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WA Delegate: Kyorgia
Foreign Affairs Officer: Deadeye Jack
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Culture Officer: Sarah
Outreach Officer: Bormiar
Speaker of the Assembly: Neop
Constitutional Confusion Finally Resolves
As some of you may know, the Rejected Realms has a rather unique electoral system where in addition to regular elections, citizens can challenge the Delegate or Officers for their position at any time, if they have the support of several other citizens. However, some confusion ensued around the system in May, when Bobberino, then Outreach Officer, was challenged, but he did not contest the challenge. Thus, under the Constitution, a vote was held to confirm the challenger, Invincible, which failed. However, Constitutional provisions did not state what happens if a sole challenger fails, and a debate ensued in the region on whether the Officer retains their position, or if the position becomes vacant. Then-Speaker Manson eventually decided to announce that Bobberino retains the position, but urged citizens to address this issue with a Constitutional Amendment.
After much discussion and several proposals by citizens, a proposal by Guy, a former Delegate, eventually gained the most support and made it to a vote. The proposal made it so that incumbent Officers will be automatically assumed to contest a challenge election unless they state otherwise, thus making the likelihood of a single-candidate confirmation vote much lower – for that to happen, the incumbent Officer would have to state their intention not to contest, and only one challenger decides to run. The amendment also clarifies what would occur in the case that a confirmation vote fails – if a confirmation vote for Officer fails, then that position will become vacant and open to challenges, while if a confirmation vote for Delegate fails, the incumbent Delegate would retain the position as the position is essential for security and must be filled at all times. Some questions were raised about this, as the most likely scenario for a Delegate confirmation vote is when an incumbent runs unopposed, which would mean that the incumbent retains the seat no matter the outcome of the vote. However, it was decided a re-run election would not make sense as it could lead to another one-candidate confirmation vote, and that the failure of the incumbent to be confirmed would serve to encourage others to challenge the position. Thus, the Amendment was passed by an overwhelming majority in August, ending the months-long Constitutional debate.
Another Election, Another Report
TRR had its most recent Officer Election in August, and it was largely uneventful. Six candidates ran – Sarah, the incumbent Culture Officer; Deadeye Jack, the incumbent Foreign Affairs Officer; The Aligned People, the incumbent Media Officer; Bormiar, the incumbent Deputy Outreach Officer; United Massachusetts, a well-known World Assembly author, former WA Minister of The East Pacific, though a relative newcomer to TRR; and Harenhime, better known elsewhere as Ever-Wandering Souls of The Black Hawks, and a former candidate for Delegate.
Aside from Harenhime, everyone ran on a substantial platform. Sarah vied for the position of Outreach, pledging to reach out more to people on the Gameside, though promised to hold a theme region party if made Culture Officer again. Bormiar also targeted Outreach, emphasising a more personal touch and envisioning a mentorship program, with a side note of promoting trading cards as incentives, an area he’s knowledgeable on. Outreach was also the crux of United Massachusetts’ campaign, who wanted to use his experience to expand TRR’s presence in the WA, including publishing vote recommendations, building partnerships, and promoting endorsements. However, he also faced the most questions due to the scale of the plan, though he performed valiantly in addressing them.
Jack pledged to continue his previous work as FA Officer, with a focus on potentially setting up a WA bloc with other regions, and closer relations to The North Pacific, though he faced some questions on the lack of response to events in The East Pacific. The Aligned People ran again for Media, with a platform of expanding Rejected Radio to include press briefings, attracting more listeners to live recordings and interviews, as well as continuing quizzes for each issue and encouraging more feedback among writers.
In the end, UM didn’t gain enough support for his ambitious WA plan, and the elected Officers were Sarah, reassigned to Culture, Deadeye Jack, reassigned to Foreign Affairs, The Aligned People, reassigned to Media, and Bormiar, assigned to Outreach. UM was taken in as a Deputy Outreach Officer to focus on WA matters, though was replaced recently due to inactivity, so perhaps the voters chose correctly.
Kyorgia Becomes Newest Member of Citizenship Council
This year has been very crazy for the Citizenship Council. As some of you are aware, Councillor Guy resigned May 1st after years in the position. However, Guy's resignation and replacement by The Grim Reaper only marked another resignation from the CitCo. On September 2nd, Catalyse posted an extremely brief message announcing her retirement as a Councillor.
This came as a shock to many, considering she had only held the position since January following her nomination by then-Speaker of the Assembly, Altmoras, after Libetarian Republics decided that he didn't have the time anymore to serve as a Councillor.
After careful consideration, Speaker Neop boldly nominated sitting Delegate, Kyorgia. Some acknowledged this as a strange move due to Kyorgia's current position, however, this has occurred before. Under Frattastan's first term as Delegate, he was indeed nominated and appointed to the CitCo. In fact, he's still a Councillor on it today! After Kyorgia's confirmation to the CitCo via a vote in the Assembly, matters involving citizenship seemed to speed up almost as if magic.
Who knows how long Kyorgia will serve on the Citizenship Council? Frankly, that doesn't matter now. The Rejected Realms is excited to finally fill the Citizenship Council once more, hopefully for a while!
TRR and XKI Fantasy Nerds Gather for Event
To celebrate the close ties between 10000 Islands and The Rejected Realms as enshrined in the Treaty of Friendship, the two regions put their heads together and planned a fantasy themed event to enjoy together: A Quest with TRR and XKI. The event was inspired by Dali's Drag Race, organized by the West Pacific in June, but the rules were adapted to fit the way things were going to be judged. Players were encouraged to make a new fantasy themed nation and join The Unicorn The Island and the Wardrobe in order to participate. Over 4 days people were asked to change their flags, mottos, currency, animals, and anything else they could think of to fit the daily theme, show off their creativity and impress the judges.
The over 20 people who participated did not disappoint. Photoshop skills were parlayed into Voldemort popping out of a wardrobe. Roleplaying prowess gave us a prolonged visit from Posion Ivy. And of course it wouldn’t be a party without *checks notes* Lord Farquaad memes. Everyone had a lot of fun with it including the judges. In the end the top 3 for the event were:
1. Bowshot/Toerana
2. Nequedum/Glacikaldr/PowerPAOK
3. Thepeopl
In other news
- Sarah won Rejectvision 3 with the song Black Sheep by Metric
- The Rejected Realms hosted the Elysium Festival with The East Pacific celebrating art.
- Deadeye Jack won the August Meme Contest
