New Bava - The Newspaper for the Twenty-First Century - Circulation 233,500 est.

10 October 1998

The widely respected Deputy Alan Grieve of the Progressive Futurist Party this week released documents that cast a stunning new light on the elections to the top posts in the Cyberian federal government.

This weekend, Cyberians are voting in election run-offs which will determine whether President Kerns is re-elected, or whether he loses his job to Adam Graham, a Conservative and relative newcomer to Cyberia. They will also decide whether Quentyn Daniels, a Liberal, gets the vice-presidency, or whether it goes instead to Jeremy Groghan of the Conservative Party.

Here comes the twist. Both the Conservative candidates are prominent in the Vivaldian government. Groghan, for his part, has not hidden the fact that he is Minister of Treasury in Skinner Layne's regime, but denies that this could cause any conflict of interest. Within the last couple of days, the documents released by Grieve have revealed that Adam Graham is also a Vivaldian - in fact, that (under the name Adam Noah) he is a Life Vice-Chancellor of the Laynist government.

Many people will wonder why they are expected to vote for two rightwing candidates, both fairly new to Cyberia, both prominent in foreign governments, rather than for two longtime Cyberian loyalists.

Pond Points to Kerns as Unifying Force

As the contest for the Presidency looked tight, Governor Richard Pond of Bava told fellow Cyberians that he believed current President Ken Kerns to be the candidate best able to unite the nation. "Kerns is a moderate, a centrist," Pond told a public meeting in Bava City. He added, "I don't always agree with Ken Kerns, but he is a good president and is better able to represent the majority of Cyberians than his opponent is. The alternative to Kerns is an openly rightwing candidate who would divide this nation and threaten everything that the progressive forces of Cyberia have worked for."

Conservatives Draw Back from Brink of Self-Destruction

At times this month it looked like the Cyberian right was finished as a coherent political force, as defector after defector formed a new party and called on all his former colleagues to join. But the right has begun to realize that this fissive tendency was no good to their cause. Now there are calls for the rightwing parties to form a coalition, with a view to possible merger in the future.

The left faces similar questions, though it is not as divided. President Kerns recently suggested a merger of the leftwing parties. The old Labor Party has already joined with the Liberal Democrats to form a new Liberal Party. Under Kerns' plan, the Liberals would merge with the PFP and the Socialists. But the PFP leadership is so far opposed to such a merger. The Socialists have not given a formal statement, but it is believed that most of them are against merger. However, Governor Pond and Deputy Stephen Lean both told journalists this week that they wanted more cooperation between the leftist parties (short of merger), and that they would shortly be discussing with other party leaders what form this might take.

Other Stories

Terry Clare Appointed Election Commissioner. This week, the problems associated with the first-round voting for the Presidency prompted the appointment of Terry Clare as Election Commissioner. She agreed to suspend her duties as Speaker until this work was complete.

President Makes Embarrassing Error. The President, Ken Kerns, made an embarrassing error of judgement while checking the ballots during the first round, when he asked a fellow citizen why he had voted the way he had. Scott Rosen publicized the episode in a rightwing journal. But the President, apologizing, pointed out that he had broken no law, and that this matter calls to attention the failure of Cyberians to draw up an electoral act defining the way in which voting should be conducted.

There was some (blatantly absurd) talk of impeachment - presumably an idea prompted by the continuing political persecution of the United States president by his rightwing opponents. On the whole, censure was a more favoured option. However, Governor Pond said he thought that even censure would be "a pathetic idea". He told the New Bava: "What Kerns did was wrong, and I was disturbed to hear of it. But what it shows above all is that our laws governing electoral procedure are highly inadequate. In a system where, contrary to normal democratic principles, it was the president who counted the ballots for his own job, this was a minor transgression, a human mistake. I think we can put in place laws and procedures that will make things clearer and fairer in the future. The appointment of Terry Clare as Electoral Commissioner for the run-offs is the first stage in that. My point is that if voters endorse President Kerns for a second time in barely a week - and do so even though knowledge of his error has been in the public domain for several days - I don't think the Assembly should be second-guessing the public's view. And the Chamber has so many more important things to deal with than discuss some poxy censure motion."

New Bava is published by the Bavan News Company (BNC), a workers' cooperative.