So, as you will have seen, Sarah’s Persepolis Zephyr, the current Minister for Magic, is on the move upwards in the wizarding world. She will become the Supreme Mugwump at the International Confederation of Wizards very soon. IC, this will probably be by the end of March 2011.

---

Finding the Next Minister

This allows us to play out our established canon of the Ministerial ‘election’.

• Members of the Wizengamot voice their nominations for Minister for Magic. Each nominee must have 7 Wizengamot supporters for the nomination to 'hold water’.
• The Wizarding public does not vote by ballot for the Minister, but rather, the public opinion of the Wizarding public is measured by ancient acclamation magic. Large glass vessels filled with a clear potion to represent the nominees (who've gotten the Wizengamot support to 'hold water’.) As he tides of public opinion flow, these waters of acclamation roil and boil and bubble.
• The Wizengamot appoints the new Minister, by deliberating over the public opinion and other factors.

In our case, the Minister has stepped down voluntarily to take up her new role.

---

Nominees

We don’t have a huge number of Wizengamot characters played, so it’s more logical for us to ask for those who would like to put their character forward OOC as a nominee. Then wizengamot characters (good time to put in a title app) can declare if they are one of the 7 supporters.

If a character hasn’t got any IC nominees - we can use NPCs bonus points for using existing NPCs in the wiki, which we’ll add to cast.

---

Acclamation

Go forth and do good deeds, and improve your PR! This is a great time to write some articles about the wonderful things your character has achieved/is doing. It’s also a fantastic time for a bit of a smear campaign… but be discrete.

---

Choosing OOC

Depending how many people are game, we’ll figure out a fair way OOC to choose a new Minister.

Minister is a Level 1 Major Role, so will require an app to update your character. If you fancy creating a new character for this, they will need a current job that is not the Minister.

IC:

• Minister of Magic must have at least 15 years experience in a related field
• Must role-play performing their duties actively.

OOC:

• These positions require a writer to actively plot and cooperate with other members.
• The Minister of Magic and the Hogwarts Headmaster cannot be your first character at AO.

Ill put Ignatius Prewett III forward as a contender.

Currently a Wizengamot Elder (has been in the Wizengamot for 21 years) and was the head of the British office of the International Magical Trading Standards Body for 26 years, and worked in the office for 18 years before that.  He was never particularly ambitious and as he enjoyed his job, he never sought a promotion to department head.

He has become increasingly pro-werewolf rights, and the reason for the shift is now out in the open with the public reveal of Iggy being a werewolf.

He is from two old pure-blood families, the Prewett's and the Black's, though depending on their views some would consider him and his family blood-traitors.  He actively helped muggle-borns during the second wizarding war escape detection and the country; though he did not fight openly against the regime, he did not work for them either.

He has suffered losses to both the Dementors (his nephew Gawain is permently in St. Mungo's because of a dementor attack) and the recent Hogwarts Kidnapping (his granddaughter Siana was one of the fatalities), and is keen to see that such incidents do not happen again.

I like to think he is seen as having been a fair arbiter on issues that have come before him either by himself or as a member of the Wizengamot as a whole or as part of a committee.  He generally has tried to make decisions based more on the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.

He has been generally supportive of the efforts Zephyr has pushed during her tenure as Minister.

Josie would really like to interview some nominees!

Milly x

I'm putting Edwin forward, as it has been an aspiration of his for a while.

Edwin joined the Ministry in 1968 and has served for 43 years, as an obliviator, gaining seniority. He served through the occupied years, and was instrumental in restoring his Department after Voldemort was finally removed.

In 2000 he became Deputy, and 2002 he became acting Head following the accidental death of the Department Head, sworn in officially 6 months later. He has served 9 years as a Department Head, one of the longest (played anyhow) in recent history.

Edwin has also served on the wizengamot, and is one of the seven to nominate Ignatius Prewett III - for in his own words, if Edwin does not succeed Zephyr, Ignatius is no less capable.

Edwin's policies are to uphold existing wizarding law - he would hold Level 2 to far greater account, pursue Zephyr's attempt to increase transparency of Level 9. He would tighten restrictions on werewolves, though his policies on that are not so much mentioned.

Although known to be a bit of a flirt, Glass has spoken about increasing the number of witches in the Level 1 undersecretaries and the Department Heads. He may have been caught saying 'If Zephyr can be Minister, there's no reason why not' - which taken out of context might be seen as a slur upon the outgoing Minister.

Never one to forget a name (usually), an expert in the ins and outs and recent history, excellent networker (though never all that friendly with Level 2) Edwin hopes he will be seen as a strong, sensible and proactive Minister who has proved his capability.



... and Milly, he'd be more than happy to have a little interview.

Violet Islington would love to cause trouble for any/all candidates who have disagreeable policies. She'd make some public remarks and publish caustic editorials at inopportune moments. And then she might say something scathing to his/her face in public at the worst moment possible once they're elected. She says you're welcome!

Oz is just a Wizengamot "member" but would support the candidate who is most conservative and purist in nature cuz he's an ass like that.

I would like to put Miranda forward as a nominee. I think she’d be a surprise choice for a few as she isn’t a politician and she’s not well liked. However, you don’t need to be liked to be respected and among the wizarding world, she is a very well respected witch. She has proven to be a very smart leader to tackle issues head on and she doesn’t shy away from conflict. Some people might see that as something the ministry currently needs.

Miranda herself, doesn’t consider herself for the role and will probably support Glass as she agrees with most of his ideas.

Super stuff. I've set up a plot page on the wiki

Official announcement of the nominees made in the Daily Prophet on March 16th

So there's a bit of time for us to write any of the characters promoting (or ending up in gaffs) we'll say the debates and flows of the water lasts until the end of the month roughly?