Presidential Candidate Announces Surprise Withdrawal of Candidacy

Gallente Presidential candidate Eman Autrech at a press conference this morning announced that he is withdrawing his candidacy for the Gallente Presidential seat. The announcement follows several months of census taking and legal maneuvering within the Federation, circumstances which have seen the indeterminate delay of election proceedings.

In his statement, the former presidential hopeful claimed that "due to the apparent flaws present in our mode of government, my faith that the system works as intended is greatly diminished. While my reasons for bowing out of this race are personal in nature, I am certain the untenable situation we are presented with would have compelled me to withdraw before long. The Federation's intolerable census-stalling and gerrymandering is making a mockery of this democracy, and I will not stand for it any longer."

Members of Autrech's campaign have expressed dismay at the announcement, though according to his chief campaign treasurer Louis Grells, it's been "a long time coming."

"Campaigning for this length of time takes its toll," he said. "The coffers were beginning to run dry and our team had lost nearly a quarter of its original number. I'd say we were nearing the end, anyway."

Already the announcement is being hailed by pundits as an indication of the inadequacy of democracy at this level of government. Victor Roanon, representative of radical political think-tank the Trauberge Hollow Institute on Bourynes III, this afternoon called the proceedings "typical of the farce democracy rapidly turns into when you try to get it working under an umbrella of five trillion people."

Still others point to the circumstances surrounding Autrech's stepping down as extremely suspect. A member of his campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the candidate had seemed unusually distraught and unfocused in the weeks leading up to the announcement. "It was like one day he was Mr. Autrech and the next he was just someone else. It was very unsettling."

"Plus, if anyone understands the system, it's him. He knows as well as anyone that the bout of legal wrangling is finally ending. This is a very strange time for him to drop out."