1681 Democratic National Convention

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The 1681 Democratic National Convention was a political national convention, held in Eliria, Elwynn at a 20-story luxury hotel and condominium apartment building called the Plaza Eliria Hotel. It took place from 10.I.1681 to 14.I.1681 AN. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party of Elwynn elected across the country by registered party members and key internal party constituencies to nominate and elect a new leader and other important national and regional party officials.

Former Eliria city councilwoman and school teacher Helena Strand was chosen as the leader of the Democratic Party of Elwynn by a 54% majority of delegates present after seven contentious rounds of balloting. Eustathius Jonsson, a member of the Normark legislature, was confirmed by delegates as the Deputy Leader.

Delegates at the convention also adopted a new party platform touted as the "most progressive" platform in the history of the party. The progressive shift was often credited at the direction of Helena Strand and her brain trust of advisors, economists, and national experts called the New Democrats. Their influence on members of the party's Platform Committee led to a new direction for the political party in the aftermath of the party's large losses in the elections of 1680. The platform featured a focus on economic issues, stronger financial regulation, constitutional reform, and a commitment to fight corruption in public and private life. Notably, the new platform advocates creating a path for citizenship for former loyal subjects and community servants and the creation of a national federal legislature to unite the country.

The convention was rife with controversy, as it was subject to various conflicts between supporters of the Helena Strand and the New Democrats and several other internal party factions that favored other candidates for party leadership. Some delegates in support of Strand staged protests both outside and on the floor of the convention, with Strand delegates accusing the outgoing party leadership of sabotaging the nomination of Strand as the party's leader. Another controversy in the convention came as the party grappled with the Verionist Vespers and the nationwide purge of Verionists, Franks, and their sympathizers. The Platform Committee and the convention ended up adopting a strenuously supportive stance on the purges, highlighting the need to avoid the return of Vanic rule through Francia (or through their Verionist enablers) and the possibility of an even more bloody Verionist Disaster, this time in Elwynn.

Background

The Democratic Party of Elwynn, which had suffered severe losses in the elections of 1680, was divided entering 1681. In an effort to revive the party and fight the next elections, Eliria city council member and former schoolteacher Helena Strand announced her desire to become a candidate to lead the party ahead of the party’s next convention with the support of a new rising organization called the New Democrat Caucus. Three days after Strand’s announcement, Kjartan Horiksson from Normark announced his candidacy for leader, with the support from key outgoing leaders. A few days later, several other minor candidates declared their candidacies for leader.

In the days leading up to the convention, Horiksson suddenly announced he was withdrawing from the race and endorsing Strand. He failed to indicate to his supporters in the outgoing leadership of the party of his intentions and cemented their opposition to Strand, who they viewed as an outsider bent on making the party unrecognizable to them.

Support within the party was divided between Helena Strand, who ran a campaign to rebrand and reform the party along the goals of the New Democrats’ hopes and vision, Robert Lundberg, a member of Congress who was seen as the candidate representing the status quo, and Irma Stenström, who appealed to the more conservative members of the party.

The key issues that split the party were the need to reassemble a new and compelling platform, especially the changes proposed by Strand, which took the party in a more reformist direction and aligning itself better with the global Aldricist ideologies of parties like the Union Democratic Movement in Natopia and the old Imperial Democratic Party in Ransenar.

Platform

Convention chair

Schedule

Leadership elections

Nominations

Final ballot

See also