Sunrisia is officially reconsidering becoming part of the new West Corentian Confederacy, despite having been the most outspoken of the 3 states that were set to form this union state. Following the recent announcement that the governments of Sunrisia, Creperia and Edereon have agreed on going ahead with the confederation as a result of civil referendums approving it, protest marches have started springing up across Sunrisia. The population expressed opposition to forming a joint state with Creperia and Edereon, despite also admitting having supported such a move at one time. Protesters say that what is going on today, is not what they had voted for a while back.
The conflicted argument from the civil populace says that the government of Sunrisia is going off of the results of an outdated referendum, as Sunrisians had voted on the issue a long time ago, while the neighboring countries kept postponing the vote until recently. Only after the voting in Creperia and Edereon, which happened not that long ago, was the green light to the formation of the confederation given. Protester leaders claim that the citizen opinion on the matter has changed over time in Sunrisia and opposition to the confederation has grown, especially recently, as the protesters claim that West Corentia is fully merging into a single country, instead of just being a personal union, as the citizens had originally voted for in the referendum. Hints are being given that the voters may had been misled and what is happening now goes on without the approval of Sunrisian citizens. The protesters had made the conclusion based on some of the early integral procedures they had observed and state that they are overlapping the promised boundaries that would secure self-sufficiency. Amid all this turmoil, citizens have called for a re-vote/second referendum.
Political analysts say that the widespread dissatisfaction is no surprise, because sovereignty and independence have always been very important subjects to Sunrisians, due to our country’s history of fighting off outside invaders and influence. These subjects had become especially touchy and sacred during the North–South division period. Since the Revolution of Rebirth and reunification, the concern for Sunrisia’s full independence has been leading towards more isolationism on diplomatic and economic fronts, something that has apparently not lost momentum. Sovereignty is sacred to our people and because of this factor, it was very surprising to see an unexpected result of the confederation referendum, where the majority ended up approving state merger with Creperia and Edereon. According to the analysts, these protests now confirm that Sunrisians had either been misled or that the government of Sunrisia is going a bit beyond what the referendum results permitted. Should the citizens had known that the personal union would end up being a sovereign state after all, the referendum would most likely not have succeeded. Despite the referendum result having been uncharacteristic for our people, the remaining faith in Sunrisian democracy has helped avoid accusations of result falsification and fraud.
Today, President Sánît Béâtídá came out to address the protesters and said that the government has decided to approve the re-vote due to popular demand. The parliament had passed an act approving of a second referendum on Sunrisia joining West Corentia, something that was met by the citizens with great joy. Creperian and Ederi counterparts were contacted by the Béâtídá administration, with a request to understand that the wishes of Sunrisian citizens could not be ignored.