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The 2024 April General Election will occur on April 1st through to April 14th to elect the Prime Minister, Lieutenant Prime Minister, Head Justice, and Minister of Roleplay along with determining the appointment of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Domestic Affairs. Campaigning began on March 18th, exactly two weeks before the PM election as stated in the Constitution.

Background

The January 2024 general elections resulted in a landslide victory for the Baloominat-Heisenberg Restoration Party coalition, with the Allertania-Great Hiatus ticket winning with 66% of the vote, defeating independent challengers Rhenzern and Boilanzandia. After the passing of the Ministerial Non-Partisanship Bill, the HJ and MORP elections were nominally non-partisan. Incumbent HJ Plus Nova Imperii, who is himself not a member of a political party, won re-election handily, and Royal Cormoe, a member of the HRP, closely clinched the MORP election over Boilanzandia by one vote. The January political term was marked by considerable turmoil, with multiple scandals and court cases resulting in low confidence in the government, with public approval sinking to the lowest since the Restoration era began. It was also marked by the foundation of the United Deep-State Awareness political party by Boilanzandia, which currently has 4 members. February was less scandalous and stable, with the government enacting more of its policy points and rising in approval polls substantially, thought still failing to reach over 50%. A week before campaigning began, the People's Party and Heisenberg Restoration Party announced a merger, forming the People's Restoration Party. This prompted some backlash from some Callistans, most notably Rome, who made a dispatch denouncing the merger and the party's political program. This has set the stage for the coming election campaign.

Prime Minister Candidates

Arisyan/The Great Hiatus (People's Restoration Party):Arisyan, the incumbent Minister of Domestic Affairs, and Great Hiatus, the incumbent Lieutenant Prime Minister and former PM, announced their campaign at midnight on March 18th. Their campaign has focused mainly on foreign affairs, with getting new embassies, making the ambassadors advertise RP, an alliance with IOC-JR-001AP, and posting WA voting recommendations at the forefront of their campaign. The campaign has also focused on reforming the dispatches posted by the government, which they believe have become cluttered and difficult to navigate.

Baloo Kingdom/Plus Nova Imperii (Baloominati/Independent):Baloo Kingdom, incumbent Minister of Foreign Affairs and former PM, and incumbent Head Justice and former PM Plus Nova Imperii announced their campaign on March 18th. The announcement came as a shock to many given the former political rivalry of these two nations, however they have united under the common goal of defeating the PRP. Their platform consists of seeking an alliance with defender regions, equal party representation in cabinet, giving more duties to the MODA, and supporting a JR-AP-IOC alliance. They have also campaigned on sharp criticism of the PRP and their experience in government as the first two PMs of Callista.

Head Justice Candidates

Boilanzandia: RP mod Boilanzandia announced his campaign on March 18th for HJ. His platform consists of protecting the rights of nations appealing bans and establishing the right to trial before being banned, along with closing loopholes in the Constitution. He also supports keeping track of and establishing the right precedents, and having a clear and concise guideline for HJ verdicts.

Plus Nova Imperii: Rome registered his campaign for re election as HJ on April 2nd after his failed bid for LPM on the first, and officially announced his campaign to the public on April 6th. He has campaigned largely on supporting the bill review and dispatch reform proposed by Arisyan's platform, holding recall referendums for impeached regional officers, and giving more duties to the MODA such as organizing regional events.

Minister of Roleplay Candidates

Nuebatus: (DROPPED OUT OF GENERAL)Nuebatus announced his campaign for MORP on March.18th. His platform consists of establishing more consistent policing on RP rules and regulations especially regarding tech disputes, along with establishing checks on power for the MORP such as RPer votes on decisions instead of RP mod votes. Nuebatus announced that he was dropping out of the general election for MORP on April 11th due to IRL commitments.

Rhenzern: Incumbent interim MORP Rhenzern (elected after the resignation of Royal Cormoe) announced his campaign for MORP on March.21st. His campaign has focused on implementing what he calls "The April Plan", which includes reducing the number of RP moderators from 8 to 4, an official applications process for RP mods and cartographer, abolishing RP moderator ranks, making RP dispatches easier to access, and a trans-regional RP advertisement project that would use ambassadors to advertise our RP to embassy regions. Rhenzern was officially endorsed by HJ Rome for re-election upon the announcement of Boil's campaign. He has also come out in support of legalizing AI usage and against RPer vacations.

Boilanzandia: Upon Boilanzandia's defeat in the Head Justice election, he announced his campaign for Minister of Roleplay on April 10th. His campaign has consisted of introducing a tech timeline for when technology can be used, introducing new RP tutorials, creating a list of world powers, creating maps of alliances and wars, creating a two-tier system for RP mods, banning AI unless it's used for helping to write posts without generating the post for the RPer, publishing the map code to prevent abuse, create a vacation system for RPers who take breaks, and the creation of an inter-regional shared RP between multiple regions.

Mushroom George: MG announced his campaign for MORP on April 11th. He has campaigned on one proposition, which is banning RP to declutter the Callistan RMB.

Campaign

Regional saga founder Bruxxa mysteriously endorsed the Arisyan campaign on March 18th, however he rescinded his endorsement later in that same day and left politics. No one knows what his ulterior motives were.

On March 26th, Royal Cormoe officially resigned as MORP. This was very inconvenient timing due to the fact that general elections are just around the corner, however the Constitution mandates a special election within two days of the resignation even if its during campaigning. As such, a special election occurred on the 28th of March, however the MORP election will still occur on April 14th so the MORP does not end up serving a longer term than other ROs. Cormoe himself nominated Rhenzern to succeed him as interim MORP, and Rhenzern was elected interim MORP on March.28.

Due to his bid for LPM, Rome will also not be seeking re-election as Head Justice however if his bid fails he is still eligible to contest the position again. Incumbent PM Allertania is also not seeking re-election, instead stepping aside so Baloo could be the Baloominati candidate. H is currently the only candidate contesting his position again, however under a different party and ticket due to the PPC-HRP merger. Rhenzern will also be running for re-election as MORP. In an opinion poll during the campaign, Allertania was viewed favourably by most Callistans, with 64% approving of his term and only 9% disapproving, the remainder being neutral. Due to his attempts at reaching across the aisle and bi-partisan approval of his Prime Ministership, this opinion poll will most likely not be a reliable way of determining the election.

On March.29, the issues list for the Constitutional review was posted by Rome, finally marking a beginning to the Constitutional rewrite that should terminate soon after the PM campaign. The Constitutional rewrite officially passed with 60% approval on April 7th, which may have been a deciding factor in Rome's re-election.

On the day of the PM election, a new political party called the Conservative Tsarist Party was founded by the nation Saltanat Qurtubah, who had joined Callista only a few days prior. The party advocates for giving more powers to the Tsar, removing left-wing tags, and protecting Callista's interests in terms of foreign policy. The Tsarist movement has been essentially dead in the water since the disbanding of the Constitutional Tsarist Party, so it remains to be seen if this new CTP will revive tsarism in Callista.

Boilanzandia announced that the United Deep-State Awareness party was endorsing the Arisyan campaign the day before the election, stating that he believed the Baloominati played a critical role in obstructing the judicial process during the Ventura scandal. However, on election day all members of the USA besides Boil abstained from voting, though ultimately the endorsement proved crucial due to the close nature of the election.

Debate

A debate between PM candidates Baloo and Arisyan occurred on March.29 after a few delays, and was moderated by Rhenzern. A series of 9 questions were given to the candidates, where they responded with their views on a range of issues affecting Callista.

The first and second question asked candidates on their plans to increase regional activity and voter turnout, which both candidates gave relatively similar answers to, insisting on continuing OOC discussions, RP activity, and helping to educate citizens on elections. The candidates did however diverge on the third question, asking how they plan on setting up the government. Ari stated he would appoint a MOFA based off of their qualifications only, while Baloo said he would appoint a MOFA based off of partisan affiliation to achieve equal party representation in the cabinet. The next question consisted of asking how the candidates would handle a situation like the UCN embassy closure and the Ventura scandal in the future. Ari stated that he supports closing constitutional loopholes for appeals and trials, however he believed that the government was justified ultimately in banning Ventura, and Baloo stated that he would have banned Ventura and cut ties with the UCN. On a question regarding external threats such as quorum raids, both candidates reiterated the policy of non-negotiation and not caving into raiders' demands.

The next question was regarding increasing WA membership and the PRP's policy of WA voting recommendations. Ari stated that voting recommendations will help increase involvement in the WA and get more nations to join, while Baloo said that the government should continue the policy of recruitment and potentially add card giveaways. The next question was where the candidates really diverged, as it was on how much bureaucracy is justifiable in the government. Ari said that the current amount of government programs is necessary but that none other should be added, while Baloo said that there should be more ministers however it is not certain if this is a policy of his campaign or not.

The next question was directed to the Baloominati, as it asked Baloo to specify some campaign proposals such as the proposed defender region alliance, and why Baloo dislikes policy announcements. He stated that a defender alliance would not violate our neutral status, and that he believes many policies during campaigns are false promises that he does not wish to fail to accomplish. The final question was directed at the PRP, asking them to respond to criticism regarding the supposed vagueness of their campaign and the merger between the PPC and HRP, and as to why they believe banners should be given to WA members who endorse the delegate. Ari responded by saying that the Baloominati campaign was too vague, not the PRP's, and that Callista trended towards two party politics anyways due to the size of the region, and WA banners would just give an extra incentive for nations to endo the delegate.

MORP SPECIAL ELECTION

The snap election was held for MORP on March 28th due to Royal Cormoe's resignation. The election began as a clear landslide for Rhen, however throughout the day the polls tightened and at one point Rhen had a one vote lead over Nuebatus. However, Nuebatus' support stalled at around the 10 hour mark, and Rhenzern was elected as interim MORP with a resounding 69% of the vote. He will have to contest the position once again on the 14th of April, so his term as MORP may only last two weeks.

PM ELECTION

The PM election was held on April 1st, with long time rivals Arisyan and Baloo facing off once again. However, throughout the entire election Arisyan edged out Baloo with a one or two vote lead with Baloo never being able to pull ahead of Ari. As such, Ari was able to pull off a victory with 55% of the vote, making this the closest PM election since the "restoration" as the previous two were massive landslides. Turnout was 45%, consistent with previous levels of eligible citizen voter turnouts in previous elections. During the election, Ventura attempted to return to Callista with a puppet and demand an appeal, however he was banned once more and is now under threat of being DEATed. Baloo Kingdom was announced as the MOFA by Ari on April 10th.

HJ ELECTION

The HJ election was fought between Rome and Boil on April 8th. The election began as an absolute landslide in favour of Rome, with boilanzandia at one point only having 10% of the total vote. However, with only a few hours left on the poll Boil made a last ditch rally in the polls and Rome ended up winning with only 58% of the vote. This can be attributed to Boil's traditional support base of RPers and members of his political party logging on right at the end of the poll, which was set up at a very odd time in the morning for many NSers. Rome will appoint his MODA soon.

MORP ELECTION

The MORP election was held on April 14th, 2024. The election was close for all three candidates with a three way tie occurring, however with around 5 hours left Nationstates suffered a catastrophic server meltdown that rendered the site offline for 10 days. Due to the meltdown, all poll data was deleted, which caused the election to be reschedueld for April 26th 2024. The MORP re-run was as close as the one held on the 14th, with all three candidates being tied for hours at a time. With a few hours remaining, Boil and Rhen narrowly pulled ahead of MG and won 35% of the vote each, to MG's 30%. Ironically, a three way tie was avoided only because MG failed to vote for himself. A second round was held on April 27th between Boil and Rhen, a first in Callistan history since the two round amendment was added. After a neck and neck election with both candidates trading the lead, Rhen pulled ahead with just hours remaining and won the MORP election with 55% of the vote. A few citizens boycotted the second round in solidarity with MG being eliminated.

Co-written with Boilanzandia