Grey Area member Adam Banici (second to the left in the picture) has been elected Juclandia’s President, ending the 6-year term of Ovia Bogi, in the aftermath of unprecedented elections impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Initially planned to be held on a Sunday, the elections ended up spanning over seven days and took place entirely online, prompted by the unexpected effects of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic over Juclandia’s political and social life.
The elections were organised under an entirely new system, after the Great National Assembly reformed the Council of State by changing the Constitution in what has been deemed to be the fastest Constitution amendment procedure in Juclandia’s history. It took less than 48 hours for the constitutional amendment to be adopted and enacted by the Assembly and the Head of State.
The size of the Council of State has been reduced from 15 to 9, and special presidential elections were cancelled. The President and the Vice President were determined instead based on the number of votes won by all the candidates for the Council of State. The electoral system has also been changed, with every voter disposing of 9 votes to give out at will to individual candidates running for the Council.
Before the reform, the Council of State had 15 members. 12 were elected in single member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system, while the other 3 were ex officio members: the President, the Vice President, as well as the Patriarch of the Church of Juclandia, reflecting the Church of Juclandia’s role as state church.
Adam Banici was the running mate of Kusch Niedlich in the 2018 general elections. Niedlich managed to force outgoing President Ovia Bogi to a run-off, which he eventually lost by a landslide after the United Revolutionary Front endorsed Bogi.
Bogi finished a close second after Banici. However, while Banici and Niedlich organised online campaign events, neither Bogi, nor her Popular Unity party organised any campaign events for these elections.
The new Council of State will have 3 members from the Popular Unity Group, 3 members from the United Revolutionary Front, 2 members from the Grey Area, and just one from the Harmony Party, owing to the latter’s failed strategy of dividing the votes between all the party’s candidates.
Grey Area members were noted for their discipline, as most of them gave all of their 9 votes to Banici and Niedlich, which allowed Banici to surpass Bogi in the final count.
telenot.jc | Juclandia's wire 