Lord Wilson and Lady Dillon confirmed as general election candidates
Emperor Jonathan I yesterday confirmed two candidates for next month’s general election. Lady Addison Dillon, Representative of Blue Ridge, will be running against Lord William Wilson, Representative of Nahona. Both candidates have recently founded political parties to organise their supporters: Lady Dillon the Alliance Party and Lord Wilson the Arete (Excellence) Party. The Alliance Party describes itself as “syncretic” and “endorses civil rights, equality before the law, Athenian direct democracy, and broad technological and social reform.” Lady Dillon has noted that it “focuses on social issues rather than ideological economic specifics.” Lord Wilson has stated that the aim of the Arete Party “is to bring about the best of cultural, economic, and political life in Austenasia through the application of the 11 moral virtues described in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.” The Arete Party held a party conference earlier today, in which incumbent Prime Minister Lord John Gordon was elected party secretary. Two other Representatives have also joined. The general election will take place on 17 September, and will elect the country’s sixth Prime Minister. The winner of the election will come into office the following day, 18 September, which this year as the third Saturday in September will also be Austenasian Independence Day. The incumbent Prime Minister, Lord John Gordon, has been in office since June last year, but is stepping down as head of government due to increasing demands on his time, as well as the fact that despite enjoying broad popular support he was not directly elected. Lady Addison Dillon became an Austenasian governor in July 2020 upon claiming the then Territory of Blue Ridge. This was expanded into a Town in December with the annexation of her adjoining residence, of which she was elected Representative in February. She currently serves as one of Austenasia’s three delegates to the Grand Unified Micronational. Lord William Wilson joined Austenasia with the creation of the Town of Nahona in January 2020. He currently holds office as Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Herald, and also served as Home Secretary from August 2020 to February 2021.
Two new Austenasian Towns founded
Sunday 20th December saw two new Towns formed in the Empire of Austenasia. Blue Ridge, which was founded in July as an uninhabited Territory, became a Town after it expanded to claim a neighbouring residential property. The second new town is New Flat Rock, a property claimed from North Carolina for Austenasia by its residents and owner. Both new towns have a population of five, and so have boosted Austenasia’s population by ten to one hundred and nineteen, a new record. Lady Addison Dillon, governor of Blue Ridge while it was a territory, has been appointed its Acting Representative now it is a town. The now Lord Hunter Prater, who led the initiative of claiming New Flat Rock for Austenasia, has been made its Acting Representative and granted the title Count of Henderson.
Two new Territories annexed from southern U.S.
An Act of Parliament passed yesterday annexed two new Austenasian Territories after two areas of land were claimed for the Empire by their owners. One, Blue Ridge, is composed of the garden of a residential property whereas the other, Florencium Carolina, is composed of an area of private rural land. Both new territories have been annexed from southern states of the USA, with Blue Ridge from Florida and Florencium Carolina from Texas. The two landowners who claimed the territories have been given noble titles and made governors of their respective claim. Lord Michael Simpson is Governor of Florencium Carolina, and Lord Aydan Dillon is Governor of Blue Ridge.
