Speakership Election, January 2017

The **Speakership Election of January 2017** was triggered after Saracen's Fez resigned as Speaker of the Commons.

## Candidates

In the speakership election, there were seven candidates:

- **hazzer1998** had recently defected from UKIP to the Liberal Party and in pursuit of a challenge, he decided to stand in this election. In his manifesto, he promised to consult the House on moving party updates to the morning, ensure all MP seats are filled, ensure each Crisis Committee representative is active and making crises, create new 'Speaker's Chamber' and 'Speaker Announcement' threads, and consult the House on electing a 2nd Deputy Speaker. His slogan was 'the logical choice for Speaker.'

- **adam9317** had been elected as the new Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party just a matter of weeks before the election. In addition to claiming that he was an active member, a past party leader, politically neutral and committed, he vowed to regularly update voting records, release regular and on-time updates, maintain a good relationship with the Community Team, work with the Crisis Committee on detailed and realistic crises, and foster good quality debates. His slogan was 'Adam9317 for a strong, confident speaker to lead our house!'

- **PetrosAC**, the then-Leader of the Liberal Party, was a surprise candidate for the election as he opted not to publicly reveal his intention to stand in advance. In his manifesto, he declared that he was experienced, transparent, active, calm and collected. He vowed to introduce a rolling voting review, push the Crisis Committee to produce some thought-provoking crises, improve the General Election process, and support off-stie activities whilst ensuring that the majority of activity remains on TSR. His slogan was 'vote experienced, vote sensible, vote smart, vote PetrosAC.'

- **Aph**, who resided in the Socialist Party at this point, was a semi-joke candidate. He stated that he would 'issue a death blow to all failing TSR institutions and parties', 'spy openly on all party subforums' and 'overhaul the definitions and interpretations found in the GD.' His slogan was 'vote for me to make the MHoC great again!'

- **DanE1998**, who had been absent from the MHoC for several months, believed he could transfer the skills he had gained as Chair of the Labour Party to the role of Speaker. In his manifesto, he promised that duties would be carried out on time with updates sent no later than 9pm, supportive nuturing leadership while ensuring rule breaches are dealt with, helping new members and creating an open culture to ensure development. His slogan was '#DanweCan.'

- **Jacob E** was standing for the fourth time in a speakership election. He underlined his high activity levels as well as remarking that he was an excellent debater and organised. His slogan was 'arrogance, dedication and knowledge.'

- **cBay** had announced his retirement from the House a few weeks previously but had returned to stand in this election. Despite firmly denying he was a joke candidate, his manifesto appeared to suggest otherwise. In it, he shared his vision of creating a 'Revolutionary Communist Party'. He described how 21 MPs would form the Central Committee of the party, membership of the party would be open to all members of the Socialist Party and Labour Party and Parliament would be abolished. His slogan was 'vote cBay for revolutions and orgies.'

## Speakership Election Process

ByronicHero objected when Aph revealed that he would 'kill the Greens, UKIP and the CC' as he believed that the new Speaker should do their best to help them instead of condemning them to closure. Jacob E also suggested that Aph was indirectly suggesting that he would not be a neutral Speaker.

Jacob's suitability for Speaker was put into question when a few members pointed out that he had only recently leaked private content from the Crisis Committee subforum. Jacob defended this by stating that the CC Constitution did not completely forbid leaking. However, TeeEff pointed out that the MHoC Guidelines explicitly say that 'content that is meant to be private should not be leaked from these forums as this is a breach of privacy.'

As he did for the 24th General Election, Quamquam123 created a poem to mark the event in which he parodied the candidates.

### **1st Round of Voting**

The 1st round of voting ran from 13 - 17 January. The results were as follows:

A few members, including SakuraCayla and meenu89 commented that is was not the outcome they had expected, possibly due to Nigel Farage MEP's low number of votes.

### **2nd Round of Voting**

The 2nd round of voting ran from 17 - 20 January. The results were as follows:

 PetrosAC | 20

Despite gaining 8 fewer votes than PetrosAC in the 1st round of voting, adam9317 won the crucial 2nd round to become the 19th Speaker of the Commons. adam9317 made a statement in which he offered his commiserations to PetrosAC, thanked Saracen's Fez for his service to the House, and promised to ensure that the 'fun remains' in the MHoC.

## External Links

* January 2017 Speakership Election Notification Thread
* January 2017 Speakership Election Debating Thread
* Quamquam123's Poem
* January 2017 Speakership Election 1st Round Voting Thread
* January 2017 Speakership Election 2nd Round Voting Thread