No clear winner emerges! Runoff scheduled!

[New Mivango]

Due to the lack of any clear winner with an absolute majority, a runoff election for the Presidency of the Republic of New Mivango is now scheduled for December 27, 2018. The top two candidates in terms of popularity shall compete with each other for the clear and simple majority of the electorate. Whichever candidate wins a straightforward majority of at least fifty-one percent of the popular vote in the Presidential runoff contest shall then take office as President of the Republic of New Mivango on February 1, 2019. The new President shall serve a single, six-year term and cannot succeed himself/herself, so shall leave office on February 1, 2025. The candidates who failed to reach this threshold have been eliminated from this race, leaving it to two candidates only.

The following candidates remain:

1. Jeanne Tsavatsa, until recently the Premier of New Mivango, a post abolished under the 2017 Constitution. She was set to be Vice-President on her brother's ticket, something perfectly legal even under the new Constitution. Her running mate is another former Premier, Pierre Tsavatsa, her own uncle. Tsavatsa supports a continued moderation of the once more radical, more populist governing ideology of the National Popular Movement, a party that once embraced protectionism, but now seeks to abolish protective tariffs. The National Popular Movement continues to favor a more militantly anti-clerical stance, resists talk of legalizing parochial schools, points to recent clerical abuse scandals elsewhere as justification, maintains a strong desire for a "co-operative commonwealth," as opposed to Marxism or laissez-faire capitalism, a sort of "Third Way" platform.
2. Adam Satsisana, former Foreign Minister under Marine Tsis and Interior Minister under Louis Tsavatsa, one of the few major cabinet ministers to be held over after the Revolution. He is widely not trusted by either camp. He is also an avowed "technocrat," favors a more openly centrist governing philosophy, and was the first candidate to advocate legalized abortion rights, one of the few issues where Right and Left agreed in opposition to him....until recently. With Jeanne Tsavatsa's distancing of herself from her brother's anti-abortion views, there is a chance that the pro-choice vote could be split between the two candidates. His running mate is Senator Marguerite Datsira, another avowed centrist, former nun, and open lesbian.

[New Mivango]

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Republic of New Mivango, as neither candidate has received a clear majority of the popular vote in the second ballot, or runoff, Presidential election, the choice falls to Parliament, consisting of the National Council, or upper house, and the National Assembly, or lower house, in a special joint-session. The President of the National Council shall preside over this joint-session and it will continue until a new President is elected for the Republic of New Mivango. The President-elect will then take office on 1 February, 2019, or later if no candidate receives a majority by this point. As the Vice-Presidency is elected on the same ticket, the running mate of the victorious candidate will automatically be elected Vice-President upon a result. If no President is elected prior to 1 February, 2019, the incumbent President's term is automatically extended until a new President is elected and inaugurated.

Who will prevail, then? Former Premier Jeanne Tsavatsa or Former Interior and Foreign Minister Adam Satsisana? Either result will produce a change, either of the gender of the President, or their party and ideology. We naturally await, all of us, with baited breath.The next President gets six years to leave his or her stamp on the nation, but what sort of legacy will they have, and what will history say of outgoing President Louis Tsavatsa, the man who helped forge this new political, economic, and social order for a New Mivango?

[New Mivango]

Former Premier Jeanne Tsavatsa has been formally elected President on the 169th ballot in a joint-session of the National Parliament, after more than three weeks of voting. A shift of just two abstaining members of the National Council in Madame Tsavatsa's favor was enough to elect the younger sister of outgoing President Louis Tsavatsa to a six-year term in her own right under the 2017-2018 Constitution. Ms. Tsavatsa will take office on 1 February, 2019 and appoint her own cabinet, subject to approval by the National Assembly.

Ms. Tsavatsa's uncle, Pierre Tsavatsa, another former premier, will serve as Vice-President and her opponent, Adam Satsisana, has been already announced as her choice for Minister of Finance. Outgoing President Louis Tsavatsa has reportedly declined any government posts, choosing to retire to private life at least for now. Chantal Dupree, ex-wife to the Vice-President-elect, has been named Education Minister, while veteran diplomat Hugo Sartis has been chosen as Minister of Foreign Affairs and veteran prosecutor and judge Rudiger Lavos has named Minister of Justice. Each of these appointments will require confirmation by the National Assembly, or lower house, a lingering trace of parliamentary governance in another otherwise presidential republic.

[TURTLESHROOM II]

Code: Select all

!

Outlawing parochial schools, or organized religion itself, because of pedophiles, primarily homosexual ones, infiltrating its ranks is like outlawing automobiles because of car accidents.

The argument is fallacious and clearly demonstrates an open hostility to organized religion by the Mivangite state.


[New Mivango]

Jeanne Tsavatsa, inaugurated President of the Republic of Mivango last Friday, has given her first official "Sunday Address" as President. In it, the new President made it abundantly clear that she intended to carry on the family tradition that her brother started, that of making a "Sunday Address," every Sunday of her administration, just as her brother, former President Louis Tsavatsa, did.

"I must hold myself to account and demand of myself this responsibility, that I continue to speak my heart and mind to the people, to be honest, forthright, and candid with you, that I communicate clearly with you at all times my intentions as your President, your head of state and government. Not being head
of a parliamentary government might absolve me of responsibility to Parliament, but it can never and should never absolve me of responsibility to the People themselves, to whom Parliament must also give an account. As long as I do this, my government remains a responsible and representative one.

"Let me assure you, also, that I fully intend to keep my word about continuing the best policies of my movement, the National Popular Movement, while working to correct excesses, abuses, and mistakes. I will also welcome even dissenting voices into important roles in my government, to which end I have appointed my opponent, Adam Satsisana, as Minister of Finance. He will, I trust, speak openly and honestly any criticisms that he has for me, any suggestions or counsel that might improve things. I may or may not agree, and if I differ, my decision will be final, but I will listen to the voices of loyal opposition and dissent, of open, frank counsel from even political rivals.

"I also wish to be clear about something, particularly to those foreign critics who accuse me and my government of persecuting organized religion by refusing to permit parochial schools. I will not back down upon this point. I am resolved to carry out this public school monopoly and ensure that all Mivangese children receive the same public education, high-quality, accurate, intellectually stimulating, encouraging, egalitarian, pluralistic, scientific, philosophical, and civic-minded, regardless of their religious upbringing. Will comparative religions be taught? Yes, of course. We will not, however, allow parochial schools to resume, to indoctrinate and abuse our children as they have in the past, and to prevent them from thinking for themselves.

"We do not persecute, nor harass, organized religion in any manner, but we demand that they stay in their lane, which is that of religious worship and service to others, not of brainwashing our youth to keep them from deciding their own options for themselves. Once they are of age and want to decide for themselves on matters of faith, that is fine, but to foreclose other options and use the impressionable minds of children to entrench a certain worldview without any competitive ideas being permitted is nothing less than child abuse. Also, I should note that some of the worst pedophiles are heterosexual ones, not just homosexual ones, contrary to myth."