JEDI HoloNet

After a failed attempt from the election season last cycle, The Diplomat party re-introduced their proposed legislation to implement tariffs on imported electronics, starship components, and other manufactured imports in order to shore up core world industry in light of the upset hyperlane routes that caused a sizeable negative impact on manufacturing in high-population core world planets. Signed into law across party lines by War Hawk Chancellor Rei, they go into effect today.

With the new Senate, and a new political party, senators from the Diplomat, Centrist, and Free Soil parties were able to get a majority vote in the Senate to pass these tariffs despite objections from the War Hawk party that it would further distance Corporate Sector worlds that were already cut off from the Republic directly with the expansion of the Third Estate into the Esstran sector. With that expansion the Third Estate has blocked all trade flow through the Hydian Way via Pho Ph’eah, requiring all trade from the Corporate Sector worlds flowing to the Republic to take longer, less maintained, hyperlanes that wind through Imperial space to arrive to their markets.

War Hawk Senator from the Herglic Space sector, Boonka Illeeb, shared his thoughts with the Associated Presses on the legislation,

“The Third Estate is an expansionist force. The Corporate Sector has only one value: making money. In order to do so, all corporations will take the path of least resistance in order to find profits. Between the blockade along the Hydian Way and our own tariffs that further sabotage open and easy trade with this partner it only leaves them two viable trade partners: The Empire and the Third Estate. Between the two, the Empire has been showing firm isolationist tendencies from before the ascension of Emperor Jarek Fel. This move on the part of my colleagues across the isle will only serve to solidify ties between the Corporate Sector worlds and the Third Estate.”

Free Solier Senator Narmor Maroon from the Pacor Sector agreed to speak with me about his thoughts as well from the other side of the argument,

“The Republic hasn’t put its credits where its mouth is for decades. The Senate has been claiming to be the galactic police for years while doing nothing to intervene outside our borders. With this decision we’re dropping that facade. The Republic is the Galaxy’s largest state. By turning our focus inward to our own systems, our own sectors, and our own needs we’re -by definition- addressing the needs of the majority of the Galaxy. Let the Corporate Sector do what it needs to do, our GDP outstrips them by a large factor with only the core worlds. This move returns our attention to where it needs to be, at home in our own sectors promoting industry, our economy, innovation, and commerce.”

Finally, in response to the passage of the bill, a spokesperson for the Guild of Corporate Sector Industries (GCSI) based out of Bonadan gave us this official statement:

“The Empire has long ignored the outside galaxy in favor of looking inward. The Republic has decided to follow suit. As we move forward and look to our bottom line, in the red due to these policy decisions that backwards thinking Senators on Coruscant have made, we have to look forward and evolve with the market. Our corporations are not faceless entities. We employ, house, and provide for hundreds of millions of employees over a dozen star systems. Our obligation is to not only our investors, but those who make their livelihoods on our worlds. New markets are opening up and it’s our fiscal and moral obligation and duty to pursue what opportunities are presented to us no matter what they are.”

Already it’s been announced that the GCSI Board of Directors has made a meeting with the Third Estate’s Minister of the Interior to discuss future partnerships.

Reporting from Coruscant, this is Quan Regal of the Associated Presses.

The final votes have been cast and the newest Republic Senate has been sworn in. Chancellor Naka Rei maintained his position with an overwhelming vote, the only system in his sector that did not vote for him, ironically, was that of Tibrin.

As forecast at the end of last cycle, the nascent Free Soiler party has taken seats from the well-established War Hawk and Diplomat parties, bringing themselves as a third majority party in the Senate. Their message of stronger local government in the face of border tensions in the outer rim resonated with voters in the mid and outer rim where concerns over increased pirate, cartel, and criminal activity have caused people to call for more control over their own sector security forces while Coruscant continues to struggle with maintaining security across the breadth of their territory.

The Senate also welcomes their youngest member in over two centuries as sixteen-year-old Primsta Natsha Estillo defeated her incumbent opponent. An independent, she’s become a political celebrity overnight. After she was sworn in she held a town hall meeting at the University of Coruscant campus where secondary students from all over the planet came to meet her, ask questions about the future of Republic politics, and ask for autographs. She had this to say about her idea for the future of the Republic,

The Republic is an ancient institution. While we claim to be the third Galactic Republic, borrowing from the great system of state that existed for millennia centuries ago, and while we have adopted the charters from the Republic that was established after the reign of Emperor Palpatine, we are our own government that upholds all of those same values as those who came before while also learning from their mistakes and missteps.

Democracies are strong and healthy when the citizenry participates and feels they have a voice. When the people feel that they are ignored by the powers who influence change over their lives they become disillusioned, discouraged, and participation slows to a crawl… When that happens, opportunists gain the opportunity to leverage the powers of Democracy not for the benefit of all, but for the sole benefit of a few.

I hope that with my election a new generation of the electorate will see that there’s room for hope and optimism in politics. It’s not just committee meetings, backroom deals, and corruption. Those are the issues I’m going to tackle and dismantle. I aim to reinvigorate the faith of the people in our democracy, and I thank everyone who has supported me and who continue to support me, in that mission. Thank you.”

The Galaxy’s second largest democracy, the League of Sovereign Systems, also has gone through some reforms. In light of growing Cartel activity that’s disrupted trade outside of their territory and negatively harmed their international trade and GDP, the League Congress has drafted changes to their constitution that have been voted for and approved by the member worlds.

The amended constitution adds a second chamber to the legislature. In addition to the Hall of Representatives there will be a Senior Council that is made up of the founding worlds of the League as well as two seats that will rotate amongst new members. Moving forward, all bills must pass both chambers in the legislature and then be signed by the President in order to make it into law. As promised, President Zeublon Pyke did not run for a fourth term at the end of this election cycle. After a fierce presidential campaign, former Svivren President Skesteece-Hikataram Milaficat has been voted into the office, becoming the second president of the League of Sovereign Systems. They signed bills that welcomed a number of new worlds into the League including Cotellier, Wrea, and Shimia. Wrea and Shimia cited concerns over planets that have historically been hubs for criminality such as Socorro, Orvax, and Karazak being used as bases of operation for the Triellus League, a new organized Hutt Cartel that’s been jockeying for influence in the region.

Reporting from Coruscant, this is Quan Regal from the Associated Presses