The Popular Times:

[Lumine]

First of all, I strongly appreciate the editorial and am strongly in favor of people commenting on the process, making suggestions/proposals, and so on, public response really helps improve the whole thing even if there's only so many things I can implement (there are changes to be made to "Version 1.0" that are being considered, but being truthful I'm kind of at my limit in terms of detail and time I can invest).

On a more personal note, and as I said on the original proposal thread, I do disagree with turning the process over to regional parties. It would certainly add a different dynamic if more regional parties stood on its own or, alternatively, campaigned whilst being part of an alliance (only a couple of regional parties aligned with a national did this in August), but ultimately regional parties are unsustainable as an exclusive model for simulated elections.

I know there's historical precedents in a way - if memory serves right, Canada has different provincial and national parties -, but: A. regional parties only involve a small minority registered in them; B. it's much easier to determine state and regional trends by using the national parties, which tend to last much longer; C. the process itself is far more inclusive as it's theoretically open to almost all players (with the notable and regrettable exception of independents, which thankfully hasn't been a problem thus far).

There is a counter-argument in that making this system exclusively for regional parties you could boost their membership as people who want to contest would presumably register for those, but I think the system would lose important dynamics, including a significant part of the process for calculating results. More importantly, I think the presence of national parties on the process has raised the stakes (so to speak), to the point in which the apparent emotional investment comes as a - welcome - surprise.

That, of course, is not to say regional parties should be invisible, but a part of their less prominent role in August is arguably related to the lack of campaigning within those parties. I'd like to think Poirot and the Liberals - to give an example - have proved that you don't really need to have 100 people in a party to do well in an NPC contest.

Always happy to hear proposals to see how regional parties can be more involved in the process though, but I can rule out this specific concept for the time being. And, of course, thanks for the feedback!