First Presidential Election

This minor arc directly branches off from the Duckpondronpa arc. Due to the lack of leadership in the Duckpond at the time, the prospect of electing a new leader was brought up. This time, the manner of choosing a leader was much different from past shifts of power. In the past, the Duckpond was either ruled by an Oligarchy or a King. For this new leader, a democratic election was proposed to be held between candidates to elect a president. During this time, the talk of the U.S. election was reaching it's peak, which is most likely the reasoning behind this shift in ideology. 
For a comprehensive list of Duckpond Presidential Elections, see Duckpond Elections. 
== First Mention of an Election ==
On October 14th, Feelix posted a video on his YouTube channel. The video was of Barrack Obama declaring his support for Feelix to become president of the Duckpond. Although Feelix was the only proposed candidate at this time, talks of an election began. Lm1xb stated that Bingus was running against Feelix, mostly as a joke because he was entirely unopposed. The next day, Bepno created a poll for the members to vote on who would be a good choice for president. Most of the candidates listed were variations of Feelix's name along with Goombario listed as a third party. 
Surprisingly, Goombario lead in the polls for a short time and, by the conclusion of the poll, his votes were equal to Feelix's. This prompted Goombario to release his own video declaring his intent to run for president as well. After Goombario's announcement, Lm1xb stated his desire for a debate between the candidates because he was an undecided voter. With talks of a possible debate, Bepno questioned how Bingus would participate. However, Lm1xb stated that Bingus had told him was dropping out of the race and was instead going to be running with Feelix as his Vice President choice. In response to this announcement, the Duckpondians began to ask for Goombario to announce his running mate as well. He would later decide on Nathaniel. 
=== Rif's Position in the Duckpond ===
During these talks of the election, the issue of Rif was brought up. At this time, Rif was still the supreme leader, and the election had been proposed entirely without Rif's permission. Rif had been less active than normal, so his influence was not as apparent. Rif was mainly seen as a figurehead while The Stardew Crusaders truly held the power. 
When the election was brought to Rif's attention, he stated that he election could be held while he would remain as the deep state, although this was most likely his way of stepping down from his leadership position. The election began to be referred to as a Democratic Revolution. 
=== Goombario's Controversies ===
After Goombario's announcement of Nathaniel as his running mate, the Duckpondians discussed the running mates for a short time until Feelix claimed that Nathaniel was actually Goombario's son. Many began to speak out against Goombario because of this accusation, claiming he only chose Nathaniel because of nepotism. A DNA test was released shortly after to disprove any relation between the two. However, the veracity of this test was brought into question, as the test had been performed a few days prior before any claims of nepotism were brought up. 
Talks of nepotism died off as Feelix accused Goombario of not being born in America. However, this was quickly discredited, as nowhere in the Duckpond rules did it state that the candidates running needed to be born in America. Feelix apologized shortly after. 
===Fluffy Duffy's Short Lived Campaign ===
Shortly after joining the Duckpond in October 2020, Fluffy Duffy announced his candidacy. He stated his platform was that of spite; He vowed to increase the number of rules, abolish our rights, and would turn the Duckpond into his own fiefdom. His first action if elected would be to ban Feelix. He created a poll to see if members supported his idea to ban Feelix. It received overwhelming support. When Feelix stated he would support him, Fluffy Duffy decided to drop out of the race.
== The Debates ==
Many people joined for the debate on the 15th of October. Gene and Gray were chosen as the moderators. During the debate, no one except the candidates and the moderators were allowed to speak. The debate was mostly civil however, and, near the end, Gene requested for the candidates to roast the other one to the best of their abilities. Neither of the candidates did so, prompting Gene to join the presidential race as a third party. Gene's sudden involvement was shocking and very questionable, as many people assumed this would split the Feelix's electorate. Gene would later choose Bernadetta as his running mate. 
Mr. Z was present for the debate. After it had concluded, Bepno began to call out Mr. Z and challenge his power. In response, Mr. Z "deleted" the Duckpond. He made it so no one was able to view any channels whatsoever. The Duckpondians sought refuge in the Duckpond 3, and the election was put on hold. 
Either due to the delay or his increasingly busy schedule, Feelix announced on October 31st that he would be dropping out of the race. With Feelix's announcement, the prospect of Gene's win became more plausible, as Feelix's electorate was predicted to support Gene. 
A second debate was held on January 16th, 2021. This time it was between Goombario and Gene instead of Feelix, as he had dropped out. Zigzem was the moderator for this debate. He posed more questions for the candidates and held a short Duckpond trivia game afterwards which Goombario won. Another approval poll was created after the debate as well. 
== Political Parties ==
Three political parties arose surrounding the candidates. Feelix supporters were Feelixcans, Goombario supporters were the Goombicrats, and Gene supporters were part of the Gene Party. Each party had an anti-Mr. Z platform. One of the important debates that was held was which candidate would be the best to oppose Mr. Z. 
=== Feelixcan Platform ===
Feelix's main ideology was that of converting the Duckpond to Nekotopia permanently. The entire server would be changed to be themed after cat girls. He wanted to downsize on gif spam in chats and make the quality of memes in the Duckpond better. 
=== Goombicrat Platform ===
Goombario's ideology was that of maintaining the status quo while maintaining member activity and involvement in the Duckpond. 
=== The Gene Party ===
Gene's ideology was that of cleansing. He wanted to clean up the Duckpond, get rid of useless channels, delete unnecessary rules and roles, and generally mediate the amount of shit posts on the server. 
== Election Delay ==
Originally, the election was planned to be held on November 3rd to coincide with the U.S, Election. All of the Duckpondians assumed the threat of Mr. Z would be taken care of by the end of October. However, since Duckpondronpa came to an unexpected halt and the threat of Mr. Z was never satisfactorily resolved, the election was put on hold as well. Everyone assumed Mr. Z would make another appearance. However, nearly 3 months passed with no movement from Mr. Z, so the election was rescheduled for January 20th, 2021, the inauguration day for the U.S. president. 
On January 11th, tensions reached their highest point of the election when the Duckpond was the closest it'd ever been to descending into another civil war. The Quackcave Butter Crisis began as a simple disagreement but erupted into a large scale argument that pushed many Duckpondians to the brink of war. 
== The Election ==
The election poll opened on the morning of January 20th. The votes were extremely close throughout the entire day, with each candidate pulling ahead for a few hours before returning to a tie. In the result of a tie, the candidates agreed they would play a game of YuGiOh, and whoever won would be president. Luckily, this was not needed. Nearing the end of the day, the poll was still tied 9 to 9. However, Porky realized he had not actually submitted his vote. Porky's vote allowed Gene to pull ahead. 
At 12:05 AM January 21st, 2021, Gene was declared the first President of the Duckpond.