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Offline Izhitsa

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Re: Izhitsan News Networks
« Reply #30 on: October 17, 2021, 12:37:10 AM »

Izhitska Ednota to Hold Referendum on Constitution
Svatopluk Yaroshovo
16 October 2021


In an announcement this morning, Matvey Karamovo, the current chairman of the party, confirmed at a press conference that the party would hold its own referendum on the constitution on October 30th. The move to hold an independent referendum came about due to failed negotiations with the Yachese over the conduct of the election. The decision, said the chairman, was not motivated by the decision of the Yachese to allow Izhitsans outside of their administrative zone to vote on the referendum. “In fact,” said Karamovo, “we encourage all Izhitsans, no matter their affiliation, to participate in our referendum in order to show the world what the real voting results are.”
Potential voters are required to register to vote beforehand at their local party office. Similar to the Yachese referendum, they will need a form of ID, and will register to vote within one of the five regions of Izhitsa. Because many Izhitsans were displaced during the war, the party is allowed party officials to exercise a level of discretion when choosing how to register potential voters. For example, said Karamovo, “Someone who says they are from Dzelo but can only provide documentation from Yach should not be denied the right to vote with their people. Someone who can’t provide any ID at all should be given the chance to acquire a party ID. Unlike the Yachese, we can provide everyone the chance to vote without introducing the chance for fraud.” Registrations are being entered into a nationwide database so that voters will be able to vote at any polling station, regardless of where they registered.
Some journalists attending the conference questioned Karamovo on the 15-day window for voter registration, suggesting that it could prevent many potential voters from being able to turn out. In response, Karamovo said, “This is a unique circumstance. The Federal Assembly, in deliberately forcing the constitution vote before it was ready, believed we would not be swift enough to stop them. Well, I say different. We cannot be stopped by mere political intrigues, and we have done everything we can to ensure that through the superiority of our system, we will be able to perform this election without issue.”
Campaigning, either for or against the referendum, has been banned, punishable by a small fine for first infractions leading up to several months of imprisonment for further infractions. When questioned about this, the chairman said that formal campaigning had the potential to spread lies and allow money to taint the election. “It is enough to show the constitution to the people and ask them their opinion. The debate has long ended; it is now time for Izhitsa to decide without constant nagging of politicians and partisans.”
Reactions to the news among party leaders was mixed. Some welcomed the change, particularly those from the party’s right wing. Anton Me’chinovo, a delegate from the Kherhorod Soviet, said, “It’s high time we got through this chapter of our story. The last couple months have all been about fighting the constitution, when we should have been asking, ‘what’s next?’” However, many prominent members of the party made their opposition to the declaration clear, particularly in their remarks following the confirmation of the resolution of the referendum in the First Committee. Kve’ta Mlynova, Chairwoman of the Tureno Soviet and former editor of the Worker’s Voice, said, “This is a disaster for our people. We’re bending to the will of Liberal politicians, letting them stomp all over not just our unalienable rights as workers, but even the rights we had as delegates in their Federal Assembly, and for what? This isn’t democracy, it’s cowardice.”
Regardless of the reactions from either side, enthusiasm for the election has been high. Just hours after the announcement was made, the streets in front of Kherhorod’s party offices were already packed with citizens, ready to register for the vote to make their voices heard.

Offline Izhitsa

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Yachese Referendum Ballots From Yach, Ved To Be Recounted
« Reply #31 on: October 20, 2021, 05:58:11 AM »

Yachese Referendum Ballots From Yach, Ved To Be Recounted
Aydril Adel
19 October 2021

Vladen Korzhef, the president of the Federal Assembly, announced today that the referendum votes in Yach and Ved were too close to call under Yachese law, and would therefore be recounted, a process which could take another week. In a press conference at his Trkh home, he said, “While the results from Dzelo, Shta, and Kher are all strongly in favor, the results in Ved and Yach are both within a margin of 0.2%, which means that under the rules of the election, they have to be recounted.” The preliminary results show the pro-constitution vote behind in Ved by 6520 votes and ahead in Yach by 8122.
The Yachese results are particularly important to the election results, because the constitution as presently written requires Yachese approval to go into force. This clause was written into the constitution so that Yachese voters would have the chance to decide on the status of Yach within an Izhitsan federation.
While the referendum results are still in question, Federal Assembly members are already beginning to draw up lists of potential Auditors and Judges to be approved before formal federal elections take place. Leaders from the political parties in the Federal Assembly, other than G’ua Yach and Izhitska Ednota, who have taken formal stances against the new constitution, have been reported interviewing potential nominees and negotiating with other parties about potential joint lists. In particular, Antek Dzhavid is reportedly in talks with Vladen Korzhef to draw up a joint Shaab Yach-Liberal Party list to bring before the Assembly.
None of the political parties contacted responded to questions about these negotiations, but insider sources indicate that party leaders are confident that the referendum will turn out a pro-constitution result. “There has been a strong effort on the part of most of the parties to make sure that pro-constitution voters turn out, especially those from Shta and Kher,” said one member of Shaab Yach. “Failure was not an option.” The same insiders dismissed the chance of the Izhitska Ednota referendum leading to an anti-constitution result. “Even if they rig the vote against us,” said one Conservative Party member, “none of their people would believe them. There’s no reason we wouldn’t be able to form a government by December.”
Despite this, strong criticism has been aimed at Izhitska Ednota’s conduct in organising the election. By banning campaigning and requiring voter registration within a small window, the party has limited its voter pool considerably, in a way that many election experts have characterised as an attempt to skew the result in their favor. One such expert, Ladislav Vladich, who monitored the Yachese referendum, expressed such worries. “There has been a campaign,” he said, “from day one, to distort the result of this referendum. First they’ve dismissed the legitimacy of the Federal Assembly vote. Now they’re trying to make voting prohibitively difficult for most people. I fear that the next step will be denying the result altogether.”


Offline Izhitsa

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Yachese Referendum Campaigners Arrested by Izhitska Ednota
« Reply #32 on: October 26, 2021, 12:30:34 AM »

Yachese Referendum Campaigners Arrested by Izhitska Ednota
Kenna Sladek
24 October 2021

Skrshin, a sleepy town just across Yach’s southern border, is known mainly as a place for truckers and tourists making the trip between Lzmdint and Zapadni Pokhod to rest and have a bite to eat. However, in recent days, it has become the site for more political activity. Campaigners from Yach, eager to ensure that the referendum succeeds, have been taking advantage of the hublike status of the town to promote the new constitution, in direct violation of rules set for the vote being held by Izhitska Ednota.
Today, party officials put a stop to it, arresting 24 individuals associated with the campaign. “It’s unfortunate that we had to go so far to safeguard our election,” said Kamil Petrovich, the officer responsible for the arrest,  “but the law is the law.” Petrovich went on to say that the detainees would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, indicating that they may be held in Izhitska Ednota prisons until the new year.
While the law is purportedly intended to prevent interference with the referendum, some observers have indicated concern that it is intended to tilt the result in favor of Izhitska Ednota’s preferred outcome, a negative result. According to Kinsa Edris, a political scientist who works for the University of Tilhuitnah, “This falls right into the party’s pattern of anti-democratic behavior. Campaigning is an essential part of democratic politics, and by banning it within their territories, they’re able to control the narrative about the constitution.”
At least one of the campaigners, Guran Navaz, is reported to be a local Shaab Yach official, a fact that hasn’t been lost on Izhitska Ednota. “It’s such a shame that our neighbours to the north, not content with forcing the constitution through to the referendum without our input,” said Petrovich, “has now resorted to sending their people over here to break our laws.” Shaab Yach has acknowledged that Navaz as one of their officials, but denied any official involvement.
Yachese Parliament has issued a memorandum condemning the arrests, and demanding that their citizens be returned to Yach to be tried by their peers. The request is unlikely to be met, considering that laws issued by Izhitska Ednota hold no force in the Yachese administrative zone.
Yachese Parliament has also issued a warning to Yachese, Izhitsans, and foreigners in Izhitsa to avoid travel through Eastern Izhitsa. “Neither Yach nor the Federal Assembly can guarantee the safety or freedom of individuals travelling through territories controlled by Izhitska Ednota,” said a parliamentary spokesman. “We highly recommend avoiding all unnecessary travel, including commercial travel in those areas, and encourage all Yachese citizens to return leave as soon as possible.”
Whatever hopes Federal Assembly members may have had that Izhitska Ednota would hold a fair referendum seem to have been dashed. While the Assembly did not respond to requests for comment, insiders have reported rumours that prominent lawmakers are already planning contingency measures in case—or perhaps more correctly, when—the vote fails.
Kinsa Edris, certainly, is pessimistic about whether the results of their referendum could be trusted. As she says, “Izhitska Ednota has been openly advocating against the constitution since it was passed to the people by the Federal Assembly. It controls both the election and their people’s ration cards. Even without overt political influence, they are hoping that their people will vote in the party’s interests. We cannot expect a democratic result from this election.”

Offline Izhitsa

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Yachese Referendum Results Officially Certified
« Reply #33 on: November 05, 2021, 03:57:45 AM »

Yachese Referendum Results Officially Certified
Kenna Sladek
26 October 2021

Despite a recount and numerous threats against election officials, the results of the referendum on the constitution have been officially certified by the Yachese Election Commission. They said that incidents of attempted election interference were few and far between, and involved voters on both sides of the issue in roughly equal measure. In one dramatic case, a Dzel man used fake IDs to vote for the constitution “over a dozen times” in Western Ved. However, the level of overall detected interference was low, and certainly not enough to overturn the results of the referendum in any constituent nation of Izhitsa. The final results were as follows:

YachVedDzeloKherShta
For50.1%49.5%65.2%76.3%82.3%
Against48.9%50.3%32.0%22.5%16.2%
Invalid/Blank1.2%0.8%2.8%1.2%1.5%

There were few surprises in the final results, which matched closely with preliminary pre-recount results.
Because the vote narrowly passed in Yach and three other constituent nations, by the Yachese referendum, the constitution has passed.  For G’ua Yach, which took an anti-constitution stance during the referendum, their narrow loss was a blow to a party which was just beginning to see its first chance at dominating the Yachese political landscape. However, Bamu Arshad, G’ua Yach leader, vowed to keep fighting for Yachese independence, saying, “Our stance has been clear since the beginning of the Federal Assembly. We will not let Yachese people bow down to any Izhitsan, not as a so-called ‘Autonomous Republic’, or anything. We will fight this thing as long as we have breath in our bodies.” Arshad noted that the margin of victory for the referendum in Yach was much smaller than the number of invalid votes, and announced, “We have already begun examining our options for any way to perform our own audit of this election or to have the voter information released for public examination. For an election of this importance, we have to be sure.”
The conduct of the election raises doubts about the validity of its results. In particular, because the vote was only conducted in Western Izhitsa, Izhitsans from Kher, Shta, and Eastern Ved were likely not well-represented in the vote, a fact that Izhitska Ednota was quick to pounce on. “The bourgeois rulers in Yach would have you believe that the few people able to drive from the countryside all the way to Lzmdint or Trkh are representative of Shtans and Khers,” said a party spokesman in response to the announcement. “The Izhitsan people are not so naive. Our referendum is the only one being conducted through all of Izhitsa, and is the only one whose results will truly reflect the people’s will.”
Despite the response from the east, the Federal Assembly is moving forward with plans to appoint judges and auditors by the end of November, who will then oversee subsequent Izhitsan elections. “It’s an exciting time for all of us,” said Vladen Korzhef, the president of the Federal Assembly. “This is our chance to make a real better future for our children.” When questioned about the refusal of Izhitska Ednota to acknowledge the results, he played off any potential threat, saying, “Izhitska Ednota is just a political party. When push comes to shove, what could they do against the will of their people?” When questioned on the issue, Korzhef denied that the Federal Assembly was making contingency plans in case the Izhitska Ednota vote went poorly, and said that they were confident that the party would eventually be forced to accept the results.  “Izhitska Ednota is just a political party,” he said. “When push comes to shove, what could they do against the will of their people?”