Achkaerin News - Referendum Special

[Achkaerin]

Welcome to the Achkaerin News Service's special coverage program. It's referendum day as Achkaerinese citizens go to the polls to determine whether or not the country should remain a member of the Commonwealth Treaty Organisation or leave. We'll be bringing you the major events from the day and then later on tonight we'll be bringing you each result as it comes in and analysis of the results as the picture becomes clearer.

[Achkaerin]

Polls Open Abroad As First Votes Cast

Referendum polls have opened and voting has officially begun. The first polling station to open is found in probably the most unlikely place - a prefab canteen in Grumwald, Nya Åland around fifteen kilometres from the disaster stricken city of Uppsala. The senior Achkaerinese officer Captain Adam Foyle of the Navy stated "This is a big decision on what will be a momentous day regardless of the result, it'll be a little hectic in terms of logistics but every Achkaerinese citizen here will have a chance to cast their vote."

For trivia fans the first vote in the referendum was reportedly cast by Corporal Maisie Adams of the Army.

[Achkaerin]

Remain Leader Casts Vote

Minister for Economic Affairs and leader of the Remain Campaign Senator Matthew Patterson has cast his vote in the last few minutes at his home constituency of North Lakeside, making him the highest profile figure to vote so far, though the day is still very young. Despite this the Electoral Commission is predicting a record turnout, whether this is in fact accurate remains to be seen. On a more fun related note a hastily arranged 'Take Your Child to Work day' is going off quite well for the pupils at Leonaise High School who can't attend today because it's a polling station.

[Achkaerin]

Vice Consul Votes As Numbers Seem to Surge

Vice Consul Rhian Kennedy is the latest major politician to cast her vote in the referendum, doing so in the Crystalline Valley. The Vice Consul who has over the campaigning period ignited the Leave Campaign with a mixture of passion, patriotism and common sense declined to comment except to say that she was "Cautiously optimistic" about the day so far. Other major figures have also been seen casting their votes leading many analysts to more vigorously support earlier predictions of a record turnout.

Preparations are also underway at Liberty Plaza outside the Marble Palace where the official result will be announced when it is known.

[Achkaerin]

Will She Soon Be Out of A Job?

While the voting continues it seems an opportune moment to spare a thought for Cheryl Holmes, the Minister of Commonwealth Affairs who's represented Achkaerin at the Palace of Nation since the inception of the CTO. Of course if the result is to leave then Ms Holmes along with the rest of the Achkaerinese delegation assigned there are likely to be in need of a job, though she is not expected to remain unemployed for long in the event of a lead vote with many analysts predicting that she and her staff will simply hop across to the CMA from the CTO. Ms Holmes was seen leaving the Antares military base within the last few minutes having cast her vote.

[Achkaerin]

Emperor In the Polling Station

Emperor Peter and his family including his fiance Renee Sandiego have been spotted in the Valtheim Plateau Polling Station. The event a regular occurrence whether it be election or referendum, is often looked forward to by the public keen to snap a picture of a royal taking part in the democratic process. The Emperor also took a moment to repeat his position on the referendum saying "The people want to have this discussion, to make this decision and it's right that the chance for them to do so has been given to them. And I'll reiterate that the result will stand provided the margin is reasonable."

A reasonable margin is believed to be 5% at least according to various analysts.

[Achkaerin]

Crowds Swamp Liberty Plaza As End of Voting Approaches

Thousands of people have gathered in Liberty Plaza directly in front of the Marble Palace and less than a mile from the home of the Senate - Liberty Hall. This is in anticipation of the end of the voting in the referendum which is just a few hours away, after which an exit poll will be released to the crowd. Following that we'll bring you all result by result coverage and analysis as the night unfolds. Crowds are also gathering in Unison City for the Remain Campaign and in Saika for the Leave Campaign, the stage is now very much set for the results show which we will bring you following the close of voting.

[Achkaerin]

The Results Program

MN: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the results show of Achkaerin's referendum on continued membership of the Commonwealth Treaty Organisation. I'm Matthew Nielsen with me for the first stint of tonight are Cabinet Secretary Michelle Lowe and Defence Minister Adam Sheppard. Coming to you first Minister how do you think your daughter's feeling right about now?"

AS: "She'll be interested to see what happens, it's a little amusing having an Achkaerinese citizen as Secretary General with this happening, but she'll have been kept up to date on things by her staff. And she'll have prepared for either outcome."

MN: "And Cabinet Secretary what are you anticipating?"

ML: "I'm anticipating a close run thing, we expect it to be tight across the nation, but the truth is we have no real idea how this will go outside of information based on analysis that we expect cities to be Remain strongholds and smaller towns and rural areas to be Leave strongholds. But we're not really going to get an idea of the night until we see the first results from the cities come in, but the interesting one will be Gowu, that could hold the key to the night."

MN: "With voting having closed it's time to see what our exit poll says and we are saying...

We are saying that we are predicting at this time a Remain victory. Now it's time to set the counters, the dice have been rolled it's time to see where they fall."

[Achkaerin]

Uppsala First to Declare

As expected the overseas deployment of Achkaerinese forces in what's been termed the Uppsala Constituency for Referendum purposes has declared first. The scale of the victory is not perhaps the shock here as explained by Adam Sheppard "You've got Achkaerinese Forces working, not for the first time, outside of the CTO with other non CTO nations, as we all know only East Moreland falls into the CTO camp with Achkaerin in terms of representation so it's not a surprise that an environment like that where our people are getting on with their work and doing it without CTO support for the most part would yield a result like this, the only surprise is that twenty two people voted remain."

[Achkaerin]

All Overseas Bases Declare

The other three off mainland military deployments of Antares, Chrysalis and Princess Astrid Base have declared and all declared quite heavily in favour of the Leave side. Again this is not an unexpected development, but it does show a clear lack of faith in the CTO on the part of the Achkaerinese military, so with the overseas troops votes in let's see where we stand:

[Achkaerin]

First Towns Declare - Leonaise Gives First Remain Result

They've taken a battering so far but finally the Remain Camp has something to smile about, as they've overwhelmingly taken Leonaise with 95% of the vote, some will say that's a surprise given what the trend of the night was expected to be but others will point out that the home town of the CTO Secretary General was hardly likely to go Leave, when it came to safe bets this was one of the safest. The other results have continued to see the Leave side move ahead but we're just getting started as we anticipate the first major city result from Valkyria soon.

[Achkaerin]

First City Declares - Result Shocks Both Sides

The city of Valkyria has declared and the result is a shock as it's a dead heat with half the vote exactly going each, this potentially carries huge ramifications for one side for the remainder of the night trouble is that no one is entirely sure which side though the trend suggests that the cities should be Remain territory so this result could hurt them and most would expect it to, but without more data we simply don't know, so we're going to have to wait a little longer to get the pattern of the night.

[Achkaerin]

Avalon Declares For Leave but Remain Edges Ahead

Avalon the smallest of Achkaerin's major cities has voted by over two thirds to Leave. It's a result that may send some shock waves through the Remain camp as this was the sort of constituency they were supposed to be winning in but that said this is only one city after Valkyria and we still don't have a pattern, we will still have to wait and see what this means later on. But let's take a look at the overall picture after our tenth declaration.

[Achkaerin]

Cities Proving Remain Fortresses

The cities have started declaring and a pattern based on these results appears to be emerging and it will please the Remain camp no end as we have seen major wins for Remain in Rinetta City and Unison City and though they did lose Azureton which was expected based on pre-result forecasting they will be delighted to have gone against the grain and taken Rosevale narrowly. It's a fairly safe bet at this point that the drinks are tasting much sweeter at the Remain rally than at the Leave one. The cumulative results so far mean the following after fourteen of thirty three declarations:

[Achkaerin]

Gowu Rumors Sprout Hope for Leave As They Fight On

Rumors of a shock in the offing in Gowu seem to have lifted Leave Campaign spirits, though we're still some time away from getting that result. Crystalline Valley has fallen heavily to the Leave side but this is not a surprise given that it's the Vice Consul's home turf, the two cities have also seen strong Leave performances as they continue to run Remain close there, but there appears to be a belief among Leave supporters that if they can stay close then with one or two big wins they can turn this around yet.

[Achkaerin]

Capital Goes Remain

Valtheim has voted Remain by 53% to 47%, it's a result that was eagerly await by the crowd in Liberty Plaza and was greeted with a mixed reception by the crowd showing how much of a knife edge the city and the nation as a whole is on. It still remains unclear what the outcome will be but if the pattern holds in the next few declarations then Remain will feel highly confident. With the Capital's declaration the totals so far amount to:

[Achkaerin]

"Game On" - Vice Consul Kennedy

Another three major cities have declared and it's led to realistic hope now for the Leave campaign, following the declarations Vice Consul Rhian Kennedy took to the stage at the Leave Campaign rally and said "They thought they were home and hosed, they thought that as long as they kept it tight they'd win, well thanks to Dovah and Solaria they've been proved wrong, they thought we were down and out they were wrong, this is our night and the game is on."

[Achkaerin]

Leave Closing Gap

The Vice Consul said the game was on and it looks like she may be right, just look at the current totals (below), there's a been a major cut to the Remain lead and now the referendum could potentially go either way but all eyes will now look to both Gowu and Mossflower because surely it will be in those two major cities where this is decided.

[Achkaerin]

Fimbultown Steady's Remain Ship

Fimbultown may only have a population of 400,000 people but after the batterings taken in Dovah and Solaria coupled with big losses in Scyll and Valor the Remain side needed something like this just to remind everyone that they are still in the lead and still optimistic about their chances. We now expect to have the Gowu declaration any moment stay tuned...

[Achkaerin]

Gowu Says Leave

The surprise of the night in Gowu. The city has voted Leave by an astonishing margin 85% to 15%, the cheers at the Leave Campaign's rally were only reportedly deafened by the cheers in Azurewind square in Gowu itself. The result significantly closes the gap though Remain does still hold a very slight advantage just look at what this means.

[Achkaerin]

The pollsters and analysts are predicting that the Leave Campaign will win. It's a prediction made following rumors circulating that Leave may have won Mossflower. Leave are presently behind on total but on the forecast model only Hearth and Mossflower are assumed for Remain and if Mossflower has fallen to Leave then this may be over.

[Achkaerin]

Nothing In It as Eyes Turn to Mossflower

It was tipped to be close at the start of the night but here we are with 28 out of 33 declarations and this could go either way, but with the Mossflower rumours and that declaration moments away or so we're told, there are edgy looks in both camps as we await this next result let's take a look at the updated totals.

[Achkaerin]

Mossflower Declares

Mossflower has declared for Leave and it's a big margin, much larger than predicted. The result may according to some commentators have to do with the Faejeon people but others are not so sure, this is a major surprise that puts Leave back in the driving seat.

[Achkaerin]

We have an outcome. With four constituency's still to declare the Electoral Commission has called the Referendum a Leave Victory, explaining that because of the size of victory in Mossflower the Leave Campaign now has such a lead that the total number of registered voters in the remaining four constituencies combined and assuming a 100% share of the vote for Remain would not be able to overhaul the Leave total.
The announcement was greeted with jubilation at the Leave rally which has subsequently turned into a party and dismay at Remain HQ. It is understood that the Emperor is now on the phone to his niece the Secretary General of the CTO Sakura Sheppard.

[Achkaerin]

Final Declarations

The final constituency's have declared their results in the referendum with a mixed bag finishing off the event, even if slightly predictable as the smaller towns went on way and Hearth the other. This brings the final tally to be as follows:

Once again the people of Achkaerin have voted to leave the CTO. This concludes our referendum special broadcast, updates as to the aftermath can be viewed through our usual sources.