6.2 Elections and Referendums
An ELECTION in Aetolia takes place when someone who does not hold a particular position (such as guildmaster or council member) decides that they want to challenge someone currently in that position. Of course, the person being challenged must be in the same guild or city (whichever is relevant) to the person doing the challenging. Note that one has to have played a minimum of 150 hours on the character to be allowed to contest for any political position. The command to challenge another player's position is CONTEST (syntax is listed below). In order to begin an election in a guild or city, only one challenger is needed before it will be open to public vote. A REFERENDUM differs from an election only in that it is not about a particular position of power. It is called by someone in power (be it a God, a guildmaster or guild leader, or a member of the ruling council of a city) who defines what the referendum is about, how long it will last for, and what the choices in the referendum are. It should be noted that the command ELECTION (or ELECTIONS) may be substituted for REFERENDUM (or REFERENDUMS) where applicable. (In other words, in an election, use ELECTION and in a referendum use REFERENDUM). Also note that all times relating to elections are in Aetolian time. Voting in Aetolia is weighted based on average time in the realm over a five week period. Playtime Vote Strength ----------------------------------------- < 5 hours 0 Vote * < 12 hours 1 Vote < 19 hours 2 Votes < 26 hours 3 Votes > 26 hours 4 Votes * You are effectively unable to vote with a 0 vote strength. Vote weights will also factor in the time you've been a member of an organization for. This will subtract from the vote weight you get from play time as follows: < 1 (real) week: -4 to vote weight (effectively 0). 1 - 2 weeks: -3 to vote weight 2 - 3 weeks: -2 to vote weight 3 - 4 weeks: -1 to vote weight 4+ weeks: no effect If this brings your vote weight to 0 or below, you will be unable to vote or contest. After an election, there is now a 2 real-life week 'hard' cooldown on contesting that same position/person. This includes someone keeping their place in that position, or someone taking over that position. In addition to that, once the 2 week cooldown is over, there's a second 4 real-life week 'soft' cooldown. The position can be contested during this time, but should the person being contested remain in the position, a longer 6 week 'hard' cooldown will go in place on them being uncontestable. Both of the above two rules immediately become void if the person in that position goes 1 real-life week without logging in. There is also a cooldown applied to those that contested the position for six real-life weeks, preventing them from initiating another election for the same position in the same organisation. Commands for the voting populace: REFERENDUM LIST (or just REFERENDUMS) - Lists the current referendums or elections that are relevent to you. REFERENDUM <#> [SUMMARY] - See a summary of a particular referendum or election. REFERENDUM <#> CHOICES - See a list of the choices in a particular referendum or election. REFERENDUM <#> VOTE FOR <choice#/choice> - Vote in a referendum or election. - There are requirements that must be met in order to vote: * You must be above level 30. * You must have at least 50 hours playtime. * For guilds, you must be at least guild rank 2. REFERENDUM <#> RESULTS - See the results of a referendum or election. How to contest and begin an election: CONTEST <person|VACANCY> AS <position> OF <city/guild/clan> - Challenge someone for a position of power. For instance: CONTEST HANSEL AS SENATOR OF SPINESREACH - You must have at least 150 hours playtime. - Your vote weight must be greater than zero. - For democratic clans, use the position name HEAD. - For guildmaster, you must be at least guild rank 2 and not an envoy. - Costs 10,000 gold to contest. - Refer to HELP GOVERNMENTS for special exceptions. Commands for those in power: REFERENDUM CREATE FOR PUBLIC/CITY/GUILD/<clan> - Create a referendum. REFERENDUM <#> TITLE - Give a referendum a title. REFERENDUM <#> DESCRIPTION - Give a referendum a description. REFERENDUM <#> ADD <choice> - Add a voting option to a referendum. REFERENDUM <#> REMOVE <choice> - Remove a voting option from a referendum. REFERENDUM <#> OPEN - Open the voting on a referendum. REFERENDUM <#> CLOSE - Close the voting early on a referendum. REFERENDUM <#> CLOSE IN <hours> - Sets the number of hours until the referendum will end. See also: HELP GOVERNMENTS
