Penstubal Elected President; Pledges Mobilization in 'War on Inactivity'

Penstubal has been elected President of Demarcia, winning 4 votes as the independent, lone candidate in the election. He has also been elected to Parliament alongside MikeBodwin and Viscosity777 in what is going to be the second election in a row not to deliver a single Social Democratic Party member.

In a statement after the election results were released, President-elect Penstubal thanked the people for his electing him President.

"Although I was the only candidate, this should be interpreted as nothing else but a mandate for the revival of Demarcia," he said. "Nothing else could have been on the ballot in any case: the only choice ever on the ballot is making Demarcia live again. I will work, to the best of my ability, on providing the kind of leadership we need to get Demarcia back on track."

He pledged to "mobilize all resources" to the "Herculean task" of keeping Demarcia "alive".

The President-elect also gave his "sincere, heartfelt congratulations" to MikeBodwin and Viscosity777, members of the Civic Unity Party, on being elected to Parliament. "I look forward to working with them as an independent president on a government of national equilibrium, which will maintain order in the country while planting the seeds for Demarcia to blossom once more."

President-elect Penstubal also said that, like SuperMiron after his election almost a year ago, he too has no ambitions to be "Demarcia's gravedigger".

"So long as I am President, I pledge to do whatever I can to keep Demarcia alive and not just alive, but well," he said. "It is safe to say that, after so many presidents have successively failed to revive Demarcia, that we now live in desperate times, and that these times call for desperate measures. No options, I repeat, no options will be off the table in our War on Inactivity."

Outgoing President nilah. failed to get a seat in Parliament, winning zero votes in the election.

With his victory, Penstubal become only the second president in Demarcian history to win a non-consecutive eighth term in office, the other being SuperMiron, elected to an eighth and then ninth term last year. Penstubal last served as President from February 2020 to August 2020, having stepped down in June 2020, paving the way for his then-SDP colleague Vincent_Wolff to succeed him in leading the country.

Laura Cooper,

Demarcian Inquirer.