North Dovani

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Chinasa: The Federal Security Service has announced that it has launched a investigation into Kaechon Governor Ryu Chuwon following nearly a year of allegations and investigations by media and oppossition figures in the region that the governor is involved in Corruption and Nepotism. The allegations primarily focus on the nepotism, with the Governor reportedly placing several family members into a high paying government jobs. The corruption allegations focus around the Governor his alledged attempts to hinder his oppossition and frustrate the electoral process, as well as taking a estimated 20 million from regional state coffers. After months of simply back and forths between the governor and his opponents it now seems official state institutions are also seeing enough evidence to launch a formal investigation. The FSS stated in its press release that:

Our prelimenary findings indicate that their is probable cause for public corruption and nepotism to have occured surrounding the office of the Governor. As it is our task to further investigate such leads, we have installed a formal investigation into the office of Governor Chuwon and will be making no further comments until the investigation has been completed.

Governor Chuwon has not responded to the announcement yet, with one of his press aides stating that the Governor will fully cooperate with authorities as he has "nothing to hide". While corruption is a big problem in North Dovani this marks the first time a high ranking official is being investigated formally. Often, the FSS cannot investigate as witnesses refuse to testify or evidence is destroyed. Another problem is corruption in the FSS itself, with many politicians buying their way into the agency to prevent persecution of alledged corruption. This seems not to have worked for Governor Chuwon as he could face a removal from office and years in prison if found to be guilty. If the investigation concludes with probable cause for persecution, the FSS will likely take the Governor to court to force his removal from office and hand him a proper sentence. Its unclear how long the investigation will take.

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Chinasa: The Chinasa Investment Bank, better known by its acronym CIB, has announced that it will ease restrictions on opening private bank accounts as well as lower interest rates following a similar move by the Central Bank. The CIB is one of the largest private banks in the country and has had the largest share of private bank accounts on the market for years. This newest announcement follows recent deregulatory measures by the Central Bank and the Ministry of the Treasury which was supposed to allow private banks and other financial institutions to issue accounts and provide loans more easily then was previously possible. The CIB is the first bank to make use of these new rules by slashing its own regulations and allowing citizens to open a bank account fully online for the first time. It will also allow for deposits of more then 1 million which had previously been dissalowed. The regulations were previously put in place as the North Dovanian banking system was notorious for attracting criminal funds, with these checks meant to prevent criminal activity in the finance sector. The Central Bank deemed the threat of a repeat situation low, with the Ministry of the Treasury following suit by cutting regulatory requirements. Governor of the Central Bank Umar Idris did however indicate that the measures did not mean banks had no responsibility to prevent financial crime however, noting that the Central Bank still expects all financial institutions to keep "basic mechanisms in place" to prevent financial crime from occuring.

The CIB also subsequently announced a lowering of its interest rates following similar measures by the Central Bank, which lowered its interest rate from 6.2% to 5.5% last week. The CIB its new interest rate now sits at 3.5%, down from the previous 4%, meaning customers get 0.5% less return on their savings. The CIB states that it seeks to lower interest rates "in tandum" with the Central Bank to ensure economic activity is stimulated when necessary and the financial market knows what to expect when the Central Bank makes a move. Other banks are also expected to announce measures soon, the CIB will fully implement its new rules and interest rate next week.

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Chinasa: Under his democratization platform Prime Minister Amazu has succesfully passed constitutional ammendments which move North Dovani into presidentialism, making a few concessions along the way. The proposals were part of the PM his plan to strengthen democratic institutions and lower the chance for electoral fraud. His party has been a advocate for presidentialism, believing it to be more democratic then the current form of government. The ammendments initially seeked to have the president elected by popular vote, with the senate also to be elected by popular vote. Regional and Island Territory governments, including the two republics, rejected the idea of passing both measures, fearing a loss of power for their own government if the electoral process would be completely detached from them. Through this pressure, the PM was forced to introduce a electoral collega system for electing the President, with every administrative division excluding the capital gaining a X number of electoral votes, with the candidate winning most electoral votes winning. The candidate winning a majority of votes in a division would gain all its electoral votes. The electoral process has also been decentralized in this reform, with local entities now responsible for administering the federal elections. The Senate will become popularly elected, with each administrative division minus the Island Territories and capital to elect 2 senators each. The term of the Chamber of Deputies will be lowered from the current 5 to 2 years while the same will count for the entire senate meant to serve as a check on presidential popularity as the presidential term is lowered to 4 years. All powers of the PM will be transfered into the presidential office, which will also retain the powers of the current president with the only exception that under these ammendments a president may no longer dissolve the lower house.

Due to these changes the constitution stipulates that new elections are to be held within a month, meaning that the election campaign for all these new offices is in full swing. Suprisingly however, caretaking PM Amazu is not doing well in polls, being beaten by a new party named the "Democrats" which run on a centrist platform meant to appeal to a wide variety of voters. Whether the desire for PM Amazu to make the country more representative will cause his departure remains to be seen.

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Chinasa: Chidey Onyekachukwu has been elected the first President of the Federation under the new constitutional ammendments which have moved North Dovani into a presidential system. Onyekachukwu, leader of the "Democrats", won 42% of the vote and sweeped areas previously won by the Social Democrats. She also outperformed in regions that are Liberal oriented, showing her wide appeal across the electorate. Her Democrats won a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, a total of 153 and thus just chy of a majority. In the new popularly elected senate the Liberals came out on top, winning 25 seats and thus a majority in the upper chamber. The Social Democrats under former PM Orjee Amazu won just 22% of the vote in the presidential election and 28 electoral votes, performing badly across its traditional workers electorate. The party did manage to retain a steady number of seats, 43 in total, but still loses its majority of previously 180 seats. Following the result Amazu conceded and resigned as party leader, noting that the Social Democrats "are not gone, but we have been severaly weakened which is something we cannot deny." The Liberals celebrated the result. Despite not winning the presidency the party remained the second largest in the Chamber and even became the majority party in the Senate, allowing the party to severely hinder the new Democratic government. Due to the fact that the Democrats hold neither a majority in the chamber not in the senate newly elected President Onyekachukwu has reached out to the Social Democrats in writing a governing agreement, trying to make sure she has at least the support of the Chamber of Deputies for her proposed agenda of "national renewal".

The work to form a government now begins as Onyekachukwu has yet to announce her cabinet, which will likely consist of at least 1 Social Democrat as a way to seal the proposed agreement. She will also have to appoint countless of bureaucrats in the different federal ministries, transforming the federal bureaucracy over the coming months. She is expected to formally enter office 2 months from now.


The Presidential election result, with Onyekachukwu winning 259 electoral votes


The Chamber of Deputies, with the Democrats winning a plurality


The Senate election, won by the Liberal Party

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Chinasa: The Onyekachukwu Administration and specifically Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Faruq Ahmedu has announced the Federal Energy Strategy or FES. The strategy, a mix if legislative proposals, subsidies, direct investments and policy decisions, lays out the vision for the energy supply in North Dovani for the foreseaable future. The FES was revealed by the Ministry earlier this week and is to be instrumental in all energy related policy decisions in the coming decade. The primary objective of the FES is to slowly step away from "non infinite" sources of energy, which includes Oil, Coal, Natural Gas and more. While currently North Dovani still has extensive oil and gas reserves, those reserves are not infinite and with that in mind should not be relied upon to provide energy to the country. Currently 90% of North Dovanian energy is provided by oil and natural gas, with 9% from coal and 1% from hydroelectric power generation (dams). North Dovani has not ventures into other renewable sources at all, largely due to the fact that the government does not have the resources to commit to such a project and the country itself is very decentralized, with many lower governments with different objectives. Now, with the FES, the federal government will play a active role not only in power generation but also in its distribution and the infrastructure needed for it. The main source of power generation described in the FES is nuclear power, with the Onyekachukwu Administration to contact other nations in trying to gain the necessary partnerships and expertise to build the country its first nuclear power plant. The plant will likely be constructed in the east, relatively close to the major population centers. But the costs are still a problem, with the federal government hoping to work together with local governments in coughing up the financial requirements to build a nuclear plant.

This proposed plant would be a pilot, used to see whether this form of energy could be a good bet for the future of North Dovani its energy supply. The strategy also descibes plans and investments to improve energy infrastructure, as nearly half of the country is either not covered by the energy network or is poorly covered and large urban centers like Chinasa regularly experience power outages. A legislative initiative has already been tabled that would create three "energy sectors", West, Middle and East, which would have their own infrastructure network and channels of distribution and maintenance to allow for more efficiency. The current state owned "Dovani Electric" would also be broken up in this new initiative in favor of three new electricity providors. These would still be federally owned, but thus operate independently from one another. All in all the Federal Energy Strategy is set to transform the energy sector in North Dovani and potentially set it on course for a more reliable and diverse system of energy generation and distribution.

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Chinasa: Representatives of the Ministry of Defense, Northern Sea Systems and Trigunia have reached a cooperation agreement that would see Northern Sea Systems develop a North Dovanian modernized version of a old Trigunian frigate design. Trigunia and its defense industry will provide the initial design and any additional engineering expertise for the ship while Northern Sea Systems will implement that advice into a finalized design and will also lead the procurement proces. The Ministry of Defense will further prepare the Jinppo shipyards for when construction of the ship has to commence. The Jinppo shipyards are one of the largest commercial shipyard facilities in Northern Dovani but have decayed in recent years due to a lack of investment and dwindling importance of the shipbuilding industry for the city. The Ministry of Defense will repurpose parts of the old shipyards for military construction, with the goal of being able to construct two ships of the new to be determined frigate class at once. Northern Sea Systems hopes to have a final design ready for government approval within the next 5 years. The Ministry of Defense has already indicated it seeks to order at least 5 of these new frigates once the design has been approved, which would make the total number of frigates in Navy service 5. This would be the first partly indigenous naval design for North Dovani, with President Onyekachukwu thanking her "Trigunian partners" for their aid in making this possible. The North Dovanian Navy has long been underfunded and does not have the required ships to perform its duties. While the focus for defense policy does not lay with the navy rumors suggest that President Onyekachukwu herself pushed for the move to develop new frigates to ensure that the navy can "at least perform its basic function of protecting our precious coastline." Experts are unsure if the aquirement of 4 new frigates will solve the capacity issues of the navy, as North Dovani has one of the largest coastlines on the continent which needs significant resources to be protected.

Once procurement commences the Ministry of Defense will delegate management of the naval shipyards to the state owned "Jinppo Wards" which will be in charge of constructing the NSS designed ships.

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Chinasa: Hyon Automotive, the automotive company of millionaire Ki Hyon-U, has revealed its latest model the Sapata 5369 with which the company seeks to break through towards primarily families of middle income. The car was designed over the course of the last 10 years, building off the relatively mild succes of the previous cars of the company. Reportedly, Hyon-U has spend nearly his entire fortune on R&D for the new Sapata, hoping that the car will be a financial succes. After all those years of development the Sapata 5369 was revealed during a car expo in Chinasa, with Hyon Automotive promoting the car as the next model for families with its relative luxury and its mid-sized comfort. The price is also relatively cheap, aimed at making it attractive for middle income families. CEO Hyon-U in an interview expressed his hopes for the car its succes, noting that the company has done everything it could to develop and produce a "decent family car that could take families of all sizes on their journey for years to come."

The Sapata 5369 is set to enter mass production this year, with pre-orders put on halt due to the high demand of the car, potentially being a sign that the dream of Hyon-U may come true.

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Bakinteku: Near the Keobi city of Bakinteku the site for the first nuclear reactor of the country has been finalized. The site, around 30 kilometers from the actual city, is located in a agricultural area on federal land, perfect for the construction of the first reactor in the country. Furthermore work is soon to begin as the Onyekachukwu Administration has struck a deal with the Kalistani government and the energy company KalEnCon which will ensure that KalEnCon will provide its expertise on fission reactors. But besides granting North Dovanian engineers the theory and expertise to build the reactor KalEnCon will also provide on the ground advisors and engineers that will actively aid in the construction of this first nuclear plant. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources meanwhile has freed up funds to prepare the construction site as well as having freed up resources to construct the infrastructure necessary to transport the energy from the reactor onto the electricity system. The new Kanchun Energy (West), Beongaesbul (centre) and Northern Lights (east) created through the breakup of Dovani Electric will also play a pivotal role in the distribution of the to be generated power. Primarily, the new reactor will provide energy to Northern Lights its network, with a small percentage to reach Beongaesbul its central network. The federal government has made sure to provide federal funding to all three electricity providors and have kept a majority of stock in all. While officially the companies are thus private, the state owns a majority of shares to keep the reigns. KalEnCon advisors and engineers have already been reported on the ground as their North Dovanian counterparts prepare construction efforts. The entire project to construct the Bakinteku Nuclear Power Plant will cost a estimated 6.5 billion, primarily funded by the federal government. If the plant is operational and the infrastructure sufficient the federal government will seek to construct yet another plant to continue its strategy set forth in the Federal Energy Strategy. KalEnCon and the Kalistani government have offered to continue the partnership for the construction of additional power plants. It is said that the North Dovanian government will pay KalEnCon a estimated 800 million for its expertise and engineering support during construction.

The Baiktenu Nuclear Power Plant is expected to be fully operational within 8 years, with ground work already underway on the planned site.

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Democrats to pursue minority government with Social Democratic support
February 15th, 5370

Chinasa: Following the election last night the centrist Democrats have announced that they will seek to form a minority government with Social Democratic support, despite becoming the second party in seats. Democratic leader Yo Kyung stated that while his party had won 4 seats less then their Liberal rivals, the Democrats won more votes overall and thus had a right to form a government. Additionally they had already gained the pledge from the Social Democrats that if they were needed to form a government, the Social Democrats would take a step in favor of the Democrats. The country is thus preparing itself for a Democratic minority government with elements of the Social Democratic platform mixed in. The Liberal Party, under the leadership of Ch'o Hyun-Jun, has denounced the announcement as "undemocratic" vouching to opposse such a minority government at every turn. The Democratic-SocDem coalition would also get a majority in the senate, as they would garner 23 seats in the newly elected senate. While the majority in both the Chamber and the Senate are razor thin, the soon to be Chairman Kyung has expressed his confidence in the strength of a Democratic-SocDem agreement, potentially with occasional support from the Greens. Interestingly in this election a new party, the Keobi Nationals, have also won representation in both the Chamber and Senate, marking the first time in a century that a openly Keobi Nationalist party has won representation on a federal level.

President Onyekachukwu has, upon the agreement of Democrats and SocDems, announced that she will appoint Kyung as Chairman within the next few days, allowing Kyung to start appointing his cabinet ministers.


The results for the chamber


The results for the senate

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Deltarian President visits Chinasa in historic state visit
February 27th, 5370

Chinasa: Deltarian President Ignac Hodza visited the North Dovanian capital of Chinasa this week in what the media called a "historic" state visit. President Hodza came to the country to usher in a new era of cooperation between North Dovani and Deltaria, specifically strengthening diplomatic and economic ties. The president was greeted by newly elected Chairman Kyung and President Onyekachukwu as well as a delegation of government representatives. President Hodza had also brought his own delegation with him, making sure to bring trade representatives as well. The two sides talked for a while as photographers captured the historic moment. Shortly afterwards the convoy of vehicles left the international airport before arriving at the State Palace, the official working residence of the Chairman. In the palace discussions were held for several hours in which the two sides reaffirmed their committment to one another and discussed the signing of several deals between the two nations. In the evening a grand baquette was held in the State Palace, with President Onyekachukwu holding a speech in which she underlined the special relationship that they seek to create as well as noting the great historic achievements of Deltaria.

The following day the delegations visited historic sites in the city, with President Hodza being shown the great ruins of Chinasa as well as the old "People's Palace", the place from which the country was ruled by the communist dictatorship all those years ago. President Hodza was then escorted to the Constituent Plaza where he adressed a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, praising North Dovanian resilience and democracy. The final day of the visit the details of previously held bilateral talks where revealed, with North Dovani and Deltaria to sign the "Treaty of Cooperation, Trade and Friendship" between the two nations in which they guarentee eachothers sovereignty, pledge permanent diplomatic missions to one another but most importantly enact provisions to make trade between the two countries easier. North Dovani will cut import tarrifs on Deltarian goods as well as lower requirements for Deltarian bussinesses to settle in North Dovani. Deltaria will do the same the other way around, while the two will also enact provisions to make it easier for eachothers citizens to go through passport controls for both land, air and sea travel. Importantly for Deltaria, North Dovani will also pledge to sell chromium at a reduced rate in return for Deltarian investments into the North Dovanian manufacturing industry.

The moment President Hodza left to return to Deltaria it became clear that this visit was highly important, not just for strengthening relations between two major countries, but also for opening up the North Dovanian economy to a wider market for the first time in decades. Both Deltaria and North Dovani are now more connected to one another then ever before and the North Dovanian economy seems to move away from its protectionist stance. Chairman Kyung stated that following this visit it is his intend to visit Cachtice within this term, hopefully further fostering this new and special bond.