Major news in the Back Reach today, as final results are in. After a series of local audits to confirm, it’s now official that a new populist, grassroots, party in the Back Reach, The Roilers, have swept a number of major elections.
Most notably, the de-facto capital system of the Back Reach, Feena, has seen the Governorship of the planet, as well as 40 percent of the local legislature (the largest proportion of the coalition-style parliament on the planet) flip to their control. Every major system on the Ardan Cross Hyperlane including Chenowei, Pygorix, Kalishik, Arda, and B’trilla have seen major gains for the nationalist party.
Newly elected governor of Feena, Vahn Goreing, a former ace pilot who served under the Wyld Empire*, had this to say at his inaugural speech:
Today marks the beginning of a new Era for our sector. I was born here on Feena. I have seen the Republic continue to forget about our brother and sister systems on the other side of The Roil. We’ve seen our Reachmen and Reachwomen fall into living in squalor. We’ve seen dysfunction in the Republic cause homeless rates to skyrocket while they fully fund expensive foreign conflicts to interfere with the destinies of those systems who choose not to bow to their rule.
The Republic claims to be a “Democracy for all Sentients”, but time and again they quibble and bicker about what Coruscanti Oligarchs they will send their next trillion-credit budget bill to. All the while, systems continue to deal with disasters, equipment failures, and random acts of terror that go unanswered! We say no more!
To all of our siblings who live cowed under the yolk of oppression under the guise of a government ‘for the people’, we implore you: take your own destiny into your hands! Support Ralskun Direeb in your upcoming election for the Senate, and he will lead you to independence, to join those of us who have given ourselves the tools and weapons to forge our own destiny. We will reclaim the glory of the Reach’s two bygone empires. Come with us as we forge the “Third Great State” of the Reach!
Senatorial Incumbent Senator Kielbras Pol’cal gave this rebuttal later that day from the sector capital of Torque,
People of the Reach. I implore you, do not allow yourselves to be swayed by this ultranationalist propaganda. The Roilers, who are only just now a legitimate political organization, were only to achieve such a status by bullying, intimidating, and using strong-man politics on the worlds who are across the Nebula. The majority of our brothers and sisters in their independent systems do not support them! They have been silenced through coercion and suppression!
You, now, have the choice to vote to continue to uphold the values that our ancestors bequeathed to us. To continue the legacy of Rebellion versus tyrants like people of the reach did centuries ago, to continue holding close the values of Skywalker and the reforged Jedi Order in this very sector! That Order who, to this day, continue to be the example we can follow. You, in this election, have the choice to maintain our course for a people’s government, governed by good judgment, reflection, and the rule of law… Listen not to those who want to take us so many steps back into oppression, xenophobia, and totalitarianism!
The race is heated, as polls show that both candidates Kielbras Pol’cal and Ralskun Direeb are neck-and-neck along species lines. Ralskun Direeb is far, far ahead in the polls of majority human populations on the agriworlds and factory-districts of Reach planets, while Senator Pol’cal is leading by a wide margin in mixed-species urban city-centers on trade planets such as Torque.
All eyes in the sector are on the polling booths which will open at 08:00 Torque time on 435.25. Given the rising wave of violence in systems on both sides of The Roil, the Jedi Order has volunteered its members as a neutral third party to oversee the elections and maintain a security presence, drawing ire from Roiler politicians. Senator Ralskun Direeb,
It is clear that, while ostensibly the Jedi Order is not in bed with the Republic, they have never made it a secret that they hold a deep sympathy and bias towards the Republic. Many of the Order’s own leadership team were soldiers in the Republic army, or commanded Republic soldiers in conflicts as recent as the Wyld Crisis! Anyone who truly believes that these ‘security details’ from the Order are anything more than goons who will intimidate the body politique of the Gordian Reach into maintaining the status quo are at best willfully ignorant or at worst in league with the cabal of oligarchs that play behind the scenes both in the halls of both Coruscant and Ossus.
Know this: Anything that happens on election day is certainly orchestrated by the entrenched powers whose self interest relies on the current galactic order of exploiting those who cannot rise to speak for themselves.
The Galactic News Network will be providing live coverage and updates on the turbulent senatorial election in the Gordian Reach on 435.25, so please tune in then.
* It should be noted that, along with all other military participants of the Wyld Conflict, those not directly associated with War Crimes were given full pardons at the end of the war so long as they agree to not participate in any hostilities towards the Republic, League of Sovereign Systems, or any of their allies.
