After shortly logging in, I've noticed that the voting booths are still not in place.
Our Chancellor confirmed to me that he didn't put them out on Saturday. The reason given was that the RA changed the dates on Sunday. Besides the discrepancy, as I've noticed elsewhere, the amendment approved by the RA on Sunday is not in effect until the SC ratifies it. So there is no reason for not having the elections at the appointed time: all the other requirements seem to be in place.
A comment was made that there might have been some technical problems with the ballot server early Saturday. The SC has 12 hours (after the election starts) to fix those problems, or, if they take longer to fix, they're allowed to postpone the election dates. They didn't do that. The reason for the server failure (if there was any) is unknown and remains unexplained. The SC, on a meeting early Saturday, confirmed that the SC cannot change the dates of the election and that the RA cannot do that, either, except via a Constitutional Amendment — which has not been ratified.
A rumour (yes, just that and nothing more than that) has been spread that the SC is not going to meet soon. While this can be true or not, it means that there is no reason to believe that either a) an explanation for the server failure will be formally given; b) an explanation for the lack of interest by the SC in validating that the booths are correctly set up will be formally given; c) the Constitutional Amendment passed last Sunday will be ratified (without a SC ratification, the amendment will only become law in another four weeks or so).
Given all the above as being correct, it pretty much means that our Government, acting together, are effectively boycotting the elections and preventing rightful citizens to vote — their most important right in the CDS, and perhaps the only one that warrants serious consideration.
So, to protest against the situation, I'm calling for a peaceful Protest March for Thursday, November 17th, starting at 2 PM. This requires Executive approval, which I will send in a notecard to our Chancellor shortly, and expect approval to be granted. We don't have a huge history in protest marches against Government, but we at least one, long time ago, when the Guild protested for the right to be paid for the public works. A much less important issue than the general actions, but it certainly kicked Government to take action!
The proposed itinerary for the Protest March, to be reviewed by the Executive as to its feasibility, is the following:
Neufreistadt, Marktplatz: gathering point
Alpine Meadow
Monastery
Locus Amoenus
Colonia Nova, Praetorium: end of march
The demands are simple:
1) We Want Elections Now! Put the booths out, let us vote! We've already missed half the alloted time for the election!
2) We want a formal explanation of why the fundamental right to vote has been revoked by Government without giving a real reason (forums, rumours, gossip, drama don't count — only official Government statements are valid reasons)
3) We want an answer why the usual election procedure was not followed, since we had everything to go ahead: we had a list of 12 candidates for RA, 2 for Chancellor; they were all duly announced in the proper time and publicly posted as required; we had a citizens list; the server was supposedly operational, at least on Friday; the time of the election is set by the Constitution; and there has been campaigning (even though weaker than usual, with little room for debating). So what prevented the elections to go ahead? Who decided that they had the power to change the procedures at a whim without giving public notion?
We don't want elections starting on the 19th, in January, or any other silly date. We want elections now, which is what we are promised as a Constitutional right.
Join us. We might not achieve anything, but at least we will have some fun posting pictures to the CDS Flickr group