Sopo
TNPer
ICARUS ELECTED PRESIDENT IN THREE WAY RACE
Written by PhDre
Edited by John Laurens
Written and Published by the EBC; Edited by Lime to reflect changes since original publication
Arnhelm, Europeia - Grand Admiral Icarus was elected President of Europeia November 12th, besting candidates Olde Delaware and Pland Adanna. Icarus received 35 of the 64 total votes cast (54.7%), enough to avoid a runoff against two of her former Cabinet colleagues.
With former President Writinglegend making it clear that he would not seek a fourth-straight term, the Presidential election was the tightest in recent memory. Early polling from The Panda’s Pen suggested that Icarus was the frontrunner, but did not have enough support to gain a simple majority and avoid a runoff. In the Discord text debate, Olde Delaware surprised both pundits and The Panda's Pen poll respondents with a strong performance, drawing from Pland Adanna’s base.
On Election Day, Icarus surged out to an early lead, and hovered above 50% of the votes for almost the entire voting period. With 64 total votes cast, the election was the most competitive since June 2022, when Writinglegend defeated Monkey 58 votes to 14. The final results were 35 votes (54.7%) for the Icarus/Istillian ticket, 15 votes (23.4%) for the Olde Delaware/Lime ticket, and 14 votes (21.9%) for the Pland Adanna/Kuramia ticket.
The President announced her Cabinet nominations the next day, and were as follows:
Minister of Interior - Prov
Minister of Culture - Turbiatop
Minister of Communications - PhDre
Minister of Foreign Affairs - Writinglegend
Minister of World Assembly Affairs - Pland Adanna
Grand Admiral - Kuramia
Attorney General - Lloenflys
All nominations were soon confirmed by the Senate, except for the nomination of Prov for Minister of Interior. After multiple Senators raised concerns about the quality and lack of detail in the answers received from Prov, the President withdrew their nomination on the 17th citing concern about the slow response from Prov when reached out to concerning their answers. President Icarus then nominated Vor to serve as Minister of Interior who was later confirmed by the Senate on the 19th of November. Also, notably this was the first time in several years not to see a nomination for Minister of Radio, with Minister of Communications PhDre tasked with leading both Communications and Radio under one Ministry. This was a campaign policy of the Icarus/Istillian ticket to combine the Communications and Radio Ministries into a single joint Ministry arguing it would lead to increased efficiency.
