN Knight.

Member nations of the SPCG (Number of members: 5)
Aidenfieeld	Ebonhand	Land Without Shrimp	PenguinPies	Tepertopia

Duties and privileges of the SPCG

Member nations of the SPCG are permitted a higher Endorsement Cap than that provided for the general World Assembly membership. The current endorsement cap for SPCG members is set to be 60 less than the endorsement count of the delegate. (Currently Ebonhand at 555 endorsements)

The current endorsement cap for SPCG is 495

A member of the CRS will be appointed to act as a liaison for SPCG members and, in times of emergency, SPCG members might be called upon to support or otherwise work with CRS members.

Joining the SPCG

Requirements

In order to become a member of the SPCG, one has to:

• Have maintained citizenship for at least six consecutive months prior to the date of their application to the Coral Guard; and

• Meet the requirements for influence and endorsements set and published by the Council on Regional Security
  

Process

Step 1: Ensure that you meet all the requirements listed above.

Step 2: Write up an application which provides:

• The name of your WA nation;

• Your history in NationStates including any aliases you are using or have previously used; and,

• One (or several) paragraphs arguing why the Council should appoint you to this position of high trust.
  

Step 3: Send your application to a member of the CRS. You can do this by a variety of methods (a telegram, a private message on the forum, or a direct message on Discord).

The CRS will review your application. This can take a number of days to three weeks. The Council will likely have additional questions which they will communicate to you via the method of your application. Following a formal vote within the Council, it will decide whether to appoint you to the Coral Guard and notify the Assembly of its decision.

Please be advised that meeting the requirements does not automatically guarantee that the application will be successful. These mechanical conditions are one of several factors which the Council considers in its determination.

A few notes:

• Everything is updated every 24 hours so you need to wait for any change in the data to happen.

• If you see any inaccuracies, errors, or have ideas for improvements, please contact us.

• There are some minor inaccuracies in the data, read this for more information.
  

If you want to know more about the SWAN initiative, check out our dispatch index.

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Read dispatch

Don't forget the cake for doing that, of course! 🍰

Let's get this CAKE COUP PARTY started! (Sorry, not sorry, for the Cake Spam!)
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