If a citizen becomes dissatisfied with the performance of one of their Barons, he or she is quite likely to question their authority. To do this, type QUESTION <baron>. Typing POLITICS will show if any barons have been questioned, and by whom. The POLITICS command can be used to view more than current-affairs: by default is shows the last thirty entries in the city's recent history of elections/questioning for Baronial or Custodian positions. You can look further back by typing POLITICS followed by a <number of entries>, to specify how far into the past to look, e..g. POLITICS 100 will view the politics history log starting at a hundred entries before the present. Citizens can also peruse the entire politics history from the first public entry by typing POLITICS ALL.
Back to questioning! If a Baron is questioned by four citizens over a short period of time, he or she will be considered unfit for office and an election will begin. The candidates in the election will be the incumbent Baron and the four citizens who question his/her authority. The election will last for five days by which time the citizen with the most votes will become the new Baron.
If votes are tied, the incumbent Baron is declared victorious. If votes are tied between non-Barons, then the earliest questioner will be the victor. If one Baron has been questioned by a citizen, and another citizen comes along to question another Baron, then the first questioner will be forgotten. It is only possible to have an election for one baronial post at a time to prevent a city from becoming crippled without stable Barons to run it. Should you find yourself competing in an election you do not wish to be in you may stand down from contention by typing STANDDOWN followed by the election number code.
The following criteria for questioning is applied, to the questioners:
Questioner must have clocked up ONE hour of activity for current week and have been a citizen for at least SIX days; must not be an LW.
