Grand Unified Micronational election, August 2022

Grand Unified Micronational election, August 2022

29 August - 5 September 2022

Candidate Jonathan I James Frisch Home state Austenasia Serene Beaconite Republic Running mate Newton von Uberquie Karl Friedrich Popular vote 19 6 Percentage 65.5% 20.6%   Candidate Sertor Valentinus Home state West Sayville Running mate Anthony I Popular vote 4 Percentage 13.7%

Chair before election Rory Leonard (acting) Elected Chair Jonathan Augustus

The August 2022 Grand Unified Micronational executive election, running from 29 August 2022 to 5 September 2022, was a special executive election to choose the Chair and Vice Chair of the Grand Unified Micronational, and was the fourth executive election since the adoption of the 2021 Charter of the Grand Unified Micronational. Jonathan Augustus of Austenasia and his running mate, Newton von Uberquie of Uber-Esse, defeated James Frisch of the Serene Beaconite Republic and Sertor Valentinus of West Sayville to be elected Chair.

On 23 August 2022, Acting Chair Rory Leonard, who became chair after the resignation of Anthony Barauskis following the latter's vote of no confidence, announced he did not intend to run for election or re-election as Vice-Chair.

On 2 September 2022, election administrator and Supreme Justice of the Grand Unified Micronational Anthony Clark announced that Jonathan Augustus and Newton von Uberquie's campaign had mathematically won the election. They were inaugurated on 6 September, following the formal announcement of the results.

Background

Vote of no confidence in the Barauskis administration

On August 15, 2022, a vote of no confidence proceeding was brought against Chair Anthony Barauskis. The petition calling for the vote alleged the Chair had misled the Quorum of Delegates, made insufficient progress towards campaign commitments, and presided over a "period of misrule in public office", citing the prior resignation of Varuna Sriraya as Membership Development Secretary and the "lack of meaningful engagement with the organisation by the Regional Secretary".

On August 16, 2022, Barauskis announced his resignation as Chair, and his deputy, Rory Leonard, became Acting Chair.

Procedure

In ordinary circumstances, the Charter of the organisation prescribes that "There are two executive terms per year: the first term is from 1 January to 30 June, and the second term is from 1 July to 31 December. Before each term starts, there must be an executive election.".

However, the resignation of Barauskis as Chair in August created a "casual vacancy" in the Chair's office - a legal situation in which a Chair has left or been removed from office before the natural conclusion of his incumbency. In this situation, the Charter dictates that, because less than half of Barauskis' term had expired by the time of his resignation, "a new chair and vice-chair must be elected as soon as possible to serve the remainder of the term".

Election called

On 19 August 2022, at a special session of the Quorum of Delegates, Horatio Eden, a delegate of the Serene Beaconite Republic, proposed a motion to hold a special executive election between 29 August and 5 September 2022:

Notwithstanding current statutory election law, a special executive election shall take place to choose a new Chair and Vice Chair of the Grand Unified Micronational. Tickets are invited to nominate themselves between now and midnight UTC on the 28th August, 2022, and thereafter delegates may cast their votes in the usual fashion in the period thereafter, lasting from 00:00 UTC on the 29th August through 00:00 UTC 5th September. The election may end early, and the verified winner of the election may take office, before 00:00 UTC 5th September if all eligible delegations have cast their votes.

— Horatio Eden, Delegate of the Serene Beaconite Republic

The motion was adopted the following day.

Candidates

Jonathan Augustus and Newton von Uberquie

On 16 August 2022, Jonathan Augustus of Austenasia announced he would be running for Chair, and on the same day he selected Newton von Uberquie of Uber-Esse as his running mate.

Following his upcoming inauguration, Augustus will have served as Chair of the GUM six times, either in a full or acting capacity.

Policies

GUM summit

The Augustus-Uberquie campaign promised to "organise and host a long overdue GUM summit by the end of our term", citing as evidence for their competence in this regard Augustus' attendance and role in organising both previous organisational summits, one in 2012 and the other in 2019. They proposed London as one option for a candidate host city, on the basis of its being within "travelling distance of several delegates".

GUM Heritage Association Committee (GUMHAC)

The Augustus-Uberquie campaign proposed to create "a new committee for the purpose of classifying and documenting heritage sites and works within the entirety of the membership". They claimed to intend to incorporate the Micronational Heritage Association into the GUM to this end, and to regear it to serve both GUM member states and the wider micronational community.

The job of assessing and validating heritage sites would be done, the manifesto contends, by a series of "rotational assessors", who will serve in post for a period of one month. The manifesto further "proposes that four member states may send a delegate to the committee every month, meaning there will be forty-eight sitting assessors every year"; this would ensure that every member state sits on the committee at least once a year.

Other reforms

The campaign also proposed to:

• Obligate both the office of the Chair and the GUM's Secretariats to "make a statement to Quorum at least once a month" detailing their progress;
• Statutorily require the Chair to publish the agenda of a Quorum session at least ten days in advance, "amending the current rules for a more efficient, legally mandatory timespan";
• Abolish the Regional Secretariat;
• Expand and create new Secretariats as and when necessary.

James Frisch and Karl Friedrich

On 16 August 2022, James Frisch of the Serene Beaconite Republic announced he would be running for Chair, and on 20 August he selected Karl Friedrich of Mercia as his running mate.

Policies

The Frisch-Friedrich campaign was a single issue campaign.

Arguing that "[the GUM] is failing", the Frisch-Friedrich manifesto promised solely to "repeal the current Charter of the Grand Unified Micronational and reinstate the Charter originally enacted in 2015". This would have reversed the change enacted by the implementation of the 2016 Charter and essentially dissolved the organisational structure of the GUM, converting it effectively into a formal meeting place for micronationalists, diplomats and politicians.

The manifesto left open the possibility that, had the 2015 Charter is reimplemented, the process could have been reversed, saying people could use the intervening time to "think about what they want from the GUM, and when the GUM is ready to return, we can bring it back".

Sertor Valentinus and Anthony I

The campaign logo for the Valentinus-Anthony campaign, a rehash of the logo of AMC's Better Call Saul.

On 16 August 2022, Anthony I of Saspearian announced he would be running for Chair.

On 25 August 2022, Sertor Valentinus of West Sayville announced he would be running for Chair. Anthony I stood down his campaign for Chair to join Valentinus as the Vice Chair candidate on the ticket. They campaigned under the slogan "Better vote Valentinus-Anthony", a play on the title of the AMC show Better Call Saul.

Policies

Dealing with the Regional Secretariat

See also: Regional session system and Cupertino Alliance

The Valentinus-Anthony campaign promised to "offer Quorum a final chance for the office [of Regional Secretary] to have a shot at finally allowing delegations all across the planet to have a chance to debate Quorum matters". This is in response to the dissolution of the Asia-Oceania Committee of the Grand Unified Micronational, a scheme whereby Asian and Oceanian micronations could hold their own Quorum sessions due to time-zone issues. The Asia-Oceania Committee is generally considered to be a failure, given its general inactivity and failure to meet.

The campaign proposed to do this by implementing a system similar to the regional session system used in the Cupertino Alliance, of which Valentinus claims to be "the pioneer". The Cupertino Alliance Parliament, the legislative body of the Cupertino Alliance, has three separate meeting groups for Asian, American and European/African delegates.

If this effort is unsuccessful, the campaign said it would "end the regional representation experiment" and move fully to the system that is currently in use, whereby member states may comment on a Quorum issue in advance of the session in order to be excused from attending.

GUM summit and other events

The Valentinus-Anthony campaign promised to continue preparations from the previous administration for a GUM summit, as well as to organise other events, both formal and informal.

Public presence

The Valentinus-Anthony campaign promised to maintain the social media representation of the organisation. They also seek to have the GUM represented at MicroCon 2023.

Quorum time

Valentinus-Anthony proposed to make increased use of the Chair's executive rejection power, a power under which a GUM Chair can reject a membership application if it is "near-certain that the membership will not approve the application", with the aim of "minimis[ing] wasted time". The manifesto also promises to mandate regular reports from both the Chair itself and the various Secretariats of the organisation to "inform delegations of their progress".

Other reforms

The campaign also proposed to:

• Amend no confidence vote procedure, "barring subjects of a successful vote from re-assuming their former position or standing in any election" for three months;
• Extend Quorum voting periods from twenty-four to forty-eight hours;
• Amend the Statutory Code to explicitly condemn bigotry and discrimination, "including but not limited to homophobia, transphobia, racism and ableism".

Invalid candidates

Larry Martin

On 16 August 2022, Larry Martin of Elmwycke announced he would be running for Chair, and on 23 August, he selected himself as his running mate. Election administrator and Supreme Justice Anthony Clark declined to honour the Martin-Martin ticket, and he is not on the ballot.

On 24 August 2022, Horatio Eden submitted a request for an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court, asking whether it was lawful for an executive election ticket to list the same individual as its candidate for both chair and vice chair, in response to the Martin-Martin campaign declaring itself. On 29 August, Clark dismissed the opinion request on the basis that it raised a matter on which the law was already clear:

A ticket cannot list the same individual twice; this is made clear by 6 GUMC 2(4), various provisions of the Charter and Statutes that require the chair and the vice-chair to be different people, years of precedent (both in and out of the GUM), and the golden rule of statutory interpretation.

— Supreme Justice Anthony Clark, Registry of the Supreme Court of the Grand Unified Micronational

Martin did not contest this interpretation before the election was mathematically concluded.

Campaign

Endorsements

On 23 August 2022, the campaign was officially opened, at which point it became lawful for individuals and delegations in the GUM to campaign for office and endorse candidates.

Endorsements for Jonathan I and Newton von Uberquie

• Desert District - 23 August 2022
• Adammia - 23 August 2022
• Burdette - 23 August 2022
• Zenrax - 24 August 2022
• Lytera - 24 August 2022
• New Florence - 24 August 2022
• Wyvern - 25 August 2022
• Snagov - 25 August 2022
• New Virginia - 29 August 2022

Endorsements for James Frisch and Karl Friedrich

• Elmwycke - 23 August 2022
• Serene Beaconite Republic - 24 August 2022

Endorsements for Sertor Valentinus and Anthony I

The Valentinus-Anthony campaign was not endorsed by any delegation.

Results

Supreme Justice Anthony Clark announces that Jonathan Augustus and Newton von Uberquie have won the August 2022 executive election.

Early results

On 2 September 2022, Supreme Justice Anthony Clark, as election administrator, announced that Jonathan Augustus and Newton von Uberquie had won the election mathematically. This was an early announcement; the election formally continued until 00:00 UTC on 5 September. The administrator draws the power to announce the winner before the conclusion of the election from 6 GUMS 3(10) of the GUM Statutes:

If, before the voting period has ended, one ticket is guaranteed to win the election, the election administrator may announce the winner immediately.

— GUM Statutes, Title 6, Chapter 3 (10)

von Uberquie, now the Vice Chair-elect, was the first to respond to his election victory:

I’d like to thank everyone for their support for the Augustus-Uberquie campaign. Now we can get on with our plan to bring this organisation back up to standard. Much hard work will follow this election, as short notice as it was, but I am very thankful and honoured that this organisation has put its trust in us for the task.

— Newton von Uberquie, Vice Chair-elect of the Grand Unified Micronational

Over an hour later, Augustus also commented:

I am humbled and honoured by the trust and support shown for us by the members of this organisation. I will save a formal "victory speech" until the election officially closes, but for now, I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all who have put their trust in the two of us for this task. We look forward to working for you all!

— Jonathan Augustus, Chair-elect of the Grand Unified Micronational

Formal results

Supreme Justice Anthony Clark revealing the results of the August 2022 executive election.

On 6 September 2022, Clark announced the formal results. Percentage values listed for candidates are percentages of valid votes cast; two member states voted twice, and their duplicate votes were not included in the total.

Candidate	Round 1
	Votes	%
Jonathan Augustus	16	65.5
James Frisch	9	20.6
Sertor Valentinus	4	13.7
Votes cast	31
Invalid votes	2
Total votes (excl. invalid)	29

Under the instant-runoff voting system used by the GUM, Augustus-Uberquie's ticket won in the first round, obtaining an absolute majority of first preference votes. The winning candidates took office at 13:42 UTC.

Aftermath

Advisory opinions of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the Grand Unified Micronational issued two advisory opinion announcements connected to the August executive election.

• Case 2022-20, which requested a court opinion on the subject of whether a campaign could list the same candidate for both Chair and Vice Chair, was dismissed by Supreme Justice Anthony Clark on the basis that the law made clear this was not allowed - the court ruled the statutes required the Chair and Vice Chair to be different people.
• Case 2022-21, which requested a court opinion on whether a member state delegation could change its vote in the course of an election period, was dismissed by Acting Supreme Justice Horatio Eden on the basis that the law made clear this was not allowed. The court ruled that a reading of 6 GUMS 3(5) - that "a member may cast one vote in the election" - discounted the possibility that a delegation could then change its vote, as this would mean they were able to vote a second time. Additionally, if a delegation was liable to change its vote at any time, the election administrator would not be able to exercise their power to announce the election results early if there is a guaranteed mathematical winner.