2019 Essexian general election

2019 Essexian General Election
All seats in the Imperial Parliament ; 6 seats needed for a majority
First Minister before election; Lord Jamie; Royalist Party	Resulting First Minister ; Lord Jamie; Royalist Party

The 2019 Essexian general election was the first general election to be held in Essexian history. The 2019 Essexian general election was held on Monday 1 July 2019, after the date was agreed upon during the second day of the Danbury Conference. The polls opened at 10am (BST) and closed at 10pm (BST). In the election 65 votes were cast with 6 spoilt ballots and 59 usable votes.

The Royalists who had been sole rulers since 27 May 2019, were looking to gain a majority in the newly enlarged parliament, with 2 new seats being added to the parliament during the Danbury Conference. While the Commonwealth Party were looking to gain at least 3 seats in the new parliament to gain a majority and change the leadership after Lord Jamie's scandal with the events of the 27th of May, which scarred Jamie's First Ministership. The Liberal Socialist and Cooperative Party was hoping to gain at least a second seat to allow the LSC's second active member to take a seat in parliament, with their ideal scenario being a hung parliament with the LSC in the position of kingmaker and stating they would support either party to moderate them and get some of the LSC's bills passed.

Electoral System

The Essexian parliament is elected via a system of proportional representation where each party gets a certain number of seats depending on their proportion of the vote. If an indepent desires to stand for office, there name is placed on the list along with the parties and if they get enough votes that would dictate that they would get multiple seats, the independent candidate can either choose people to fill the seats, or they can decide that the extra votes won't count when deciding the remaining seats.

Date and Timetable

The date of the election was decided on 18 June 2019 during the second day of the Danbury Conference, where 1 July 2019 was chosen. The date of the election was surrounded by minor controversy, as it was not made explicitly clear prior to the 1 July that the election would occur, as well as the fact there was no designated campaigning time prior to the election so all the campaigns were released simultaneously.

Timetable

18 June 2019 - Danbury Conference decided on the date of the election.
28 June 2019 - Electoral Committee is set up by the Minister of the Interior, with it being composed of Lord Adam, Lord Ben, and Lady Becky, who were randomly chosen, as well as Lord Matthew as Minister of the Interior.
30 June 2019 - The Weeaboo Rights Party and the Royalist Party agreed that the Weeaboo Rights Party would merge into the Royalist Party.
1 July 2019 - The Weeaboo Rights Party officially merged into the Royalist Party.
1 July 2019 - Polling Day. Polls opened at 10am.
1 July 2019 - Parties began campaigning
1 July 2019 - Polling ended at 10pm. Earlier than originally planned.
1 July 2019 - Results announced on discord.
1 July 2019 - Possible Supreme Court case against Lord Jamie, was dropped as the Emperor used an imperial decree to clear all charges.
2 July 2019 - 10pm New parliament opens.

Campaign

Background

Prior to the election there had been scandal surrounding Lord Jamie's first day as First Minister. This scandal was as Lord Jamie desired to bring the Royalist Lady Becky into the parliament. In Jamie's attempt to bring Lady Becky into the parliament he tried to remove a member of the opposition thus increasing the Royalist's majority in the Imperial Parliament. Eventually after pressure from the inside the Royalist Party, Lord Jamie backed down from trying to remove the opposition and instead replaced Prince James with Lady Becky in the parliament. This action caused much scandals in Essexia, with much of the parliament seeing Lord Jamie's actions as wildly undemocratic. With great divisions within the Royalists party being caused.

Issues

Democracy

Both the Liberal Socialists and the Commonwealth Party desired an both campaigned on the idea of expanding democracy, and increasing the power of parliament. The Commonwealth Party campaigned for an Imperial parliament where the government had equal power. While, the Liberal Socialists were more radical and campaigned for an Imperial Parliament where the Emperor was more of a figure head with limited power with parliament on top. The Royalists on the other hand campaigned showing off their in democratic achievements with their majority but still did not have a desire to increase parliamentary power, and wanted to keep the status quo, where the Imperial Parliament acts as an advisory board to the emperor, but can with effort exert some limited power.

Foreign Policy

Both the Royalists and the Commonwealth Party followed the Dean-Sohki Doctrine of foreign policy, in which Essexia seeks to build a working relationship within the micronational community, and to increase Essexia's status within the community and eventually get to a point where Essexia is seen as a "big name" in the community. While the Liberal Socialists and Cooperative Party desired a foreign policy where the leaders of Essexia build a more personal relationship with the leaders of other micronations and increase Essexia's participation in intermicronational organisations with emphasis on intermicroinational organizations that the membership is on the subnational level, such as intermicronational political alliances.

Projections

Projections for the elections varied widely with the LSC expecting a hung parliament but most expected the Commonwealth Party to gain seats at the expense of the Royalists.

	Royalist	Commonwealth	LSC	Weeaboo Rights	Outcome
FAR Network	5	4	2	0	Royalist Minority
Weekly Reader	4	6	1	0	Commonwealth Majority
The Anime Times	6	3	1	1	Royalist Majority
The Essexian	4	4	3	0	Hung Parliament

Results

↓
8	1	2
Royalist	Commonwealth	Liberal Socialist

Parties		Seats	Change
	Royalist Party	8	▲ 3*
	Liberal Socialist and Cooperative Party	2	▲ 1*
	Commonwealth Party	1	▼ 2*
	Independent	0	0
Royalist majority of 3

*Parliament size changed from 9 seats to 11 seats.

The Royalist landslide proved a surprise to almost everyone, and shows strong popular support for Lord Jamie's premiership, however it was not widely known throughout the Essexian citizenry that wasn't on discord the actions of Jamie on the 27th of May scandal. It is widely believed that if the knowledge of Jamie's actions were more widely known, that the LSC and CoPa would have done significantly better, possibly gaining enough seats to together push the Royalists out of government.

Aftermath

The aftermath of the election was described as "eventful" by Earl Finn, this is as the aftermath of the election saw the Commonwealth Party collapse, with Lord Jack resigning as leader, Lord Ben becoming leader, giving the seat they won during the election to the LSC on the advice of Lord Jack, then Lord Ben resigning as leader. The aftermath also saw a possible breach of constitution by Lord Jamie. This went as far as the Supreme Court beginning the review process of the case known as Jack vs. Jamie, in which Jamie stated that he had not breached the constitution and that Jack deleted any evidence of Jamie's innocence, with the case being highly contentious and eventually ending with a royal decree from the Emperor that pardoned both men of any wrongdoing. Emperor Terry's royal decree to intervene in Jack vs. Jamie was ultimately seen as undemocratic, or at the very least absurd, by many, including Lord Jacob who resigned from the Royalist Party and Lord Ben S who dissolved CoPa, both attributing their resignations to the disruption in any separation of powers.

Despite the resignations and very rare example of a Civil Supreme Court case against the First Minister, the Parliament was formed the following day, on the 2nd July 2019.

Outgoing Lords

Continuing Lords

Lady Becky of Essexia, Royalist Party
Earl Finn of Hawarden, Liberal Socialist and Cooperative Party
Lord George of Essexia, Royalist Party
Lord Jamie of Essexia, Royalist Party
Lord Matthew of Essexia, Royalist Party

Incoming Lords

Legacy

Being one of the first examples of a democratic General Election in Essexian history, the 2019 General Election has undoubtedly proven to stand as precedent for future elections, as well as for resignations, the dissolution of parties and of course the ways in which the Supreme Court conducts itself.