Caseic Federation Flag Referendum

The Caseic Federation Flag Referendum was a multi-year process in which the Caseic Federation decided on a flag.

History

Background

The Caseic Emblem, a popular unofficial symbol of the Federation

The Caseic Federation fully united the Caseic Archipelago in 49 TT. At this time, the states within the Federation often had their own flags or standards, but no flag was established for the Federation as a whole. Around the 20s TT, the Caseic Emblem became a popular unofficial symbol of the Federation, consisting of an abstract representation of the islands' geography. Even the FFM Hat included the Caseic Emblem.

Initiation

On 4-6 9 PC, Federal Foreign Minister Casi Fromatica, after observing the presence of flags on other ships to indicate their nation of origin or allegiance, saw the benefits thereof and sent a motion to the Federal Council to establish an official flag for the Caseic Federation. This motion led to the creation of the Caseic Federal Flag Subcommittee. The Subcommittee then solicited flag designs from the general public. From these suggestions, the Subcommittee selected the following six designs:

Voting

Ballots for voting on the new flag of the Caseic Federation were printed and distributed on 9-12 9 PC. The Subcommittee declared that voting would end six months later. The referendum was generally unpopular: in fact the number of spoiled ballots exceeded the number of legitimate votes. In 10 PC, a coordinated attack on radio towers by Jirichaya Broom's rebel group disconnected the Federation from the Inter-governmental Radio System. During this blackout, voting ended, and votes were tallied using an instant-runoff system:

Results

The following are the results before instant-runoff:

54% Spoilt Ballots not showing clear preference

15% Plain Emblem

13% Emblem & Heptadecimal

8% Akarian-Geographical

5% Abstract Design

3% Hautean-Inspired

2% C.N.N.-Geographical

Following instant-runoff and discarding of spoilt ballots, the Plain Emblem became the official flag with 63% preferential approval among non-spoilt ballots.

Aftermath

Following the referendum, the Federal Council approved of the Plain Emblem as the official flag of the Caseic Federation.