[Governor-Elect ZuWo]

The results have not been certified yet but it seems rather obvious that I and Cathcon have won the election for Governor and Lt. Governor. I am thrilled and thankful for all of your votes and congratulations in this thread. I would also like to congratulate those who have been elected to the Assembly. A special thanks goes out to my Lt. Governor who has advised and supported me throughout the campaign.

Being Governor of the largest Atlasian region is an immense responsibility, and while my office will force me to take decisions that will not please all citizens I can assure you that I will work to the best of my ability. As I said before the election, many issues that our region is facing can and should not be tackled in an ideological way. Thus, even if you do not have many things in common with me and my Lt. Governor on the ideological level, there will be many opportunities where we can work together rather than against each other.

Indeed, the first major issue the Mideast is facing is our budget. Governor Tmthforu94 has already worked on it with GM Griffin so I hope and expect that we will soon be able to pass a sensible budget proposal.
Additionally, there are various "technical" matters that I wish to tackle. For example, the "Questioning the Power Act" should also involve the Lt. Governor. Furthermore, we should discuss the idea of establishing activity requirements in the Assembly so that legislators who have missed a certain number of votes without having posted a leave of absence could be expelled from the Assembly. Finally, we could fill future vacancies in the Assembly by means of a special election rather than an appointment by the Governor.

We are only at the beginning of this journey and I haven't even discussed most of these ideas with my Lt. Governor yet, but I merely want to point out that there will be a lot of things to debate during my and Cathcon's term.

Once again, thanks to all of you!

Governor-Elect ZuWo

Thank you, Clinton1996. I hope you will serve the Mideast again in some capacity in the future.

I will give a longer speech tomorrow since it's quite late and I need to recover from a cold and Switzerland's defeat in the final of the ice hockey world championships.

For now, thanks for all the congratulations and to everyone who made this victory possible!

How come Ghostwhite's ballot is invalid?  He's a mideast citizen.

IIRC, Ghostwhite was de-registered from Atlasia last year and only re-registered one day before the most recent election began. However, in order to vote in an Atlasian election, you must have been registered for at least 7 days.

Congrats to Sweden, they were the better team tonight. Regardless of this last match, I am extremely proud of the Swiss team, it's been an incredible championship.

7 of the 40 ballots that were cast are invalid (BaconKing, Ghostwhite, Paul Kemp, seatown, Tweed, Griffin, afleitch). That might be a new record.

Pending the court case. Also why is afleitch's ballot invalid?

The voting ended about 20 minutes before he cast his ballot, I think.

Congratulations Governor-elect ZuWo!

You ran a great campaign.

Thank you, Siren. You, too, were a great addition to the ticket you ran on.

7 of the 40 ballots that were cast are invalid (BaconKing, Ghostwhite, Paul Kemp, seatown, Tweed, Griffin, afleitch). That might be a new record.

Executive Election:

1. ZuWo/Cathcon

Legislative Election:

1. Oldiesfreak1854
2. MilesC56
3. a Person
4. LuminevonReuental
5. Gass3268
6. shua
7. HPJ
8. Inks
9. TNF
10. Ody

There are still about 9 hours left to vote but things seem to be looking positive at the moment. Thank you to every Mideasterner who has voted!

At the same time, I must condemn all attempts by citizens not from the Mideast to vote in an election they have no business voting in. It is quite clear that the intent of these people is to create havoc rather than to point out a supposed loophole in the Mideast constitution. Once again, I thank justice TJ in Cleve/Wisco for doing what has to be done to avoid chaos and electoral anarchy in the Mideast.

OK, donn luag ma uns amol as 3. Drittel o ...

That's Swiss for "OK, let's watch the 3rd period".

Yes, almost. Maybe in a very Eastern dialect. I'd rather say "Ok, dänn luegemer ois emal s 3. Drittel aa.

As for the win ... I'm speechless!

The election is shaping up to be the expected nailbiter. Don't miss the opportunity to vote if you're a Mideast citizen!

On this occasion, I would like to thank justice TJ in Cleve for filing an injunction which ensures that this election remains orderly and fair. Speaker Inks also deserves praise for filing for the preliminary injunction in the first place.

Sweden killed Canada

So Sweden-Finland and USA-Schwitzerland

Hoping for a Finnish-Schwiss final!

That's huge for us. The last time Switzerland won a medal at a world championship was in 1948. I vaguely remember when the Swiss team reached the semi-finals in 1998, but the way they are playing in this tournament is much more impressive. The USA are obviously favored to win but anything can happen now.

...and if we had a population of 7m the finance/tax-haven model might be able to support that, but we're not, and so protecting the City (at the expense of everything else) and bringing our employment laws back (to dilute), isn't remotely appealing.  

... and if you think that the Swiss economy is based on a so-called "finance/tax-haven model" for the most part, you have a wrong impression of our economy (the financial sector only makes up about 11% of the country's GDP).

Yeah we can become a capitalist paradise like Switzerland.

If by that you mean high wages, an unemployment rate of about 3.5% and an innovative economy which is growing even though Europe is in a recession, the term "capitalist paradise" is quite positive, isn't it?

Who needs toilet paper when you can live in a socialist paradise?

... and the UK can survive without the EU, too. Life outside of the EU can be quite good, actually.

Aye

Voting has started! I'd like to encourage all Mideast citizens to cast their ballots. In order to keep things as straightforward and easy for the voting booth administrator (i.e. the Governor in this case), please do not follow the example of Bacon King and only vote in this election if you are a citizen of this region.

Tomorrow is election day and the Mideast is about to elect a new Assembly on the one hand and a new Governor and Lt. Governor on the other hand. This has been a long campaign and I hope it has helped you to get a better impression of the two (or three? ) gubernatorial tickets and to figure out who, in your opinion, will be the best leaders of the Mideast during the next four months.
 
If you are an undecideded voter, I encourage you to have a look at this as well as our opponents' campaign threads. Additionally, the Governor's debate can help you to make up your mind.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this campaign. We are looking forward to an exciting election weekend!

Honestly, I am almost certain that a 2/3rds clause will not get the necessary level of support in a popular vote since there is so much opposition against it. Also, I think that most of the people who abstained when we voted on it for the first time will vote "nay" when push comes to shove (myself included). Thus, we need to find a compromise that can attract broad support, and I think a ratification process which is very similar to the status quo is a proposal most people can live with. 

I think that the way the Mideast ratifies federal amendments should be decided on the constitutional rather than the legislative level, just like most other procedural matters.
I am confident that we will eventually find common ground on this issue. As far as I see, a clause which would mandate that 2/3rds of the Mideast electorate must approve of a federal amendment for it to be ratified will not get majority support in our region. Thus, we will ultimately be compelled to settle on a proposal which only mandates a simple majority, which is essentially the status quo.

I admit that I have flip-flopped on this issue. While I initially supported the 2/3rds clause, I now believe that a simple-majority solution is better.

And the unthinkable has happened! Switzerland finishes first in group Stockholm after the seventh straight win (4-1 against Belarus). They will face either the Czech Republic or Norway in the quarter final. Meanwhile, Slovenia and Austria will be relegated. That must be particularly bitter for Austria because they played quite well in some of their games.

I hope that extending the voting period to seven days will convince some of the people who voted against the previous proposals to vote for the amendment. By establishing a 7-day voting period we can make sure that more people have the chance to participate in the amendment ratification process, which is a way to increase turnout and involve more Mideasterners in the game.

Aye