Ceni for Speaker: The People Come First

[Ceni]

Welcome to my campaign thread! Thank you to  @fulflood for nominating me. I am currently serving as Deputy Minister of Defense and am working to compile a list of all puppet nations. I recently ran against Grolsch for the Delegacy but lost. I only recently arrived in the SLU (in November 2012) but have started to get ideas about how this region is to be run. I was mentored by  Azerzia and can testify to the effectiveness of the membership system. My campaign will be divided into two sections: the ideology and the plan.

The Ideology

My plan and ideology for the region is as follows.

World Assembly: The delegate should take an important part in the affairs of the World Assembly, writing and approving bills that would help the region or advance the regions interests or principles
Embassies: We need to reach out to other regions and have solidarity with them. We should take an active part in the LRA or UDLR, whichever is the current leftist regions alliance 

Democracy: Our region was built on the ideals of democracy. We should continue to uphold these ideals. I have noticed that ~10-15 people vote in the delegate process. I propose not just limiting elections to the forums, but to the RMB and TGing the elections administrator to make our voices heard. 
Recruiting: Our region is one of the best. We need to get more nations to come to this region so that they won't be persecuted and have their voices heard, and to get the population of the region up. 
Enforcement: We need to make sure nations follow the constitution and defend ourselves against invasions, without denying anyone individual liberties. 
Accountability: The Speaker and officials should be responsible to the people. We believe that weekly reports on the State of the Region is good for this and the people asking the Delegate their questions. Some sort of impeachment process is good, too. 
Mentorship: The way I got through this region was through being a mentee and having a mentor. We need to extend this service to ALL member nations who are new, so they won't need to ask. We want all members to be familiar with the region, and mentorship is a good way to do that.

The Plan

The Speaker and the Ministry of Domestic Affairs have a close relationship, so I will be focusing more on that ministry. 

• Help attract people to the forums and get them to participate
• Keep role-playing active and give different kinds of roleplay
• Continue and expand the mentorship system
• Expand the Welcome Committee to let people know about the region
• Start a recruitment drive for members of the government
• Incentives for more participation

Some of my ideas for legislation:

• Pass the Governmental Reorganization Act
• Create more opportunities for voting

The Speaker and other members of the cabinet also need to get together and form policy for the region. Transparency and openness to criticism is also important. I would continue NAR's program of Speaker and Forum Improvement threads, and I will also listen more to new and old states alike in determining what the region needs. We also need to create new laws for the region that make this region one of the best in NationStates. 

Feel free to ask any questions. 

[Kingdom of Grolsch]

How would you ensure people do not vote twice when voting by TG or RMB?

[Deleted]

Would your drive to increase forum participation and role-play also include a push for new liveliness in debate topics?

[Ceni]

Mar 2, 2013 23:27:30 GMT Kingdom of Grolsch said:

How would you ensure people do not vote twice when voting by TG or RMB?

Thank you for the question. I would start by establishing a nation whose express purpose is to serve as the election administrator. All votes would have to be TGed to this nation and all other TG votes to other nations would be declared invalid. Votes by non-member states and puppets would also be declared invalid. The admin would cross-check on the RMB, the TG inbox for the nation, and the forum to make sure nobody votes twice. I would also say that all votes by a particular nation (including its declared and undeclared puppets) count for ONE vote, even if he/she logs his vote three times. 

[Ceni]

Mar 3, 2013 3:30:43 GMT @erasmognome said:

Would your drive to increase forum participation and role-play also include a push for new liveliness in debate topics?

Most likely. I would take a survey and ask people if they would like debate topics and if they did, I would ask which kind. If nobody wants to debate, then there's not much point in having them and I would not do that. It depends on if people actually want to debate. 

[Kingdom of Grolsch]

Mar 3, 2013 16:13:00 GMT Ceni said:

Thank you for the question. I would start by establishing a nation whose express purpose is to serve as the election administrator. All votes would have to be TGed to this nation and all other TG votes to other nations would be declared invalid. Votes by non-member states and puppets would also be declared invalid. The admin would cross-check on the RMB, the TG inbox for the nation, and the forum to make sure nobody votes twice. I would also say that all votes by a particular nation (including its declared and undeclared puppets) count for ONE vote, even if he/she logs his vote three times. 

Ok, sounds good! Thank you for your reply. The only thing not yet clear to me is how you'd spot undeclared puppets. Please elaborate on that, if you can.

[Ceni]

Mar 3, 2013 21:52:14 GMT Kingdom of Grolsch said:

Mar 3, 2013 16:13:00 GMT Ceni said:

Thank you for the question. I would start by establishing a nation whose express purpose is to serve as the election administrator. All votes would have to be TGed to this nation and all other TG votes to other nations would be declared invalid. Votes by non-member states and puppets would also be declared invalid. The admin would cross-check on the RMB, the TG inbox for the nation, and the forum to make sure nobody votes twice. I would also say that all votes by a particular nation (including its declared and undeclared puppets) count for ONE vote, even if he/she logs his vote three times. 

Ok, sounds good! Thank you for your reply. The only thing not yet clear to me is how you'd spot undeclared puppets. Please elaborate on that, if you can.

There shouldn't be any. Of course, we wouldn't know, but there really isn't anything we can do, unless banject nations that don't declare whether they are a puppet or not, and then there we wouldn't know if they were lying or not. We would just use the member/nonmember/puppet master list and deny the right to vote to any that are nonmembers, puppets, or nations not belonging to any of those. 

[Millyland]

Great campaign!

You mention support for the Governmental Reorganization Act. Are there any other governmental reforms you would like to take?

[Ceni]

Mar 5, 2013 20:22:05 GMT Millyland said:

Great campaign!

You mention support for the Governmental Reorganization Act. Are there any other governmental reforms you would like to take?

Mostly making it easier for people to vote and join the forums. I would also continue the policies of transparency and a free and independent judiciary.

[Deleted]

With your idea of allowing in-game voting, many members of the SLU are on the forum, and added in-game voting seems like it would just add more complexity to the voting process. Signing up for the forum is also quick and can help promote activity, and if your computer can access Nationstates, it can access this forum. And you don't have any proof if somebody voted twice by using a undeclared puppet, unless you're suggesting they need to click a link that will reveal their IP to you to vote.

[Ceni]

Mar 8, 2013 21:21:25 GMT @beian said:

With your idea of allowing in-game voting, many members of the SLU are on the forum, and added in-game voting seems like it would just add more complexity to the voting process. Signing up for the forum is also quick and can help promote activity, and if your computer can access Nationstates, it can access this forum. And you don't have any proof if somebody voted twice by using a undeclared puppet, unless you're suggesting they need to click a link that will reveal their IP to you to vote.

I respect your concerns associated with this process, and under my administration we would make it so that it would NOT be a complex process. Although many members are on the forums, they don't log in that often or don't vote. Also, some nations refuse to join the forums because they do not want to divulge personal information. Allowing people to vote in game takes away the need to log in again and find out where the voting threads are. They would just vote by TG or on the RMB. To prevent non-members of voting, we would declare invalid the votes of (a) non-member states (b) known puppets and (c) votes of people not members, non-members, or puppets. I believe the administrator account has a method for tracking a particular state's IP address, and we could go by that. I do concede to you that there are dangers of undeclared puppets, but we would just have to go on the honor system. I believe that not many members of this region would have a desire to vote twice.