Midean Elections

Lucian and the other Veridian "business men" had, for the most part, stayed on the Midean homeworld for the duration of the election season. Now that it seemed their plans may be thwarted by judicial review, Lucian felt it necessary to act more drastically. While NSP leadership assured him that he and the rest of the Veridian's contributions would be kept as secret as was possible, he couldn't risk it becoming as public as to allow other foreign powers of the Mideans themselves to begin pointing fingers at the Dominion directly. The NSP and LFC (though Lucian not really concerned with them) needed a distraction and need one quickly. Taking sometime to devise a plan, Lucian came to the final conclusion that the Midean people could devise the best distraction of all.

Thus, Lucian directed his Veridian associated to begin drafting propaganda and, under assumed names, funded their distribution to the outlaying planets away from the homeworld. The propaganda was subtle, but straight to the point. In less than straight forward ways, the information was designed to have the average Midean question its government and the direction the current leadership wanted to take its people. It made heroes out of the NSP candidates while vilifying the current leadership, painting a bigger plot that the parties needed to stay in power to fulfill a plan of selling out to foreign powers such as the Centauri Governate, Rhean Confederacy, and/or the Ordenreich (all nations with embassies). It was a shock and awe plan designed to stir the population into a feverous frenzy, out of fear that their believed Midean society would soon become a client race of another galactic power.

*Ordenreich Embassy, Order Scribe Henry*

In the resulting weeks since his tour of the Midean homeworld Scribe Henry had been following the election closesly and heard about the suspected foreign influence with "donations."

Order Scribe Henry: Bloody space trash... the other powers just can't keep out of other people's pies... *calls his secretary* get me the Ordenreich government.

Secretary: Yes Scribe Henry

*four rings later Hochmeister Paul picks up*

Paul: What is it Henry?

Henry: Sir I am sure you saw the reports I sent you?

Paul: Yes, and?

Henry: and?! the other governments are tearing this nation apart!

Paul: I am aware of the situation but we have no proof and we aren't going to sink to their level. If this nation collapses then its unfortunate but we can do nothing to change it.

Henry: Sir I must protest...

Paul: Noted. Continue as you were. Goodbye

*the Hochmeister hangs up*

Shortly after the legitimacy of the election is questioned, the Planetary Governate quickly ceases the broadcasts of propaganda by their front groups to wash their hands clean of the matter. Though somewhat worried about being accused in the whole affair, the Planetary Governate, of all the groups that chose to support a faction, had little to use to draw a connection with any one group and mostly attempted to simply influence the population towards certain policies. It was obviously not completely aboveboard, either, but in any case it was certainly in a somewhat greyer area with regards to the legal nature of what they had done.

The Bastians respond with their own propaganda painting the NSP as a bunch of xenophobic extremists intent on trying to foment war. Further, they attempt to paint the Veridian Dominion as the pot calling the kettle black, as they were the first to intervene. Alas, this may sail over people's heads.

(OOC: Ver, the Rheans have done jack here. They may unofficially back the Free Liberty guys but that was it. The ones who did funding were the Bastians.)

(OOC: I don't think that ICly you would know the Veridians did it yet, though.)

(OOC: They don't have absolute proof but they very strongly suspect them, given that they know of those Veridian "businessmen" and the lack of mentioning the Veridians in NSP propaganda.)

(OOC: Perhaps I didn't make what I was doing clear, so my apologies for the confusion Pan. The propaganda that the Veridians, indirectly funded, was meant to implicate that the Midean government was going to sale out their race to another galactic power. I didn't mean to suggest that the Rheans were directly implicated, only that such a conclusion was possible to be made by the average Midean seeing the propaganda, solely due to the fact that they are one of three galactic powers that have embassies (Centauri and the Ordenreich being the other two) with the Midean government. In short, the propaganda funded was meant to turn the people against their own government and support the NSP, not to call out another galactic power.)

(OOC: I know, but the propaganda should nonetheless be pointing out the Bastians, given that they are much more involved than the Rheans. I thought the Bastians had an embassy there. I guess I forgot to set it up.)

With it becoming ever clearer that the political climate in Midancient is very rapidly degrading, the Chancellor has decided to step away from his policy of maintaining a non-partisan chancellery (a policy he enacted upon taking office 18 years ago that is widely credited as being the main reason he was re-elected by the Senate to a second and then a third term) and has officially endorsed the DPLC, citing his desire to form strong, peaceful international relationships and his desire to ensure that civil and political liberties are not curtailed, whether explicitly or implicitly, in the name of obsessive national security. While he did not specifically call-out the LFC, he did specifically outline why the NSP would harm Midancient's international reputation and has made repeated attempts since his address to the nation to undermine the effectiveness of isolationist and anti-government propaganda that has been circulating.

In the interest of not alienating non-partisan supporters, the Chancellor also condemned all three groups for so severely polarizing the nation in this election, and called upon all parties to put the harsh words and personal attacks behind in the interest of not dividing the nation, fearing, of course, that the three-way divisions might start running so deep as to persist long after the elections are held and interfere with the government's ability to effectively oversee the nation.

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About a half hour after the Chancellor's speech and about fifteen minutes before the eight-hour deadline hit, the Midean High Court dismissed the lawsuits seeking to force the National Guard to obtain warrants, pointing-out that while it might have heard the case had the election not been a week away, the circumstances of the current situation did not reasonably permit such an extended investigation should a trial have to be heard before the investigation could continue. The LFC decided to release its full financial records to the Guard about 12 minutes after the court's ruling became public, just as the Guard was arriving at their headquarters to carry-out a search.

The National Security Party, however, immediately declared its intent to file lawsuits in each of the 51 planetary courts seeking to reprimand the Guard retroactively for carrying out a warrantless search; given that the Guard had already arrived to carry-out the search, any lawsuit seeking to prevent the search in the first place would likely have been ignored by the Director of Security and the Guard's investigators and immediately dismissed by the courts as unreasonable. While 17 planetary courts immediately dismissed the filings as soon as they arrived (with about a quarter of the judges openly laughing while doing so and another third or so quietly chuckling) and another 20 have stated that while they will consider it further, the lawsuits will likely be dismissed, the remaining 15 have all stated that they will allow the lawsuits to go to trial. The Department of Justice has indicated that it will devote its police law lawyers to focus entirely on the cases until they are won by the government, and the high court has condemned the lower courts for taking-on the cases, calling it a clear case of the right-wing simply trying to distract from larger issues.

The high court did, however, accept the lawsuit that the government was using its position to try to slander and libel the right-wing, but has stated that the trial will not begin until at least three weeks after the end of Elections Week, so that the elections are not marred or affected by a trial.

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In less than reassuring occurrences, several small-scale riots have broken out in several of the more politically divided parts of the nation. Damages, however, are only in the low millions and the majority of the damage done is limited to broken windows, windshields, petty thefts, graffiti, and the general mess that a riot tends to leave behind. None of the riots lasted longer than a couple of hours, and most dissipated after fifteen to twenty minutes, as soon as police arrived.

There have been only about three hundred arrests, and none of those is for anything above a misdemeanor.

Lucian was surprised at the restlessness of the Midean people with the recent riots that had broken out. Such things were unheard of back on Veridia Prime, for several years not the least of which being that "big brother" was always watching and ended such things before they began. While the Dominion could possibly smuggle in weapons for the rioters, riots were counterproductive to the point. After all, continued rioting could destabilize the planet and then most of their work would be for not. So instead, the Veridians encouraged the NSP leadership to have their candidates condemn the riots and instead encourage the people to let their voices be heard at the polls.

Though personally insulted, the Dominion decided note to comment on recent remarks about them in propaganda, presumably from the Bastians. Instead they would wait to see the election results as the polls would soon be open.

(OOC: If you all are good with it, I'm gonna go ahead and jump forward to Election Week, just so we can get to the heart of where this is all leading up to.)

(OOC#2: Also important to note is that riots are rare in Midancient, and the political scene has been extremely stable and not at all inflammatory in many decades, hence why even small riots are of such concern to the Midean government.)

The Planetary Governate also waits patiently for results, choosing not to comment on any matter.

(OOC: I'm cool with it.)

(OOC: Awesomeness, time to get the ball rolling, then. )

Elections in Midancient, at least for the legislature at the national level, are three-fold; the first consists of a primary in which the general population votes for a party, the second of the general population simply voting for one of the qualifying parties (to qualify, a party must have shown enough support to win at least one seat from the planet in question), and the third of the members of each party that won at least one seat selecting who will fill the seats their party won. The primaries are held on the first day of the week, the general election on the fourth, and the final election on the seventh.

(OOC: Exit polls, definitively calling elections unofficially, etc. is illegal in Midancient, so that, in theory, later votes don't count any less than earlier votes.)

As votes are cast, recorded, and tallied electronically, results start being available within about a half hour of the polls closing, and the final, official results are out within an hour. Given the 800 seats in the Assembly, 0.125% of the vote is needed to secure one seat. As the coalitions were never formed into actual parties, nor even in time to officially register as such, the parties technically ran separate from one another in the elections.
(DPLC) Social Labor Party - 21.503%
(DPLC) Populist Democratic Party - 18.340%
(LFC) Free Liberty Party - 11.875%
(LFC) Fiscal Responsibility Party - 14.025%
National Security Party - 36.450%
Green Party - 1.002%
Social Morality Party - 0.805%

For those who want to see it according to the three-way divide:
DPLC ~ 39.843%
LFC ~ 25.900%
NSP ~ 36.450%

Lucian looked at the results with some disappointment, as the NSP seemed to have finished in a second place situation in the polls. He and the rest of the Veridian businessmen had thought they'd put enough effort into helping the NSP succeed but then again, the Veridians could only pay the NSP, they could run their campaigns for them. Lucian didn't like defeat, neither did the Dominion but at this point they were not sure what was left to be done. Perhaps the Midean people needed to realize how indeed dangerous the galaxy could be, perhaps they needed to see the chaos that the NSP wanted to protect them against.

Though the Bastians did not have their preferred coalition win, they are immensely relieved that at the very least, the NSP did not come out on top.

(OOC: Keep in mind that the NSP is up from 4.75% in the last elections... 36% is still a huge chunk of the Assembly to hold.)

With the second day of elections behind the nation, the final numbers for the parties are out; all that's left is to actually decide who the party will send to fill those seats. Given the rather intense rioting that has broken-out, however, things are unlikely to calm down once the nation moves beyond Election Week, and the political tension is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.

The final numbers are:
(DPLC) Social Labor Party - 20.283% - 162 seats
(DPLC) Populist Democratic Party - 19.051% - 152 seats
(LFC) Free Liberty Party - 9.382% - 75 seats
(LFC) Fiscal Responsibility Party - 12.452% - 100 seats
National Security Party - 37.362% - 299 seats
Green Party - 0.853% - 7 seats
Social Morality Party - 0.617% - 5 seats

DPLC + GP - 321 seats
LFC - 175 seats
NSP + SMP - 304 seats

With no coalition reaching the 401 seats necessary to hold the Assembly, and with the political scene as divided as it is, the prospect of a government able to accomplish anything significant has grown rather dim, and in extremist circles, a few talk of actively fighting against the "other side".

The Darghway Trading Corporation, one of a handful of truly private companies, has announced that it will no longer engage in trade with what it calls "planets serving to further the illegitimacy of the radical leftist movement", and has begun arming its cargo vessels in a symbolic gesture aimed at showing that they will not bend to any call to rescind such a policy.
The DTC, along with many other companies, fear that internationalism will hurt Midancient's prosperous manufacturing sector, and so threw their support to the NSP during the election.

The Rheans take note only enough to send a series of lectures on economics to DTC and other companies that backed the NSP but otherwise did nothing. Yes, it was Dimitri who did it.

While the NSP's leadership persisted to Lucian and his associates that the Veridian's help had done much for them, Lucian for one was not impressed. From what he understood from the Midean reports, the NSP no more had control of their government than any other party and at best, they could use their power to choke the legislature and stall government. While this wouldn't hurt Dominion interests, it didn't help Dominion interests either and individuals back home were growing...restless.

The rioting provided Lucian with ideas but the problem was, in the end, logistics. Armed disgruntled citizens could provide the kind of chaos the NSP could thrive off of. Sadly, Lucian could not conceive of a way to bring weapons to a Midean world. First and foremost, the Veridians did not run transports to their territory and secondly, customs would surely discover them. Still, there had to be a way to do it and so, in subtle ways, he began discussing such things with the NSP leadership to see if there were loopholes that could exploited in the Midean's defense against smuggling.

The Burninites issue a stronger condemnation of interference in the internal affairs of other nations, especially those which it deems "either stupidly misguided enough to cause the conditions for civil war, or intentionally divisive enough to create the same."

Though not mentioned by name, the Peacekeepers of Alpha Centauri and the Veridians are the most likely targets of the tirade.

The condemnation closes with a promise to remain silent regarding the rest of the Midean affairs.

(OOC: Awwwwwwww yeah, s**t's getting real. )

(OOC#2: I'm going to retcon out the previous arming of DTC cargo ships... it was a rushed and botched attempt to get this moving... so, right now, they are not armed.)

Spurred by the potential off an ally in the international world should the NSP leadership takes its party rogue and attempt to ignite a revolution (or, at the very least, a secessionist rebellion), the party council (each party's leadership is vested in a council of between three and seven members, depending on the size and structure of the party; the NSP has a three-member council, being traditionally rather small) began to seek private communication with the CEO of the Darghway Trading Corporation, tentatively looking at the possibility of using the DTC's cargo ships to smuggle weapons to the NSP, and potentially to later act as makeshift warships should adequate weaponry, armor, and shielding be acquired. Knowing full well that they would get only one, maybe two smuggling runs in before the Midean national guard, or worse, the navy, began to take notice. As the Darghway System holds one of only two destroyer-serviceable drydocks in the nation, the chance of the navy responding with unrelenting force was, of course, significantly higher should the smuggling route go through one of the Darghway planets.

So, after lengthy, sometimes heated talks, it was decided that should the Veridians prove amicable to the idea, the smuggling route would lead out of Pleion-2 (which has large enough spaceports to support a long-reaching route as was being proposed), and that the smuggled weapons would be kept on Pleion-1, whose harsh terrain (marked by lakes and oceans of boiling mud and molten slag and a rather large amount of both solid and gaseous sulfur) made ground patrols by the national guard or the army unlikely. The DTC would operate under the guise of constructing a new geothermal power and manufacturing complex on Pleion-1 to divert attention away from the smuggling for as long as possible. In secret, the plant (once operational) would produce new weapons and armor for ground troops and new weapons, engines, and shielding devices to put towards the conversion of cargo ships into makeshift warships. Officially, of course, it would be producing parts for the company's merchant fleet.

Given the DTC's prominent position in Midancient and the influence and prestige it holds, having been one of the most efficient trading organizations and also one of the only private companies to be viewed as willingly and fully staying within the limits of the law, the NSP approached the Veridian delegation with their idea, explaining that at least one or two runs of the route could be made before the Midean government grew too suspicious, but by then, the NSP would likely be able to keep the route open by force, and of course the longer the route was kept open, the stronger the NSP would grow.

Lal is displeased as the riots take place. Though it was true that his own policies had to have played some part in all of this, memetic engineering was meant to be a) subtle and b) an alternative to coercion, not something to cause it. Personally, he would much rather blame the other powers, especially the Veridians and Bastians, who he deems to have directly and recklessly intervened in a way that did not take into consideration the Midean people, while simply, ah... "influenced" them, though admittedly on Chiron it would be called much less influence than memetic subversion.

He still makes no comment and takes no action, not quite wanting to go any further with the tirade.

The Bastian emperor, to try to ease tensions, offers to build a warp gate directly to Midancient to facilitate trade. They discuss this with the DPLC and the LFC, noting the benefits of instant travel to systems thousands of light years away. Left only implied is that should the NSP start anything, Bastian Gauss weapons could be shipped very quickly to Midancient. This, of course, is if the NSP tries anything. Gaius Marius insists that if war comes, it will be on the NSP.

Chancellor Polaris Vivache, superseding what would otherwise have been the jurisdiction of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has decided to spearhead relations with the Bastians himself. He's quite amenable to the idea of constructing a warp gate to establish better trade relations, for though he himself believes in protecting Midean industries, he also believes very much in the need to establish friendly diplomatic relations. He proposes that the gate be built in the Newardi System, as Newardi-2 has the most active and well-maintained spaceports in the nation, and as both of the settled planets in the system are the two most important planets for the commercial and the financial sector.
Unofficially, of course, the Chancellor sees the value in a potential wartime supply line, and such provides another reason for choosing the Newardi System -- it is deep in DPLC territory and is one of the most highly protected systems in the nation.

Should the Bastions agree to such an arrangement, the Chancellor has promised to bring the trade agreement to the Senate for approval -- because senators are elected by planetary legislatures (which are generally more friendly towards the national ruling party and which generally condemned the NSP's actions during the elections season), the DPLC and the LFC together hold about 85% of the Senate, significantly more than the 2/3 majority required to approve treaties.

The Chancellor has also asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to instruct Midancient's embassies in other nations to reassure those nations that Midancient is stable, and that the rioting is under control and that the NSP will not be allowed to post a threat to peaceful international relations.

*Ordenreich Embassy, Order Scribe Henry*

*Scribe Henry continued to watch the deterioration of Midean stability with greater and greater concern. He was eventually contacted by the Hochmeister.*

Henry: Yes mein Hochmeister

Paul: I'm assuming that you have been keeping up to date with the state of affairs of the Mideans?

Henry: Yes Hochmeister and once again I feel the need to address my concerns that...

Paul: I know of your concerns Henry and I am happy to tell you that the Council has decided to offer a helping hand. I am messaging you the details and I expect you to pass them on to the Midean government.

Henry: Yes mein Hochmeister.

Paul: Very good see that its done Henry. Goodbye.

*Hochmeister hangs up*

Henry: Secretary get me the Midean government as quickly as possible.

Secretary: Yes Order Scribe