President Alphonse Z. Potato, Quadrant Five
Star Party politician, age 63
Alphie was formerly the 'Star Party' Governor of Quadrant Five where he was involved in several scandals, including the infamous Over Incident during which he was accused of involvement with a criminal gang who had created an illegal Artificially Intelligent computer. He was cleared of all charges by an interstellar tribunal.

Elected as GFA President in 3200, he has followed a policy of high investment in the GFA economy and no exclusions for systems with weak economies. This has kept him reasonably popular. He is perhaps the most instantly recognisable of all political leaders, with his penchant for publicity, hedonistic partying and his astonishing personal yacht, a huge and luxurious converted interstellar logistics ship.

Foreign policy: Potato's Government has been a strong advocate of interpolity co-operation in fighting the War ['Old London' Treaty and the Supreme Human Command] and has other treaty links with all polities other than the Martians. He is regarded as mostly harmless and a convivial and friendly host by most other political leaders. He has developed unusually warm links with the Earth Empire and has opened a positive dialogue with Wolf, as well as building on bonds with traditional friends the Xyonists. Alphie's call for the creation of a 'United Planets of Humanity,' including a network of interstellar law and democracy, was seen by most as frankly over-optimistic if not actually naive, but he received plaudits for farsighted idealism if not for practicality. Generally, foreign policy is seen as a Potato strong point.

Scandal: On the debit side the Potato first term has been full of scandal, which amazingly seems mostly to have failed to rub off on his long-term popularity. Alphie has shown a very uncertain touch with his Cabinet appointments, with failure and scandalous departures by the Secretaries of Energy, [Burns] and Science {Squash.] A very uncertain performance by Secretary of Defence Morgan has left the GFA military in a state of turmoil with morale low. Most recently Secretary of State O'Brien also announced that he would not serve in a second term, and while there is not any scandal at the time of writing, it is not known exactly why he has chosen to leave.
The Potato pledge to expand into the sectors has come to very little, and the GFA has not expanded its borders, seemingly content to develop internally.

Ultron: The GFA public, jumpy since the Disneyworld Exterminator attack of 3199, was not reassured when the Q3 'Ultron Crisis' of 3203 had its origins in Esteeler space, and again {bringing to mind the Q5 'Over Crisis' of '99} involved Artificial Intelligence, built by an Esteeler scientific criminal, who then shockingly escaped from high-security prison on Asteel itself. There has been much soul-searching about how and why the GFA seems to nurture such evil people.

Personal Life: Alphie's personal life has continued to be both colourful and eventful, with his wife and both his sons involved in minor scandals. He became a father again with the birth of twin daughters in 3203.
Alphie is now campaigning to seek re-election, against a strong challenge by Reform's Rhett Elgon. The campaign is too close to call. He has been typically vague on what he intends to do should he win a second term. The expectation is that he will launch a popular programme of military expansion to ensure any future alien threats will be met by a powerful GFA response in concert with reliable allies, and that the GFA will play a full part in aggressive action against those alien enemies.

Alphie and his lovely wife Desiree on the campaign trail, 3205