| Coruscant_Journal | Date: Monday, 27 Feb 2012, 8:28 PM | Message # 1 |
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Ja'nar Cerra Re-elected Queen of Garos IV
Ariana, Garos IV — With an unexpectedly strong 'write-in' showing, Ja'nar Cerra, the incumbent Queen of Garos IV, has been re-elected to her position despite not campaigning for re-election and having endorsed another candidate to succeed her. Queen Cerra won by a narrow margin—41% to her opponent's 39%—but this is nonetheless seen as a strong endorsement considering that 17% of the vote went to the candidate she endorsed to succeed her; Abigail D'entremont, Cerra's would-be successor, bowed out in deference to the Queen when the results were announced, while Frash Gibbon, the Queen's opponent, called for a run-off vote.
Mr. Gibbon, an anti-monarchist, campaigned for King of Garos IV promising to abolish the monarchy as his first and only decree. Under Garosian law, no run-off is required if one candidate—and one candidate only—has achieved more than 40% of the vote. Mr. Gibbon is contesting this, claiming that a recount of ballots from the city of Garan would put him over 39% and into the 40% threshold, triggering a run-off.
Election officials in Garan reported no irregularities, and rejected Mr. Gibbon's claim—stating that, if anything, a recount would furnish more votes from Mrs. D'entremont to Queen Cerra, not to Mr. Gibbon. Despite the controversy, leaders of Queen Cerra's anti-monarchist opposition in parliament have accepted the result and issued statements congratulating her on her re-election (and promising to contest the next election even more vigorously).
Garos IV has a combination of an elected and hereditary monarchy, in that, though the monarch is elected, there is a tradition of electing the "next-in-line" to the throne (despite increasing anti-monarchist sentiments on the planet since the rise of the Empire). Queen Cerra's family lineage has been re-elected to the throne for the past 82 years. Abigail D'entremont is a member of the Cerra family.
Garos IV has been described as a world that "hates its monarchy but loves its monarch." While polls show a significant amount of the population favors abolishing the monarchy altogether, the same polls show majority support for Queen Cerra, who is also the Senator of Garos IV and known for her fiery defense of conservative causes in the Imperial Senate—conduct that has, at times, put her at-odds with an Empire that is seen "unfavorably" by a slim majority of Garosians.
The Imperial Party of Garos IV achieved 3% of the vote in the election, though it did not actively contest it, choosing instead to support Mr. Gibbon's anti-monarchist Free People's Party—though the planet's respected Imperial Governor, Tork Winger, declined to endorse Mr. Gibbon or any other candidate.
Ja'nar Cerra's unexpected victory in the election is a stunning reversal of fortune for the Queen, having come under fire in the Imperial Senate for her allegedly "anti-Imperial" views and her choice remarks to pro-Imperial senators, such as Hubert Ordan of Anaxes. "What we ought to do is throw you into a sarlacc pit," she once said of Ordan. While she has been censured for this and similar remarks, they seem to have won her the understanding and support of a considerable number of her people.
Despite a reported "reluctance to return to the Senate," Ja'nar Cerra thanked her supporters in a statement accepting the results of the election, which also selected her for Senator.
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