This thread shall contain the Consulate for the region New Western Atlantic.
Well, since this is my first report, I feel like some kind of introduction is long overdue.
[region]New Western Atlantic[/region] was born out of conflict among members which resulted in [nation]The United Dark Republic[/nation] and his faction seceding and forming their own region. Since then, the region has witnessed respectable growth, and developed a system along the way. The main attribute of NWA that essentially acts as the deal-breaker is the party system.
The constitutional right which states that the right to align with and establish any party is essentially the core of the region. As a result, every kind of major decisions and moves has some element of the party system in it. The influence of parties is great to the point wherein even the judges are affiliated to a party. However, so far at least, this has not caused any problems in free and fair decisions being given, despite controversies.
The basic power hierarchy is simple. At the top is the founder with certain executive powers. Below him is the Prime Minister who also holds the responsibility of nominating judges who are then approved by the citizens in a public poll. After the Prime Minister is the cabinet, with each position contested for independently, and then there is an independent senate which is tasked with legislations.
Arguably a republic, the region however offers the founder emperor a lot of executive powers. However, he himself is committed to the democratic ideals the region holds dear and so these powers hasn’t been abused so far.
Interestingly, the region holds elections for each of the positions in the cabinet. Hence, everyone from the Prime Minister to the Diplomacy Minister is elected individually. Hence, often the cabinet consists of people from various parties. Senate elections are visibly between parties with each party attempting to dominate the senate. This shall be elaborated on the next section.
Finally, the judicial system has certain key features as well. The high court is the only judicial body in the region. It has a chief justice and associate justices. Each of the justices are nominated by the Prime Minister who then puts forward the name to be approved by the public. If approved, the citizen becomes a justice.
And so, that is the basic system. Now onto the report for the month of March.
Report I
The 1st of March marked the end of the merger. I feel like some background is needed for this one. Somewhere around mid February, [region]Dawn[/region] was a region of around 400 nations and a respectable WA rate. However, despite a good rate of growth, the region decided to merge amidst several crisis which plagued the region due to several flaws in the system. Ultimately the merger was brokered by UDR and [nation]New Ex Patria[/nation] from NWA and Dawn and on March 1st the latter region was handed over to [nation]August[/nation]. Hence, the day marked the end of the merger as the new additions to the region explored their possibilities and were being integrated into the system.
A reoccurring feature of the month was the constant clashes between the high court and the senate. The first of these were regarding the political deceit act which sought to prevent switching parties once the candidates were elected. However, this was seen as a violation of the constitutional principle of permitting anyone to align with any party, however was approved by the High Court which led to certain backlash from some senators. It fuelled controversy for a while that the court was biased and unfair. However, the court provided ample explanation and their decisions were upheld ultimately by the region.
A key highlight was the passing of a massive constitutional amendment. The amendments were part of the merger agreement which sought to radically reform the system to accommodate for the new citizens and so the amendment made several changes along many directions. One feature that was under fire often was the WA requirement for being a citizen. This meant that almost 30-40% of the population would be excluded from politics. However, with reassurances that they shall be pardoned by UDR, it was ultimately put to vote and emerged successful with immense popularity support.
Foreign Affairs
The month also saw several new developments in the FA department. The start of these changes was by implementing an embassy requirements system and some more bureaucratic procedures into the system. This in turn led to several embassies being closed which were controversial and redundant. This decision came under fire briefly despite it being announced previously, and led to some citizens expressing their displeasure with the current minister, [nation]Saariset[/nation]. Among them, [nation]Eurosport24[/nation] was a prominent one who announced his intent to be the next minister and established his agenda to pursue ties with all kinds of regions.
While several embassies were closed, the region also opened a few embassies, with [region]Forest[/region], and [region]The East Pacific[/region] being the significant ones. Forest had an quiet yet active discussion about having embassies with the region which was put to polls. Ultimately the region voted for the embassy and hence they were set up and ambassadors exchanged. Hence, for Forest and for NWA, they are the most recent ally and it would be interesting to see how long this friendship lasts.
Meanwhile, relations with [region]Union of Confederate Regions[/region] (UCR) reached a new low recently, with the region being blamed for several attempts at recruiting WA nations from NWA. The region was a former close ally of Dawn and believes it to be in the interests of the region to poach the Dawnians which was met with several sanctions. The diplomats were expelled from both the regions and dual citizenship was essentially stopped. Amidst this, Ex Patria also proposed a condemnation of the region to the SC which was met with severe opposition from UCR. And hence, the two regions share an extremely hostile relationship which shows no signs of improving anytime soon.
Elections
Before I report on the elections, I believe I need to briefly explain the system. The senate is divided into Class I and Class II Senators. The only difference between the two are their term period. Each senator has 6 months as a single term. Class I and Class II Senatorial elections have a difference of 3 months. So there is an elections every three months for the senate. Class I had 10 and Class II has 15 senators, to accommodate for senators from Dawn as per the merger agreement. Recently, the region held the elections for the Class I Senators.
The elections were active and filled with campaigns from all the sides. In all, there were six parties contesting for 10 seats. Previously, the senate was led by the Activist-Constructivist Coalition which had well over 12 senators and was dominating the senate. Against the backdrop of the merger and additional 100-150 voters, the elections were much anticipated and exciting.
Of the parties, the oldest and the most largest party of the region is the Activist party, led by Hevern, a veteran in the region. The party has a centre left ideology and has always been in power and dominated not only the senate, but also the court and even the cabinet. Hence it is the most influential and well established party of the region.
Next to Activists, as essentially the largest threat to the party’s dominance, is the Constructivist party, founded by UDR himself, and currently led by Trade Federations. The centre right party also is quite influential, and is in terms of numbers, the largest opposition to the Activists and has its influence in various other areas.
Liberal Democrats are essentially the largest and most influential of the third parties, led by Rheta. While the party states it is centrist, it is seen as leftist and is significantly influential with some of the high court and cabinet members being part of the party and also is the largest opposition party in the senate, with the shadow chancellor from this party.
Regional Front and Democratic Socialist Party fall on the right and the left side of the political spectrum respectively. Both the parties have till far failed to generate much support as their base is narrow. Both have failed to distinguish themselves from the larger parties as RFP contains ideologies similar to CON and DSP similar to ACT. Nonetheless they do hold a few seats in the senate to make their voices heard.
Unity Party is a monarchist party that is the most recent addition to the roster and is led by Iheero. The senatorial elections was the first major test of the party, however its performance is vastly affected by its low voter base and low established influence in the region. As a result, the party has odds stacked up against them.
Hence, against this backdrop, the elections were held which continued for three days. Overall, the public polls showed a 178 votes being registered which is an all time high. With each of the party eagerly contesting for power, ultimately, Activists emerged on top with most votes, followed by Constructivists, Liberal Democrats, Regional Front, Democratic Socialist Party, and finally the Unity Party. Tallying up of the votes showed the following break up of seats.
[th colspan=“3”]Break up of the Senate [/th][th]Parties [/th][th]Seats won in the Class I elections [/th][th]Total seats in the senate [/td]Activists 4 10 Constructivists 3 7 Liberal Democrats 1 4 Regional Front 1 2 Democratic Socialist Party 1 2 Unity Party 0 0
Hence, ultimately Unity Party failed to make a mark with Activists gaining four seats in the senate, further strengthening the ACT-CON coalition. With a ACT dominated senate, it is to be seen what kind of legislations will be passed, in a senate led by Nydaymos.
And that concludes the report. I will be making such reports on a monthly basis, or biweekly if a major event happens.
Thank you for your time 
Some important links
http://www.nationstates.net/page=poll/p=115786
http://https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=981555
Notes
For further details, you can find most of the information on the WFE of the region. Feel free to contact me if you have any queries.
Report II
This month so far has been quite productive, to say the least. Most activity took place in the Senate, in terms of both the legislations and the senators themselves.
Legislation
As per the agreement with [region]Dawn[/region], which had led to the merger in late February, the region was on track to set up a military. However, it was felt it would be more prudent to get the consent of the Senate to present it as a democratically achieved body. Hence, the start of the new session was with the military bill. However, the debates and discussions that followed took the entire issue to a whole new arena.
For starters, there was no consensus on “whose” bill to propose. As it was, there were 3-4 military bills in queue. There was atleast some sort of an opposition to every bill that was proposed. Hence, while some opposition was purely towards the authors, some other opposition were against the content of the bill. Certain parties staunchly opposed the bill while others were divided amongst themselves on the issue.
A good amount of opposition came from within the Activist party. The party itself however has its own military bill. Hence, there was a faction that was supportive of the bill, while the other was opposed to it. As a result of the momentum the opposition seemed to be gaining, the bill was withdrawn.
Instead, the Senate Majority Leader, [nation]Nydaymos[/nation] suggested that the bills be merged into one and be proposed again. Hence, it was recommended for senators like Kazabaltica, and citizens like SEA to collaborate and come up with a military bill together. However, due to the political nature of the region, whether such a collaboration will be fruitful is yet to be seen.
Senators
Another area of interest was within the senate. The Regional Front Party had always been at the heart of controversies. The party was well known for supporting conservative views and fueling controversies in the region as the way to gain supporters. However, recently, two events led to the party’s image being tarnished.
First of all, there were accusations of election rigging. Several party members claimed they were never informed about an elections and hence accused [nation]Grand Rebels[/nation], the leader of the party, of only informing his loyals in order to guarantee his own victory. However, the leader dismissed such claims. This culminated in a court case being filed, however, the case wasn’t taken up by the court as Partys were considered as private bodies.
Another area of conflict was the very nature of leadership. It was eventually felt that the core leadership was using unfair means to retain power and hence should be disposed of. Instead, they should be replaced by a new leadership. Led by the likes of [nation]Saint William the Horrid[/nation], some members of the party led a coup. As it became apparent that the possibility of enforcing a change was low, they seceded to another region.
Amidst all this, another major event took place. The communication minister, [nation]Silver Eagles[/nation] of the RFP resigned amidst accusations and intense debates. Hence, his deputy [nation]Eurosport24[/nation] took over with a new elections imminent.
Hence, a number of seats were left open in the senate which are to be filled by other parties and their members. Apart from these, the functioning was generally conflict less and productive. A Senate Clerk was elected and so forth.
Foreign Affairs
Things have been quiet on the FA front. The ongoing conflict with [region]Union of Confederate Regions[/region] (UCR) took a new turn when they poached a senator of the region. However, since then, no other event has taken place. NWA practiced a policy of completely disconnecting themselves from UCR and hence avoided any contacts with them. Similarly, UCR also did the same.
Apart from that, nothing else has been going on. The region continues to look for new potential allies, and has been looking into ties with Enadia. Meanwhile, a forum is in the works, however, how long it will take is yet to be known.
Mhm. I think I’ve covered everything…! A bunch of stuff happened within the region so I thought it’d be apt to make another report now 
That’s all for today!
See ya!
[hr]
Just an FYI
Emperor - [nation]The United Dark Republic[/nation]
Prime Minister - [nation]Riost[/nation]
Diplomacy Minister - [nation]Saariset[/nation]
Report III
Another eventful month is over. Sorry for the delayed report, was waiting for a couple of things to be over, so that they could be included in the report too. As always, the senate was active, with new legislation and so forth. However, the most important event of the month was the elections for the communication minister.
Elections
Last month, there was a fallout within the Regional Front Party (RFP), the region’s right wing party. This was due to the accusations of election tampering by the party leader, which led to a few of the party members seceding. As mentioned in the previous report, things continued to go south for them, as their communication’s minister, the only member of the RFP to have a seat in the cabinet, resigned, following which the founder, UDR, declared elections would start momentarily. And that was the start of a period of intense campaigning from all the parties as they sought to use this opportunity to improve their standing in the region.
In the elections, the leading contenders were Dukna, from the CON party and O Broki from the Activists. O Broki was the favorite as he had come close in the previous elections, and had lost by one vote. This time around, his victory was much more dominant as he won with over 55 votes. Hence, with this victory, Activists now control the entire cabinet except for the position of the Minister of Immigration, even therein, they are supportive of the incumbent minister, hence they effectively dominate the entire cabinet.
Since then, O Broki has taken a new initiative of regularly telegramming the region, and announcing of newly passed legislation that have far reaching impact and so forth, and hence, keeping the citizens informed about the regional events and so forth.
Legislations
Within the senate, there were robust debates about various key legislation. Among them, some important ones were a legislation clarifying on the role that the government would play in terms of off site resources, hence, defining resources as privately and publicly owned and so forth. Another act was to record the votes of the senators as well in the law registry, to promote greater transparency and to cultivate more informed citizens.
Meanwhile, several legislations were shot down as well. Hence, the senate is active and constantly debating and producing various legislations.
Roleplay
The season 4 of the regional roleplay, titled “from the ashes” commenced on May 1, and generated a lot of excitement in the region.
Season 4 would take place around 650 A.D. in an alternate universe where the Byzantine Empire and pretty much every other empire in existence collapses due to a devastating plague. The ensuing power vacuum gives rise to new nations, and an era of conquest and expansion begins.
Led by the RP Director, Crimson Isles, the roleplay so far has generated much excitement and is turning int a success.
Foreign Affairs
The region actively denounced UCR as the allegations came to the forefront, and expressed support for the cause pushed forward by Siege and his allies. However, the region did not take part in the raid of the region, while a few members did go rogue and took part nonetheless. Hence, with that, the region withdrew once again and began focusing on it’s internal affairs, and consolidating it’s position.
Recently the region also established ties with two regions, Ikuisuus, and Enadia. Ties with Ikuisuus emerged against the backdrop of UCR. The founder of Ikuisuus led a resistance against the leadership by banjecting several citizens, and was welcomed into NWA, and ties were established with his region. Enadia established ties with the region following close interactions that the region had for a while. However, NWA opposed integration into AIR, as the senate had opposed the creation of a regional military time and again.
Apart from these two developments, things have been quiet on this front.
That’s it!
See ya!
[hr]
Just an FYI
Emperor - [nation]The United Dark Republic[/nation]
Prime Minister - [nation]Riost[/nation]
Diplomacy Minister - [nation]Saariset[/nation]
Report IV
The much anticipated elections were right around the corner, and so, this month was mostly around the cabinet and the senate class II senator elections, which generated much excitement in the region, with almost every citizen chiming in on the campaigns and scrutinizing everyone’s platforms. Broadly, it can be divided into two, cabinet and senate elections.
Cabinet
The order of the elections were Communication, Diplomacy, Immigration, Justice, and finally Prime Minister. Hence, naturally, the first week saw intense campaigning by the various candidates who sought to be the next Communication Minister.
O Broki was the incumbent, who had just won the elections a month back and was thrust to the elections platform yet again, hence it was expected that it would be their victory. However, addition of Black Sheep as a last minute candidate complicated matters. Black Sheep was a popular candidate who had previously served as the senate chancellor, and was immensely likeable and had a pretty good following. This added to the increasing anti activist sentiment, which will be explained later on, ultimately led to O Broki’s downfall as Black Sheep emerged victorious.
Following the unpredictable first result, the Diplomacy Minister’s elections kicked off. The incumbent Saariset had been extremely inactive, so he had already announced he won’t be running for a second time. So, his deputy, ie me, contested for the elections with Alaweraz of the LDP party as the main contestant. However, T&P, another last minute addition by CON party, meant this elections was not going to be so simple. After many back and forths and so forth, ultimately, the results were in my favor, if only by a single vote.
Immigration Minister’s elections surprised less. The incumbent Bacon was of the CON party, which in turn generated enough support to ensure that the candidate of the ACT party would not succeed. Nonetheless, the opponents fought till the end, bringing up various issues that arise during Bacon’s previous terms, however, that failed to falter support and ultimately, the elections went his way.
Justice Minister’s elections on the other hand surprised many. The favorite for the elections was the incumbent Hevern. He was also the party chairman of the Activist party, which itself was a testament to his popularity. He had handled the position well, and was expected to continue that in his next term. However, his main opponent, Dukna, was from the CON party, which itself helped him with many votes. Eventually as the elections progressed, the result seemed to go closer and closer, with one gaining the edge for a second, and then the other. However, at the end, Hevern ended up losing to Dukna who swore to fulfill his promises.
At the very end, was the Prime Minister’s elections. Here the results surprised less, however, the extent was not expected at all. It was initially expected to be a face off between Somner, the CON candidate and Nydaymos, the ACT candidate. However, towards the end, Bergonnia, the LDP candidate gained immense support and popularity, which outstripped both the candidates. As a result in the primary elections, Berg came on top, followed by Somner, resulting in a two way elections, which ultimately was in Berg’s favor.
Hence, after an intense and an unpredictable battle, the elections had concluded and the new cabinet set up.
[th]Minister[/th][th]Nation[/th][th]Party[/td]CommunicationThe Pink Fluffy SheepDemocratic BlocDiplomacyZenstrumActivistImmigrationBaconbacon123ConstructivistsJusticeDuknaConstructivistsPrime MinisterBergonniaLiberal Democratic Party
Senate Elections
As the cabinet elections had shown, it was clear that ACT was not going to win by a large margin, as it usually did. Hence, the stage was set for a heated political contest. Also, in the meanwhile, it is worth noting that Democratic Bloc is a new party that emerged from a merger between two smaller parties, and was expected to perform in the elections for the first time. However, do note that DSP, one of the merged party, held one seat in the senate already.
With intense campaigning from all the sides, ultimately, as the elections were soon after the PM elections, which dealt a blow to the ACT party, senate elections were not expected to go their way. Ultimately the result stood as follows.
[th colspan=“3”]Senate Break-up[/th][th]Party[/th][th]Class II Senators[/th][th]Total Seats in the Senate[/td]Activists48Constructivists47Liberal Democratic Party34Democratic Bloc34Regional Front Party12Unity Party 00
Anti Activist Sentiment
A key element of the elections was the crushing defeat that Activist party suffered in the cabinet elections, and the loss of seats in the senate elections as well. This was due to a rise of anti activist sentiment which was fumed by the opposing parties.
Activists were the oldest party of the region and the most popular leftist party, which was immensely popular. This popularity led to the party controlling almost the entire cabinet, have a comfortable majority in the senate, and influential even in the courts. However, this backfired as any small errors were pointed towards the party as a whole. This ultimately led to the fall.
Another key element is the other parties. While CON is essentially the only rightist party, with RFP not as popular, ACT is a leftist party alongside DEM and LDP, each of which are popular in their own right. Hence, while CON can monopolise rightist votes, ACT cannot hope to do the same, which was proven in this elections.
Moreover, recently, ACT’s membership fell below the CON party. This meant that if CON invested all its resources, it could beat ACT in every elections. That was proven in the cabinet elections, wherein CONs consistently voted for their own candidates, or focused on beating ACT, which ultimately they succeeded in.
Hence, against this backdrop, Hevern, the chairman, resigned, and Roist, the previous PM of the region, took over as the chairman and sought to bring back the popularity of the party.
Foreign Affairs
Things have been quiet on this front. As all the attention was towards the elections, little happened in FA. However, now that the elections are over, a forum for diplomacy would be set up momentarily and diplomats reassigned, so hopefully I’ll have more to write about the next time around
So yep! That’s it!
Till next time
[hr]
for reference
Founder/Emperor - [nation]United Dark Republic[/nation]
Prime Minister - [nation]Bergonnia[/nation]
Diplomacy Minister - [nation]Zenstrum[/nation] (me)
Deputy - [nation]Kazabaltica[/nation]