For the first time in its decade-long constitutional history, The North Pacific has a citizenry. This is the result of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which TNP's legislature, the Regional Assembly (RA), passed on December 26th, 2014.
The act effects two changes. The first is a rebranding of the membership status granting the right to vote and stand for office, from "Regional Assembly member" to "citizen". The second is a change in the activity requirements for maintaining this status: In the past, one needed to vote frequently in the RA to remain a member. Now, a citizen needs instead to post frequently on the regional forum, even outside the RA.
Though seemingly simple, these changes are expected to have far-reaching effects on both the size and the make-up of TNP's electorate. To see why, one needs to consider regional members that actively participate in the forum community and government, but are not necessarily interested in the legislative activities of the RA. Frequently these members would either choose not to join the RA, or fail to meet the voting activity requirements and be removed shortly after joining. As a result, these members would be disenfranchised during elections, despite making valuable contributions to the region.
This issue had become very pronounced over the last year, due to a shift in demographics in TNP's regional community: Unlike an emphasis on RA that characterized TNP in the past, nowadays the RA makes up a small percentage of regional activity, and most of it can be found in the regional forum's vibrant roleplay, World Assembly, executive and military sections. In response to this shift, the VRA removes this bias towards RA activity, and expands franchise to include all the non-RA inclined active members.
Following the enactment of the VRA, the government has embarked upon an extensive campaign to raise awareness about the new citizenship policy among regional members, both on the forum and the game side. This has resulted in more than 50 new citizenship applications, from both old and new members, and so far there does not appear to be a slow down in the rate in which applications are received. An interesting test for the new citizenship system will be the January 2015 General Election. Expectations are high that, thanks to the new policy, there will be a new record for number of votes cast in an election - the current record is 53 votes, recorded in th November 2014. The new policy has also encouraged a change in the way candidates have been running their campaigns, with a lot emphasis being placed on gameside campaigning through telegrams, dispatches, and regional message board posts.
The act effects two changes. The first is a rebranding of the membership status granting the right to vote and stand for office, from "Regional Assembly member" to "citizen". The second is a change in the activity requirements for maintaining this status: In the past, one needed to vote frequently in the RA to remain a member. Now, a citizen needs instead to post frequently on the regional forum, even outside the RA.
Though seemingly simple, these changes are expected to have far-reaching effects on both the size and the make-up of TNP's electorate. To see why, one needs to consider regional members that actively participate in the forum community and government, but are not necessarily interested in the legislative activities of the RA. Frequently these members would either choose not to join the RA, or fail to meet the voting activity requirements and be removed shortly after joining. As a result, these members would be disenfranchised during elections, despite making valuable contributions to the region.
This issue had become very pronounced over the last year, due to a shift in demographics in TNP's regional community: Unlike an emphasis on RA that characterized TNP in the past, nowadays the RA makes up a small percentage of regional activity, and most of it can be found in the regional forum's vibrant roleplay, World Assembly, executive and military sections. In response to this shift, the VRA removes this bias towards RA activity, and expands franchise to include all the non-RA inclined active members.
Following the enactment of the VRA, the government has embarked upon an extensive campaign to raise awareness about the new citizenship policy among regional members, both on the forum and the game side. This has resulted in more than 50 new citizenship applications, from both old and new members, and so far there does not appear to be a slow down in the rate in which applications are received. An interesting test for the new citizenship system will be the January 2015 General Election. Expectations are high that, thanks to the new policy, there will be a new record for number of votes cast in an election - the current record is 53 votes, recorded in th November 2014. The new policy has also encouraged a change in the way candidates have been running their campaigns, with a lot emphasis being placed on gameside campaigning through telegrams, dispatches, and regional message board posts.