RGBN

Lashnakia

This election was the last one held without the new updated elections schedule introduced with Amendment 23. Amendment 23, which was sign into law on the 6th of June, introduces two new elections. General and midterm elections. Before, Prime Minister and House elections were held on the same month while Court elections were held on a different one. Now, the Court of the Union will now be elected during midterm elections with the capital’s House seats while the Prime Minister and the territories’ House seats will be elected during the general election, the most important of the two. For your information, general elections will be held in March, July and November while midterm elections will be held in January, May and September.

After the election was called, two candidacies were deposited which meant that even if the two were being elected, there would still be a missing Justice office that would need to be filled. Anyway, the two candidacies were incumbent Justice Tigslarlowducken and Governor Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia who had previously tried to become Justice in the last Court election but due to him failing to answer Debate questions he had been disqualified. After the three mandated days of candidacy announcements, people were ready to go to the next stage.

Due to House Speaker Lashnakia resigning, we had to wait for 4 days for former Deputy House Speaker Empire of Elysium to finally start the Debate stage. The Debate exists so that voters can know the policies of their possible candidates but also to know who’s actually serious about it because if you don’t answer them you are disqualified from the election. Anyhow, both candidates answered in the due time and it was time to pass onto the next phase.

Like most Court elections, the turnout was very low with only 6 people going to vote. In fact, the turnout was so low that the last time an official election had that much voters was in November 2019 Emergency House Election which had 6 voters but only 5 that had a valid ballot. The Force Flyer has found that most citizens do not go voting for Court elections due to them being non-important at their eyes since the Court is barely used in Force anyway. Nevertheless, all of the 6 voters voted in favour of each candidate making them both uncontested and easily elected.

Under the law, if there was a missing Justice in the Court following an election there were two choices. First, the House Speaker could call an Emergency Court Election to try and find a new candidate or the Founder could simply appoint someone. The second solution was the one chosen and on the 17th, Marcelli was appointed as Justice by Renegalle. Marcelli would also later become the current Chief Justice due to his experience at being one in the past.

Caduceo

Bennisia

United Soviet States Of Russian Empire

United Soviet States of Russian Imperial

New Legland

Cumcision

Empire of Elysium

Alludo

Azerubia

Suter

Salibaic

The Scottish Republic

Not long enough, there was a controversy concerning the Democratic People's Party. The DPP was by far the most influential and powerful party of Force and when its chairman and leader Salibaic announced that he would not run for Prime Minister for the general election, it left a big hole that needed to be filled. Azerubia, Sumeka and Bennisia were all candidates for the nomination. Azerubia quickly stood down and endorsed Sumeka after he was elected President of RGBN. Sumeka easily won the voting intentions poll but it was now time for the real election. Bennisia won the election 4 votes to 3 and so went on to get the nomination. As soon as he was elected, Bennisia was accused by Azerubia and Empire of Elysium of having committed cronyism and harassment to get the nomination. They said that Bennisia was going on and talking to every party member and offering them cabinet positions if they voted for him and even harassed a voter so that he would change his vote. They said they had proof of Bennisia doing cronyism but he replied that he was basically just campaigning and was doing nothing illegal, he also said that he didn't harass anyone and they were just completely wrong. There was also the fact that one voter wanted to vote for Sumeka but due to problems with the forums, he couldn't. That basically meant that both candidates would have had the same amount of votes which left a clear division in the party. The people that voted for Sumeka clearly didn't like Bennisia due to them not liking his policies on territories and more. They also didn't like the fact that just after he was unbanned from Force for voter fraud, he was already trying to become PM. That lead to a massive exodus of members with more than 6 people leaving the party (the party had around 12 members) and even the chairperson Salibaic left the party due to the toxicity that the primary caused. Due to deputy chairperson Azerubia also leaving, the role of chairperson was given to Bennisia. Most of the members that quit the party would go on to join the Force Unity Party or become independent, Salibaic and Azerubia even decided to create their own new party, the Federalist Party, which is a party in favour of giving more rights to the territories.

The Force Flyer would also like to remind you that while preparing for this election, please inform yourself by looking at the candidates' and parties' policies before choosing your vote. Currently, the only candidate having released a program is Caduceo, we don't know if the other candidates wil release programs but Texas said he wanted to wait for a debate to release it, also parties have manifestos that you should definitely check. Here's the Federalist Party manifesto, Force Unity Party manifesto and Democratic People's Party manifesto. You should also wait for the Debate, with a capital D, to start on the forums because that is mostly where candidates will reveal their policies. The Force Flyer is also planning to organize a debate between candidates on the Force discord server so stay tuned. We also want to remind you that the people that put the most efforts in their campaigning aren't necessarily the best choices and that policies should always come first.

The first concrete step we took to do this was the appointment of Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia (also known as Nevertheless and the current Chief Research Officer), on June 11, as Governor of Power. So far, he’s grown the previously inactive region from just one nation to 10, with plans in future to increase both that and the WA population (although progress has been admittedly slow, partially because of the well-known summer lull). He’s also started API Recruitment to help ensure the longevity of any population gains and hopefully in future, a steady population increase.

Then just a few days later, on June 15, Chundukeratopia (a former Minister at one point and former high profile member of the now-defunct alliance, the SCUT) was appointed as Governor of Canterbury. Since then, they too have started API Recruitment and begun the construction of new government institutions, including a Constitution for the region. Canterbury is a unique territory, due to its history. Prior to becoming part of the Union (and being refounded), Canterbury was a prominent region in the defunct interregional alliance known as the SCUT. It had its own government, complicated regional politics (which at one point resulted in a coup), and an amazing culture. After the SCUT went inactive and Canterbury itself did too, many of the region’s members came to Force, where almost all of them would assume prominent positions. The Chariot, a former member, became Deputy PM, Minister of Defense, a member of the Court, a House Rep., and ran a nearly successful PM campaign. New Legland, the current Deputy Prime Minister and World Assembly Delegate, who also once served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, was a highly prominent member of Canterbury who for the latter part of the region’s history controlled the Founder account. Chundukeratopia, the aforementioned Governor of Canterbury, who was also a former member, has also served in important positions in Force, including Minister of Internal Affairs. Due to this unique history that Canterbury has, a special focus has been made on honoring this. That includes the Governor inviting former citizens back to the region, the revival of the Discord server (the same one that once served the region when it was sovereign), and the naming of certain institutions, such as the Femoral Council, to honor regional icons.

Again on June 15, another major step forward was made for the territories. RGBN began its first election in a while, while after several days, resulted in the election of Suter (also known as Azerubia, the current Minister of Communications) as President. RGBN was different from most other territories, in that it had a stable population and a somewhat active government. Even then though, it suffered from chronic inactivity, which led its incumbent president to withdraw from the election race just prior to its conclusion. Since Suter’s election on the 20th, he has rearranged the Cabinet and added a new member to it as well as making a serious effort to revitalize the RMB’s RP, which drove much of the region’s historical activity. In his time so far, the region’s population has remained stable, at about 35. RGBN, similar to Canterbury, also had a history prior to joining the Union. As a sovereign region, it was Force’s first embassy (after The Embassy) and one of its members made Force’s first RMB post. Its members were always courteous and friendly in their interactions with us and they had a very active RP and lively discussion, which at one point helped their population surpass 130. Unfortunately, the region became inactive and at one point, when its population had gone into the single digits, announced they were shutting down. Luckily, we took notice of this and their Founder agreed to join the Union, in exchange for us doing our best to revitalize the region and increase their population. Ever since, they’ve been a Union territory and now hold the highest classification besides the capital, which makes them a state.

Finally, some changes happened in Heart. While the region hasn’t been extremely active since First Minister Salibaic became the Union’s PM, it has maintained a steady level of RMB engagement and First Minister Empire of Elysium has started doing manual recruitment in hopes of gaining new members. In addition, there is word of a potential change in leadership soon, which could potentially help increase the region’s engagement.

Beyond the appointment of new leadership and building of institutions, a territorial reform law (Amendment 25 to the Constitution) came into effect after periods of voting by the House and citizenry concluded on the 29th. The amendment shifted responsibility for the territories away from the Office of the Prime Minister (who term after term has shown itself incapable of effectively dealing with both the capital and the other territories) and to a newly created office, that of High Commissioner. The High Commissioner, unlike the PM, is appointed by the Founder. They are charged with appointing viceroys to each state (and other important territories) in order to coordinate the flow of information (news, events, elections, etc) and work to deal with issues that the territories face. The Prime Minister is still the leader of the Union, but their role has now changed to that of inter-union cooperation, rather than direct intervention. Some other changes were made in the amendment, including adding special classifications of territories which previously existed but weren’t formally recognized by law, such as Military Occupations. Finally, Territorial Law was recognized as its own form of law. They cannot contradict, amend, or suspend federal law, but only House Law and the Constitution can contradict, amend, or suspend them. Executive Law, the type of law created by the PM or Founder, can continue to do things it could before, such as appoint Governors to non-state territories but can no longer affect territorial law. This creates a special separation of powers and helps to achieve a more equitable federal system. In case of conflict between federal and territorial laws, the Court has the ability to strike down those which are illegal.

Throughout the Union’s history, territories have played an important, but understated role. They have supplied us with some of our most capable leaders and engaged citizens, contributed to our laws and reforms that we’ve undergone, and continue to play an important role in Union politics. In recognition of this, these actions have been taken in order to promote the further development of the territories, elevate their status, and ensure cohesion in what is, after all, a Union.

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that Pride Month in Force was much more extravagant this year than it was last year, with 80 nations more inside the region than it was last June, the celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies were much more vocal and impactful. In fact - last time I wrote about Pride Month I was able to enumerate the few people who changed their Discord profile pictures to various Pride variants, but now - so much people did it that I can barely list them! You know who you are, so good job 🏳️‍🌈

We also got a couple of fancy new Pride Month variants of the different flags being displayed across the Territories that make up the Union of Force. Force got a new design (because the one I made last year would literally burn your eyes out from all the bright colors :P), and so did the states of Heart and RGBN. Not only that, but the Force World Factbook Entry had a little change in the motto displayed - "Freedom, Justice, Reasonably Priced Love, and Freedom To Love" - which proudly stayed on the WFE for the duration of the month. Even the two major political parties of the Union - the Democratic People's Party and the Force Unity Party - had rebrands in their respective logos in celebration of the event, the DPP styled a rainbow background and the phrase "Love Wins" on top of their Snowy Owl, and the FUP logo waved a Pride Flag instead of their usual orange flag. Indeed, this month was one of the best experiences I've ever experienced - where I and the other members of both the LGBTQIA+ community and the Union of Force truly enjoyed just hanging out and talking freely and openly; And so in the spirit of embracing this wonderful community I am a part of, I sincerely thank all of you for giving me and everyone else such a warm and comfortable atmosphere to truly be ourselves in, not only during Pride Month but any other day as well.

It was truly a breath of fresh air for many of us - because in these times we need each other more than anything else. In times where it's dangerous to simply leave our homes; In times where injustice and discrimination are violently displayed; In times where people are forcibly and constantly divided - but in these dark times are also when the light is brighter than ever, for in these times are selflessness and kindness keeping us strong; in these times are when our voices sound louder together; in these times are when love matters most. Pride Month 2020 has helped amplify the beauty in humanity that is now often overshadowed - and we need to keep being the light even as Pride Month comes to an end. Be thankful, be loving, be human. This has been Caduceo greeting you a wonderful and beautiful Pride Month 🧡

Azerubia

Kingdom of Adlandia

Heonix

Pyrwen

Renegalle

Greatest Elysium

Niemaa

Salibaic

United Nations of Colombia

Silvedania

Sumeka

Matria Union

Tigslarlowducken

Illyrus

The group stage started off pretty calmly with no real stress since only one nation in each group was going to be eliminated after the end of the group stage. The unlucky winners were Pyrwen, Greatest Elysium, Silvedania and Illyrus. Silvedania lost all of its games due to them forfeiting after the player decided to quit the roleplay while the tournament was ongoing, Illyrus and Greatest Elysium both managed to get one point due to ties but that wasn't enough for them to qualify and Pyrwen, even though he won one game, was behind Azerubia and Adlandia by one point and couldn't qualify. In contrast to them, Heonix, Dragvir, Niemaa and Sumeka had managed to be top one of their competition and so had the right to pass the first round.

The first round of the final stage saw the nations of United Nations of Colombia, Matria Union, Tigslarlowducken and Appalachia all get eliminated respectively by Renegalle, Adlandia, Azerubia and Salibaic. It was at this point that the competition really kicked off. People started cheering for their team to win, were disappointed when they were eliminated and whenever the daily matches results were revealed, people started talking about them. Even some news sources of some nations started talking about the event and people had really been starting to be excited to see the results. The second round was a surprise as all the frontrunners of the group stage were eliminated except Niemaa who managed to eliminate the host and their biggest rival, Azerubia, 2 to 0. We were now on to the semifinals. Renegalle would be against Adlandia and Niemaa would be the opponent of Salibaic. Both Renegalle and Salibaic managed to come out on top and sent the losers to the bronze final. Niemaa was the one to win against Adlandia 3 to 2 in overtime and we were now onto the big final. Results haven't yet been released in RP but the Force Flyer can now announce to you that Salibaic has defeated Renegalle 4 to 2 and is now the World Champion. Salibaic will also receive the $10 billion cash prize that was promised to the winner and he will be able to use it for whatever does he wants.