Kalistani Major History

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Socialists replace KDP in Government
Dismal Turnout in August General Elections point to work still to be done
Kaliburg, Ananto
August 12, 4879


The Face of the Unanticipated Leader, Speaker Marguerite Beloit

Marguerite Beloit always believed that she would have the opportunity to serve in the National Assembly as the leader of one of Terra's oldest and most storied Parties, the Socialist Party of Kalistan when she and student activists from all over the Republic reformed the Party two years ago. She had no idea that her time would come so soon, nor that when it did, she would be thrust into the single most powerful and influential position in all of Kalistan, thereby becoming one of the most powerful women in Terra. But that is precisely what happened last Tuesday as the Socialist Party was given an electoral mandate to reform the Government.

In the second General Election in 18 Months, voters overwhelmingly filled the seats in the National Assembly, recently reconvened in Kaliburg, with Deputies from the Socialist Party of Kalistan. The first act of the new Socialist dominated National Assembly was to name a government, with Comrade Marguerite Beloit nominated for Head of Government. She will not become Premier of the Republic for another 9 months, until the constitutional changes occur which will re-create the office. In the meantime, Beloit will be invested with all power necessary to perform caretaker functions, such as restoring the Constitution of the Republic, to include the readoption of the Presidential Prerogative, an ancient tradition which was sacrificed in Kalistan centuries ago and has not been observed recently.

In her extremely short acceptance speech before the new National Assembly, Speaker Beloit said "I humbly accept your nomination to this position. I had no idea that this would happen as quickly as it has, but I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. The Socialist Party's agenda is clear, and the people expect us to carry it out." After these brief comments, the new leader of the Government of Kalistan descended the rostrum and returned to her office, leaving her deputy and incoming Foreign Minister Sharice Mosswell to conduct the proforma business of the afternoon.

What people the soon to be Premier of the Republic was referring to, though is not clear. Snap elections caught many people across the Republic off guard, and turnout was an incredibly low 15.5 percent of the total electorate- A shockingly low number however one spins it. "What can I say," said whip and Party campaign chair Val Armstrong. "There is no real alternative on the ballot, given the liquidation of the KDP electoral ticket. The urgency to get out and fight to ensure that socialists win the election is not there when the election is uncontested, for the most part." Some races were won by a mere handful of voters, and in some cases the vote was close.

"Saira has done pretty good considering the fact that they have never voted or spoke in the rump Assembly of the old Administration," said Armstrong. "They did surprisingly well and almost took two deputies seats in Ananto and one in Vrassa." The low turnout points to the need for the Socialist Party to get busy immediately on a progressive agenda for the people. "Our main strength came from the activist segment of the society," said Armstrong. "These are the people who want to see change, these are the people who want the Socialist Party to undo a lot of the damage of the previous administrations and begin moving forward to a better future for all."

The Party wasted no time doing just that. In a comprehensive Omnibus, the Socialist Party proposed seven constitutional changes, three statutory changes dealing with citizenship, and withdrawal from 13 treaties which violate Kalistani traditions, primarily dealing with collective security, international law and national policy. "The previous government tied us to a treaty that rated movies?" said Armstrong in disbelief. "That, comrade is not Kalistan. Nor is it necessary to require us to adhere to an international censorship effort."

One treaty that the Republic will be withdrawing from is the Declaration of Human Rights. This treaty is an extensive treaty declaring a host of things to be "human rights," and Kalistan traditionally supports practically every plank of the declaration, as does the Socialist Party. But Armstrong's extensive argument for withdrawal deserves to be quoted in full:

"We are leaving the Human Right's treaty because, as the Speaker said when opposing the adoption, this treaty holds private property as inviolable. Not only do we not support the notion of the inviolability of private property as the Socialist Party, we also note that these provisions conflict with other treaty commitments we support, such as the one on slavery which obligates us to confiscate slaves from slave ships. No person reading those two treaties together would have a problem with them: Private Property is inviolable, and slaves can be confiscated. But the key to chattel slavery and just one of its many wicked features is that it involves owning another human as property. If they are not your property, requiring them to be confiscated by force if necessary, then they are not chattel slaves, and if they are not chattel, they cannot be seized. So either one [treaty] must be in force or the other one, but both cannot be at the same time. We choose to reserve our right as a nation to Nationalize property which is being used contrary to the interests of the Republic, as well as the right to confiscate human property which is being held contrary to the interests of humanity. The Declaration of Human rights will be fine without us, and we have other treaties that do not take such an uncompromising stand for private property, which we know liberals care about more than all other rights anyway."

Besides these major changes, the Republican Government has set for itself an ambitious agenda. Not only does it need to reverse decades of neglect and malice on the part of liberal and right-wing administrations, it also needs to restart other important institutions like the Kalistani Republic newspaper and the KRTVN, recharter the National Bank, reopen the National Stock Exchange, look into the status of the (former) national industries, establish peaceful and regular relationships with our neighbors, and pass a slew of socialist legislative proposals. Only then will the Party be able to stand for an election with a solid record of actually working for the people.

The New Speaker, inadvertently and perhaps prematurely thrust into the National Spotlight by the cataclysmic demise of the KDP, has a ton of work ahead of her. Her inexperience with government will certainly not work in her favor.