A civil war is what everybody thinks will eventually happen and what everyone wants to avoid.

So, both Rob and the prime minister's negotiating teams worked to see if they could hash it out peacefully.

It was a hard pill to swallow for the Five Star government, but they had no choice.

A war would be devastating.

It would be a far better result, even if they compromise a bit.

The two sides arrived at a border city and started the negotiation process.

The prime minister's negotiating team demanded that the election be held fairly throughout the country. They compromised by promising not to diminish the powers of the Minister of Interior and by giving Alex's country more control over hiring low-level government officials.

Currently, most of the rank-and-file government employees are hired by the Ministry of Government Administration, which is under the central government's control.

The central government suggested letting the interior minister, Rob, choose two of the six deputy minister positions under the Ministry of Government Administration: the Deputy minister for discipline and the deputy minister for health and safety.

The deputy minister of discipline can recommend the expulsion of rank-and-file officials who violate the rules; it can't fire them by itself, but its recommendations have great weight.

The deputy minister of health and safety can regulate workplaces deemed unsafe.

Both deputies sit on the firing and hiring commission, chaired by the minister of government administration and attended by all 6 deputies.

This, in effect, gives 2 of the 7 votes on the hiring and firing commission to Rob.

Some actions by the commission require unanimous votes, so with controlling 2/7, he would gain some real power.

He could influence how rank-and-file officials are hired and fired throughout the government with those two seats.

Rob, on the other hand, demanded fixed seats for Alex party.

He insisted that 34% of the seats, with the remaining 66% left for the other parties to compete for.

This arrangement, he argued, would prevent the government forces from reaching a 2/3 supermajority and ensure they couldn't overrule court decisions that went in his favor.

He tried to convince them with some other clauses.

The 34% is the lower limit, so Alex party would get it no matter how low of a share of the votes they get.

However, they could get more than 34% of the seats only if they get more than 34% of the vote.

For example, if they get 3% of the vote in an election, they would get 34% of the seats.

If they get 20% of the vote, they still get 34% of the seats.

Alex party could only get more than 34% of the seats if they received more than the same amount of votes.

For example, if they get 35% of the votes, they get 35% of the seats.

However, the government refused Rob's suggestion, considering it wholly unacceptable and undemocratic.

Rob persisted, emphasizing that the country is a marriage of Alex's kingdom and the Five Star country, and in an absolute democracy, Alex kingdom would have no voice.

Despite Rob's arguments, the government remained steadfast in their refusal.

As a result, Rob left the negotiations.

The Minister of Interior is responsible for holding elections in conjunction with the Ministry of Elections, which is under the control of the government.

However, with autonomous regions refusing to cooperate and the Minister of Interior under the control of Rob, even with the Minister of Elections, holding a general election in the whole country became impossible.

So, the central government did the only thing they could do—they held elections only in the lands controlled by the central government.

They were able to do it because they controlled the Ministry of Elections; if they didn't have it, even holding elections in their own territory would have been a problem.

The election was held exactly on the specified date, but only in territories controlled directly by the central government.

The result was a landslide for the government.

The system of elections is proportional representation.

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The autonomous regions didn't hold elections, and Alex party didn't run any candidates in the election held by the central government.

As a result, the government parties won 95% of the vote and gained the same percentage of seats.

With a new parliament in place, the central government began its assault.

With the negotiations falling apart, they didn't hold back much.

They passed laws with more than a 2/3 majority, overruling Supreme Court decisions that favored the Minister of Interior.

Then, they created two new ministries.

First, they established the Ministry of Military Affairs.

As a result of previous deals, the Ministry of Defense was controlled by Alex's kingdom.

With the president being the commander in chief, the Minister of Defense alone couldn't do much.

However, Alex's kingdom having any influence in their military in a situation where they might have a war with them is craziness.

They transferred all authority from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Military Affairs.

The Minister of Defense became just a puppet with no power.

Second, they created the Ministry of General Affairs and transferred all authority of the Ministry of Interior to it.

The next issue was the Ministerial Appointment Commission.

That commission has 6 members, three chosen by Alex kingdom.

With that commission, they couldn't appoint any ministers.

So, they passed a new law, changing the process.

Previously, ministers would directly be nominated by the commission.

With the new law, the government would submit nominees.

These nominees would become acting ministers as soon as the government nominates them.

They would only be removed as acting ministers if the commission voted them down by a majority, meaning 4-2.

With the government and opposition holding 3 seats firmly, Alex Kingdom could never get the 4 votes to remove any acting minister.

This process effectively allows the government to appoint whomever it wants as long as the opposition agrees.

However, the opposition is united with the government when dealing with Alex's kingdom.

Weakening the Alex Kingdom is in the interest of the opposition and the government.

The next step was weakening the Supreme Court.

These laws were designed to get around treaties with Alex's kingdom and were of doubtful constitutionality.

There was a chance the Supreme Court would invalidate them.

So, the government passed a law disallowing the Supreme Court from 'enjoining, invalidating, or in any way hindering the operation of laws passed by parliament.'

Still, Rob filed a lawsuit to get an injunction.

He argued that the law preventing the Supreme Court from enjoining laws was unconstitutional.

To the surprise of everyone, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rob, striking down that law and regaining its power to invalidate laws.

This action was questionable.

Does the Supreme Court have the power to strike down the law that prevented it from striking down the laws?

It was a circular question.

The Supreme Court was responsible for interpreting laws, so if it says it does have the power, nobody could say it doesn't have the power.

Still, this ruling might have provoked a furious response from the central government if it hadn't been for their subsequent ruling.

The Supreme Court only partially ruled for Rob.

At the same time as it struck down the laws that weakened its power, it upheld the law regarding acting ministers.

It was a win for the Supreme Court and a loss for both Alex kingdom and the central government.

The central government got what it wanted: weakening Alex's kingdom's influence.

It aimed to weaken the Supreme Court to prevent them from striking down laws that weakened Alex kingdom. Now that the Supreme Court has upheld those laws, they see no need to continue attacking the court.

So, they left the Supreme Court's authority intact and focused their attention back on Rob.

Rob watched all these developments; after the Supreme Court ruled against him, he gave up on legally taking control.

He abandoned his ministry in the capital and went to Five Dragons City.

He appointed Angella as his deputy and called for a conference with all leaders of autonomous regions.

At this point, he ultimately gave up on the central government.

The new MPs were all chosen from people whose Doppelgängers had died.

Alex's country would have limited control of the new Five Star government.

Alex's kingdom might be able to cause trouble by influencing some low-level government officials, but that is limited to small operations. All critical officers now are those without doppelgangers.

Even after all this, the central government refrained from removing Rob and the Minister of Defense outright.

On the surface, the central government kept its deals with Alex's kingdom.

However, this show of goodwill was not enough to change anything.

They voted on creating a new country with Rob as president in the conference, which was more of a show.

Rob, now President Robert Stevenson, appointed Angella as his vice president.

The name of the country was decided to be the United Independent States of the East Continent, in short, UISEC.

He started appointing ministers and began the process of complete separation from the Five Star country.

With all that, President Stevenson still preferred to avoid war; he hoped for Five Star to accept it and not start a war.

Rob would get what he wants by only being the autonomous region's president; he is satisfied with it.

It would be best if Five Star just ignored him.

Rob ordered the military to prepare for a possible war to avoid being caught off guard.

With this order, he started nervously watching developments on the central government's side.

The central government was furious.

They passed a law ordering Rob to dissolve UISEC and return.

Rob, of course, ignored it.

The central government was left with two choices:

1. Attack and defeat them on the battlefield.

2. Attack later when they got stronger.

The third theoretical choice was to recognize UISEC as an independent country, but they didn't even consider it.

They put it to a vote in parliament.

It was a close vote, 256-240, against the war.

In another vote, they voted 500-0 to make preparations for war and strengthen the defense. They decided they would go to war only when the situation improved.

The situation is still horrible.

Infrastructure in most small cities is still broken, and people have problems finding food.

If they go to war, the casualties would not be just soldiers who die; many might die from starvation.

As for help from surrounding countries, that is impossible because most surrounding countries are still in chaos.

They haven't recovered as well as Five Star did.

There was another reason why the MPs voted against it.

Even though they didn't want to admit it, they had more chance of losing than winning.

The armies of both sides are about the same size.

However, UISEC has more people, larger land areas, factories, and natural resources.

The war would likely be a drawn-out one that would take years; in such wars, countries with more resources and people would have the advantage.

That is not even counting the possible help that Alex kingdom could provide.

With this news, Rob sighed with relief.

They say they'll attack when they prepare, but as time passes, the will for a fight and public anger would only weaken.

After this, he can almost rest assured that there would be no war.