New Alexandrian general election, 1698

New Alexandrian general election, 1698
All 619 seats to the Federal Assembly ; 310 seats needed for a majority.
Leader	Rufus Wahlberg
Leader since	1697 AN
Leader's seat	Alduria
President of the Government before election; Augustus Strong (FHP);	Succeeding President of the Government; Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz (FHP);

This article or section is a work in progress. The information below may be incomplete, outdated, or subject to change.

The New Alexandrian general election of 1698 is the second general election of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie after its formation in 1685 AN. The 1698 general election was held from 13.XV.1698 AN to 15.XV.1698 AN, in line with the Proclamation of Punta Santiago and the laws of Nouvelle Alexandrie. With 91,560,093 votes cast, the election had a 62.5% turnout, lower than the 1693 general election.

The election resulted in the Federal Humanist Party securing a majority in the Federal Assembly of 34 seats. The Federal Humanist Party made a net gain of 48 seats and won 56.6% of the popular vote – the highest percentage for any party since the creation of the Federation in 1675 AN.

The election took place across all ten Regions, each with its own number of seats based on population, under proportional representation.

Background

See also: New Alexandrian general election, 1693

At the end of the 1693 general election, the death of Marcel de la Croix and the pronounced disruption this caused on the process of forming a government led to the Federal Humanist Party,Cambio Democrático, and the Digger's Society forming a Government of National Unity. Soon after the assassination of de la Croix and just several hours before the deadline to form a government passed, Augustus Strong, leader of the Federal Humanist Party and formateur, announced that agreement on a unity government had been reached. The deal would involve the two largest parties sharing power, with Strong and Santiago Etienne of Cambio Democrático taking turns being President and Vice-President of the Government. Both would exchange roles every AN year, with Strong beginning the rotation.

In 1697 AN, changes to the active status registration of several political parties that maintained caucuses in the Federal Assembly resulted in the dissolution of several parties, including the second largest party and a member of the Government of National Unity, Cambio Democrático. This resulted in Deputies that were members of Cambio Democrático to defect to either the Federal Humanist Party, the successor to the Progressive Federalist Party, the Solidarity Party, or to the successor of Cambio Democrático, the Progressive Party. This required the Government of National Unity to reconstitute, this time, replacing Cambio Democrático with the Solidarity Party.

In the lead up to the general election, negotiations between the Solidarity Party and the Progressive Party led to the founding of a new party, the Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance (SD&LA). The negotiations were slow and acrimonious at first, but the advance in the polls of the Federal Humanist Party and its successes in Operation Paramount and other policy matters prompted both parties to come to an agreement to form a broad big tent coalition of the left in order to be able to compete.

Dates of the election

The deadline for final candidate nominations was set for 11.III.1698 AN with political campaigning to last until the first polling day in 13.XV.1698 AN. The election was conducted over a period of three days, from 13.XV.1698 AN to 15.XV.1698 AN. Results were counted and published by the National Elections Commission on 16.XV.1698 AN. The three day period of the election was allowed in order to ensure that remote rural and insular areas could have some time to send their results, as well as to allow postal ballots to arrive to their destinations. This was the first election where New Alexandrians were allowed to vote by mail by going to their local polling station, confirming their identity, and picking up a ballot.

Eligibility to vote

Individuals eligible to vote had to be registered to vote by midnight on 10.XV.1698 AN, three days before the first day of polling. This was to allow the National Elections Commission system to electronically confirm the updates to the voter's rolls, confirmed with local and tax records for correct addresses and identities.

To be eligible to vote, individuals were required to be aged 18 or over, be a national of the Federation, and have been a resident in the Region they planned to vote in for at least six months prior to registration.

Opinion polling

Polling Firm	Date	FHP	SDL&A	DS	FP	Ind	MoE
Institute of Public Opinion	13.1698 AN	60%	36%	1%	0%	3%	± 3%

Electoral system

Elections in Nouvelle Alexandrie are conducted region by region through proportional representation. Voters then choose from the parties on the ballot or have the option to vote for a slate of independent candidates. Seats are apportioned to each region using the Sainte-Laguë method, a highest quotient method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. In Nouvelle Alexandrie, the thresholds for a party to get seats in a region is set to 2%. This election would be the last election where seats would be apportioned in accordance to the census conducted in 1693 AN, just before the 1693 general election.

Regional seat apportionment

Region	Seats	Population (1693 AN)	% of Seats
Alduria	147	51,213,951	23.7%
Wechua Nation	138	48,208,871	22.2%
Santander	86	30,328,420	13.8%
Valencia	28	9,816,476	4.5%
Federal Capital District	2	712,987	0.3%
Isles of Caputia	61	21,321,762	9.8%
North Lyrica	61	21,291,128	9.8%
South Lyrica	65	22,987,652	10.5%
New Luthoria	19	6,812,981	3.0%
Islas de la Libertad	12	4,198,319	1.9%
Totals	619	216,892,547	100%

Campaigns

The Federal Humanist Party and the Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance were the two largest political parties heading into the general election. They were both part of the previous Government of National Unity, the latter joining after the dissolution of Cambio Democrático and the national political realignment of 1697 AN. Out of the two, only the Federal Humanist Party has occupied the position of largest party in the Cortes Federales and also occupied the positions of President and Vice-President of the Government.

In 1697 AN, the National Elections Commission announced that, due to inactivity of its leaders and party membership, Cambio Democrático was losing official recognition as a political party, leading to the dissolution of its parliamentary caucus organization. This led to a national political realignment and changes to the composition of the 1st Cortes Federales. In the 1693 general election, Cambio Democrático had secured 162 seats and served as the second largest political party in the Cortes Federales. After its dissolution, the Cambio Democrático delegation started to either join another political party or remain independent. Four Deputies defected to the Federal Humanist Party, 65 Deputies defected to the Solidarity Party, with 16 Deputies remaining unaligned. The 61 remaining Deputies decided to create their own political party, intended as a successor to Cambio Democrático, called the Progressive Party.

Leading up to the 1698 AN general election, however, a movement called "Unite the Left" came into being when it became clear that neither of the two parties, the Solidarity Party and the Progressive Party, were independently capable of defeating the rising Federal Humanist Party. The objective of the movement was to merge the two parties into a single party (or, if this was not possible, to find a power-sharing arrangement between the two parties). Leaders and party members of both parties negotiated for several weeks and announced their merger and joint candidacy lists two days before candidacies closed for the 1698 general election with the formation of the Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance with Robert Beaujolais serving as its first leader.

Candidates

Most candidates are representatives of a political party, which must be registered with the National Elections Commmission and maintain regular activity and participation in politics. Those who do not belong to one must use the label "Independent" or none.

In the 1698 AN election 2,948 candidates stood: 472 of them being independents, the rest representing one of four national political parties.

Contesting Parties

Federal Humanist Campaign

Social Democratic & Liberal Campaign

Digger's Society Campaign

Freedom Party Campaign

Results

National

|

344

234

15

3

21


	FHP (344)		SDLA (234)		DS (15)		FP (3)		Ind. (21)

	Political party	Leader	Candidates	Votes	Elected	Gain/loss	% of votes	% of seats
	Federal Humanist Party	Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz	619	51,848,707	344	▲ 48 seats	56.6%	55.5%
	Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	Robert Beaujolais	619	35,597,571	234	▲ 72 seats	38.9%	37.8%
	Digger's Society	Iwashiiwa Kazuemon	619	2,418,941	15	No gain/loss	2.4%	2.6%
	Freedom Party	Rufus Walberg	619	1,694,874	5	▲ 2 seats	0.8%	1.9%
	Independent		472	3,330,395	21	▲ 21 seats	3.6%	3.3%
Total			2,948	91,560,093	619	Turnout		62.5%

Regional

Alduria

Region of Alduria
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	11,486,631	51.3%	75
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	9,238,174	41.2%	61
Digger's Society	717,354	3.2%	5
Independent/Unaligned	493,181	2.2%	3
Freedom Party	470,764	2.1%	3
Totals	22,406,104	100.0%	147

Wechua Nation

Region of the Wechua Nation
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	10,574,172	50.1%	71
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	8,323,047	39.5%	55
Independent/Unaligned	1,181,472	5.6%	8
Digger's Society	632,931	3.0%	4
Freedom Party	379,759	1.8%	0
Totals	21,091,381	100.0%	138

Santander

Region of Santander
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	6,800,234	51.3%	45
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	5,194,402	39.1%	34
Independent/Unaligned	769,738	5.8%	5
Digger's Society	278,698	2.1%	2
Freedom Party	225,613	1.7%	0
Totals	13,268,685	100.0%	86

Valencia

Region of Valencia
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	2,142,415	49.9%	14
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	1,727,075	40.2%	11
Independent/Unaligned	201,871	4.7%	1
Digger's Society	120,264	2.8%	1
Freedom Party	103,083	2.4%	1
Totals	4,294,708	100.0%	28

Federal Capital District

Federal Capital District
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	161,893	51.9%	1
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	132,571	42.5%	1
Digger's Society	12,789	4.1%	0
Freedom Party	4,679	1.5%	0
Totals	311,932	100.0%	2

Isles of Caputia

Region of the Isles of Caputia
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	5,867,618	62.9%	39
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	2,947,342	31.6%	20
Digger's Society	223,990	2.4%	2
Independent/Unaligned	177,326	1.9%	0
Freedom Party	111,995	1.2%	0
Totals	9,328,271	100.0%	61

New Luthoria

Region of New Luthoria
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	1,568,354	52.6%	10
Federal Humanist Party	1,328,507	44.6%	9
Digger's Society	45,132	1.5%	0
Freedom Party	38,685	1.3%	0
Totals	2,980,678	100.0%	19

Islas de la Libertad

Region of Islas de la Libertad
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	920,772	50.1%	6
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	757,201	41.2%	5
Independent/Unaligned	94,466	5.1%	1
Digger's Society	42,271	2.3%	0
Freedom Party	22,054	1.2%	0
Totals	1,836,764	100.0%	12

North Lyrica

Region of North Lyrica
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	6,894,262	74.0%	46
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	2,008,393	21.6%	13
Freedom Party	217,557	2.3%	1
Digger's Society	194,656	2.1%	1
Totals	9,314,868	100.0%	61

South Lyrica

Region of South Lyrica
Party	Votes	Vote %	Deputies
Federal Humanist Party	5,672,203	56.4%	38
Social Democratic & Liberal Alliance	3,701,012	36.8%	24
Digger's Society	150,856	1.5%	0
Freedom Party	120,685	1.2%	0
Totals	9,314,868	100.0%	65