Judiciary Elections - July 2019
by Marcus Antonius, Deputy Minister of Communications
The dust has settled on the second Judicial Elections of the season. An impressive total of 22 people were nominated for this election, and in the end, 7 candidates ran in the election. Let’s take a look at them.
@Eluvatar: Has extensive experience in NS, going back to 2006. Always a class act, Elu's campaign thread started with this wonderful ditty, which basically summed up his campaign.
Bravado's not my usual game
but here, I'll try it just the same.
I've been in this region for thirteen years,
let's better hope you can lend me your ears.
We've danced this dance many a time,
a couple of times, even, in rhyme,
but every time I ask for your vote
is never the time to mumble by rote.
From ancient Athens comes the name
for the rite we make the game.
The voice of the people may be odd
of all the things to make a god,
But Winston had it right, I say,
when saying it's the least worst way.
There's majesty and grandeur, see,
in writing down your vote for me.
Even if you vote abstain,
your ballot disfavoring my campaign,
Your participation in our game
will make me happy all the same.
I've voted, read, campaigned, for years
and yet will scream, to deafen ears:
VOTE!
[/b]
Dreadton : Currently a Deputy Speaker in TNP and in RL is currently taking a degree in Legal Studies. His campaign relied a lot on his previously submitted Speaker campaign thread. One of the main things he likes about the way our court is structured is that there is a mechanism for Justices to review previous rulings without reopening the case. This falls in line with his belief that a person's beliefs and positions should be reviewed in light of new discoveries and facts. He does do not think anything should really change fundamentally with the judicial system. He thinks it is structured rather well.
Gorundu : A relative newbie to TNP, Gurundu has had some experience in Judicial matters in UCR's. He believes the inherent advantage of electing someone new to the region is that they have not been in the region long enough to form bias, thus guaranteeing maximum impartiality. He sees the position of Justice as something about reliability and experience, and as such, he doesn't have any radical plans for the position of Justice, other than a return to timeliness and regular updates for the public.
Wonderess: A past Speaker of the Regional Assembly and a well known Citizen of TNP. He describes himself as the philosophical and Catholic person of TNP. Unfortunately this has, at times, drawn negative attention to himself despite bringing effective service to this region and governed previous positions he has held efficiently. This may very well affect his chances in the vote.
Lady Raven Wing : Though not experienced in the legal profession, TNP or RL, Lady Raven Wing ran a no joke campaign. What experience he does possess should still be useful. Much of that is in the more legislative area, notably pursuits in NS's own General Assembly, but also in real life Model UNs and Model (state) Assemblies. He chooses not to promise anything except promise to engage appropriately and efficiently as a member of the court, and do his due diligence in evaluating what decisions and cases are put before him.
Dinoium : A previous Deputy Attorney General and holding legal positions in UCR's, Dino is a well known and popular Citizen in TNP. His campaign was long and detailed, mentioning his previous experience and referring to his previous Court campaign. He wishes to speed up due process and review RA bills and resolutions to check their legality. He will try to act as nonpartisan and unbiased as he can when reviewing matters. If something directly involves himself or calls for his recusal, He will formally recuse himself from such discussions.
Lord Lore: Lore has been in TNP for just under 5 years. He has been a Justice before and is a serving Security Councillor. He believes himself to be a trustworthy person. He doesn't believe that making campaign promises is smart for a Court Justice and instead he just provided us his history in the region as a benchmark for why he should be a Justice. He has a fairly robust knowledge of TNP law and Precedent and is very actively aware of the need to be careful when setting Precedent. He is very active in his roles as Cartographer for Eras on the forum and as Security Councillor and he doesn't believe that Justice is outside of his current workload.
The VoteDue to Lady Raven Wing, losing their citizenship the vote was closed with a new round of voting beginning immediately. At the time of the suspension of voting, Lady Raven Wing was in 5th place with 16 votes. The top three positions were held by Eluvatar, Lord Lore and Dreadton respectively. The main beneficiary of the withdrawal of Lady Raven Wing was Dreadton, gaining an extra 5 votes. Surprisingly Gurundu lost 6 votes, Lord Lore lost 5 votes and Dinoium lost 3 votes. This may have been due to voters not returning.
The final vote is shown below.
The Winners
Elu was delighted at hearing he came top in the pollsEluvatar, Dreadton and Lord Lore won the election and are now TNP Justices. Congratulations to them and all who took part.
ConclusionEluvatar, Lord Lore and Dreadton clearly won due to their previous experience in the region and the courts. Dinoium was also a favored candidate in the election.
[SIZE=100] NPA Bulletin[/size]
by Robespierre, Minister of Home Affairs
Leadership[SIZE=100]
Minister of Defense (MoD): General BobberinoDeputy Ministers of Defense (DMoDs):
Colonel Knightblood and Colonel Koopa[/SIZE]
Captain Robespierre and two fellow NPA operatives scout the area for oncoming fascists who threaten to disturb the occupation of a nearby white supremacist stronghold. Via telecommunication, Sergeant Trondstorm is heard through his two-way radio proclaiming that this is no place for hateful ideologies to call haven.It's been quite an eventful and productive term thus far and even with one month remaining before the next general election cycle, and I can only reasonably assume that the Army's progress will continue. We've been fortunate enough to experience an influx of new blood, talent that's filling out the roster of the house that Gladio built.
I'm sure that any enlistee will tell you that the barracks have been buzzing with excitement as this month proved to be yet another rousing success for the NPA. When we finished up last time I spoke a bit about our liberation of the region Anontia, an operation for which we assisted our allies in the South Pacific Special Forces, the Rejected Realms Army, and even the Ten Thousand Islands Treaty Organization (TITO). That was great news, mind you, but I think what soon followed after that report is also worth noting. On the thirteenth of July's minor update the North Pacific Army collaborated with the Rejected Realms' troops once more when we embarked upon a joint detag run and had a good showing from five of our Generals and four of our soldiers. After that, Private First Class Abraham was promoted to Corporal and Private Rom was promoted to Private First Class... that's two bright spots on leaderships' radar who are looking to turn themselves out as fine operators in the near future.
Next, we set our sights on keeping up with the quota for tag raiding! No, there isn't actually a quota to be met but with how well we do at it you'd think there was! On the nineteenth of July's major update I decided to take the troops out for a seven region sack run for the glorious experience of raiding. On the first of the month General Malphe, Zazumo, and Darcania all suited up to bring six of their accompanying personnel on another target of that day's featured region. The Floof Emperor calls himself a slumbering dragon on occasion, so I suppose that makes sense since for the next several hours the 'Realm of the Dragon' boasted a pretty NPA tag on it for all the world to see! This encounter saw the return of Corporal Scorch, so hopefully with this new blip on the record he can find himself capable of joining in on all the happenings of Bobberino's ping wars.
Backtracking a bit, we reflect on the tenth of July's major update, where I led an onslaught of seven soldiers to three targets and captured them in rapid succession. Don't look now, but on the fourth of August's minor update Captain Dinoium was pleased to find himself with ten other willing and able people to have a tagging party. We did that for about five jumps and of course Colonel (Major) Koopa slept through them all. Seriously, someone tell him that he needs to be getting his rest! *shakes fist*
Finally, in perhaps the most recent and most relevant news, it was announced this past Friday that the North Pacific Army had successfully locked down a region known as the 'Coalition of White Supremacists' (or as we like to call them, C.O.W.S!!). In an operation that saw a staggering twenty-three of the North's finest participate, General Darcania and company worked closely with the Sekhmet Legion from Osiris to secure the fascist encampment and rid it of its distasteful world factbook entry. Upon the completion of this campaign, Minister of Defense Bobberino took the time to recognize everyone who deployed in the worthwhile effort to bash the fash and even supplied the troops involved with complementary gift baskets.
Suffice to say, it was another great month for the Army and their friends abroad; whether it was on one side of the battlefield or another, the Ministry of Defense in the North Pacific remains committed to excellence and fun! It definitely shows too, as those undesirables best beware! A very special thank you to any and all natives who helped host our tags in their regions... we appreciate you! This has been Captain Robespierre from the Officer Corps, logging out!
Regional Assembly Highlights
by Artemis, Speaker of the Regional Assembly
Regional Assembly June 2019Speaker of The Regional Assembly:
ArtemisDeputy Speakers of The Regional Assembly:
Funkadelia and
Brendog[size=125]U]
Vote[/U][/SIZE]
[size=125]U]
Passed[/U][/SIZE]
Security Council Member Standards put forward by
Praetor.
Status: At VoteSummary: The Security Council Member Standards bill was introduced to address an issue that several individuals felt in regards to the Security Council. As the law currently reads, members of the Security Council do not have to maintain citizenship in the region. This bill amends the constitution to remove that exemption for maintaining citizenship from the Security Council.
Results: 34 Ayes, 0 Nays, and 3 Abstentions.
Confirmation of Lord Lore and Robespierre as Election Commissioners put forward by Speaker
Artemis.
Status: PassedSummary: The Delegate, El Fiji Grande, appointed members of the Election Commission Lord Lore and Robespierre to serve for six months as Election Commissioners. The debate was quick as many felt that these individuals both wielded enough experience to supervise elections in the North Pacific.
Results: Lord Lore - 21 Ayes, 1 Nays, and 2 Abstention.
Robespierre - 23 Ayes, 0 Nay, and 1 Abstention.
Instant Runoff Election Bill, put forward by
Gorundu.
Status: PassedSummary: An amendment to the way that elections are run in the North Pacific. This bill introduces the idea of implementing an instant runoff voting system for the General Elections.
Results: 15 Ayes, 7 Nays, and 3 Abstentions.
[size=125]U]
Current Business[/U][/SIZE]
Lessening Repeating Work (L.R.W.) Bill, put forward by
Praetor.
Status: In DiscussionSummary: An amendment to the way that elections are run in the North Pacific. This bill introduces some grammatical fixes to the election laws, changes the method of election for Court Justices to a preferential voting system instead of first past the post, and includes methods for dealing with candidates that either become ineligible or withdraw during the voting period. This bill additionally deals with instances of ties at the end of the voting period.
[floatleft]
[/floatleft][size=100]World Assembly Digest[/size]
By Deerfenland, World Assembly Reporter
General AssemblyImproving the world one resolution at a time____________________________________________________________________________________
Affordable Transgender Hormone Therapy
Status: Passed
Delegate's Vote: For
Final Vote (World): For: 10,855 Against: 2,859
Final Vote (TNP): For: 369 Against: 146 Percentage of WA nations voting: 38.51
Recommendation: This proposal intends to extend rights to and legally define transgender and non-binary peoples. This will not only improve the quality of life for those communities but also compliment previous legislation regarding this same and similar topics. These rights, being well deserved, primarily focus around hormone therapy for the altering of ones sex characteristics to better reflect their gender identity. The proposal also attests to the scientifically proven facts involved with sex and gender characteristics and the various medical conditions involved.
In accordance with the reasoning stated above, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote For this proposal.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Prohibit Private Prisons
Status: Passed
Delegate's Vote: Against
Final Vote (World): For: 8,576 Against: 6,401
Final Vote (TNP): For: 245 Against: 257 Percentage of WA nations voting: 38.73
Recommendation: Prohibit Private Prisons possesses problematic phrases that will hinder prisoner quality of life and member nations' ability to care for them. The definition of 'prison' is somewhat small in scope and appears to exclude short-term and non-permanent facilities, thus dropping those from the definition of 'private prisons.' This would make make the desired effect of the resolution more difficult to achieve. Furthermore, one should note that legislation (GAR #161 & GAR #194 to name a few) already exists to care for inmates which would greatly prevent these private prisons from abusing those inmates they possess. Finally, this proposal inadvertently bans non-profit prisons which have on countless occasions worked to advance inmate rights and create safer, more rehabilitation focused centers to directly benefit the lives of inmates.
In hopes of legislation that better protects inmates while not harming systems already in place, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote Against this proposal.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Protecting Personal Privacy
Status: Passed
Delegate's Vote: Against
Final Vote (World): For: 6,173 Against: 7,954
Final Vote (TNP): For: 179 Against: 327 Percentage of WA nations voting: 39.46
Recommendation: Protecting Personal Privacy, while well intending, gets caught up in its own over-worded clauses and ultra specific definitions. The proposal denies governments the ability to view the data unless specific situations occur, which could cause governments to take larger action than realistically needed in order to view items pertinent to national security and gross crimes before an investigation could be opened. The definition of 'user' is so specific that there is not an easily discernible definition to 'non-user' seeing that it is not defined. This error makes Clause 3, sections 2 and 4 difficult to enforce. Clause 3, section 4 also allows for people to remove evidence of their specific person ever interacting with an organization unless 'there is a clear and compelling safety or disciplinary reason to do otherwise such as loans or criminal records'. This becomes an issue because there is no way to determine if such information could be used in the future for criminal or civil proceedings without those proceedings taking place, thus putting these organizations in a state of limbo. Additionally, Clause 4 allows organizations to prohibit a person from using services if they do not consent to their data being collected, however does not address what happens if a user provides falsified data. Furthermore, Clause 5, section 1 seems unclear if the resolution wants member nations to grant private individuals the ability to go after organizations who do not follow the resolution or if the WA member nation itself must take action against organizations who do not follow the resolution.
In accordance with the reasoning above, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote Against this proposal.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Preventing Unjust Warfare
Status: At Vote
Delegate's Vote: Against
____________________________________________________________________________________
Security CouncilSpreading interregional peace and goodwill, via force if necessary____________________________________________________________________________________
Commend The Rejected Realms
Status: Defeated
Delegate's Vote: Against
Final Vote (World): For: 2,568 Against: 10,668
Final Vote (TNP): For: 59 Against: 411 Percentage of WA nations voting: 35.39%
Recommendation: Commend TRR is the sixth attempt by this author at submitting this proposal. While this proposal has improved somewhat over its earlier iterations, it is still lacking. Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of appropriate focus on TRR and their history. Of the solid arguments it possesses, it never goes into extensive detail and leaves the reader with little understanding. This is combined with awkward syntax and occasional subtle inaccuracies which cause it to appear as an unfinished draft at best. Furthermore, the author has seemed fairly reluctant to receive and apply criticism as well as perform edits and redrafts.
While believing that TRR is a very commendable region with countless contributions to the greater NS community, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs must recommend a vote
against this proposal.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Commend Auralia
Status: Defeated
Delegate's Vote: Against
Final Vote (World): For: 3,443 Against: 9,637
Final Vote (TNP): For: 67 Against: 402 Percentage of WA nations voting: 37.65%
Recommendation: Auralia, despite having contributed 19 resolutions to the World Assembly, possesses a messy history involving cheating and questionable GA character. A couple proposals they have been involved in have been discarded for various violations however the most significant of such occurred in early 2014. A nation by the name of 'Afrasiab' (now CTE) authored and submitted the proposal 'Commend Auralia'. This proposal wrote a glowing commendation of Auralia citing various contributions they had made to the General Assembly during their existence in the WA. However, 11 days after the author had posted the draft to the forums, the NS admin/moderation team discovered that Auralia and Afrasiab were not only the same person but were both in the WA at the same time. This discovery of WA multi-ing prompted the discard of the commendation as well as Auralia (and all nations owned by them) being banned from the World Assembly. When confronted, Auralia showed no remorse and couldn't even be bothered to care as they dismissed NS as being a nothing more than a political game and cited they had done nothing morally wrong. Auralia then claimed that they were going to retire from NS due to their apparent lack of credibility and cheating, which never did happen. Today, Auralia has since been unbanned and is back as an on and off member of the WA.
In the General Assembly, Auralia has been known to participate in creative compliance and non-compliance, both of which fundamentally undermine the authority and functions of the GA. This growing trend of people 'opting' out of legislation they didn't like was later addressed by legislation which made this type of 'compliance,' or lack there of, punishable. Upon evaluating the specific resolutions they choose not to acknowledge and reasoning behind them, one might conclude that rampant human rights abuse occurs in the nation of Auralia.
While this Ministry has no issue with them working to produce future legislation in the WA, it is unclear as to why Auralia should be commended by the same organization they nearly succeeded in defrauding a few years ago. And thus, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote Against this proposal
____________________________________________________________________________________
Condemn Kyrusia
Status: At Vote
Delegate's Vote: Against
[/i][/i][/i]
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[small]
The North Star: Lighting The Way To The TruthPublisher: El Fiji Grande :: Executive Editor: Pallaith :: Managing Editor: Marcus Antonius
The North Star is produced by the Ministry of Communications on behalf of the Government of The North Pacific and is distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs externally and the Ministry of Home Affairs internally. Except where otherwise indicated, all content represents the views of the Government of The North Pacific.[/small]
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