2023 Gaplan general election

2023 Gaplan General Election
Deputy Presidential Election, 2nd Round

29 September 2023
Turnout	34.0 ▲ 3.2 pp
Candidate Renaldo Chang Connor Hetner Party FRP SRP STV vote 68 50 Percentage 57.6% 42.4% State Folia Tail Elemental

The 2023 Gaplan general election was a general election to elect 9 out of 10 members of the National Assembly, including the Deputy President of Gapla. The election was contested by three political parties: the Free Rightist Party, the dominant party expected to win the election, the Socialist Republic Party, and the AMASH Party. The election was marked by a historically close election between the governing party, the FRP, and the opposition, the SRP. Analysts believe that this was caused with dissatisfaction at the extreme nature of the FRP candidate, Renaldo Chang, and supporters of Chelsea Chen voting SRP.

As expected, the Free Rightist Party won both the presidential and legislative races, with the AMASH Party being a secondary member of the government. In total, this meant that the government held 8 out of 10 seats in the National Assembly, a historic first even for a nation in which FRP is dominant. Overall, the election was a victory for the FRP, especially in the legislative elections, but saw the splitting of the right and a very close presidential race holding the FRP in checks and balances.

Like the previous Gaplan elections, the election did not have a priority voting cycle. Voting was conducted from 15 September to 29 September, with an experimentally shorter voting period (2 weeks) that did not have a significant event on turnout, as 118 ballots were received. This marked a voter turnout of approximately 34%. Renaldo Chang became the Deputy President of Gapla, and Wyatt Baek became the Speaker of the National Assembly for the rightist majority caucus, the National Assembly divided 6 FRP-2 SRP-2 AMASH.

The results of the election were announced on 2 October 2023, with the results being effective the next day.

Participants and results

The following is a list of the participants in the 2023 Gaplan general election.

Deputy Presidential election

As foreign supporters of Chelsea Chen submitted invalid votes in the 2022 Gaplan presidential election, the courts ruled that Emma Bunnell was entitled to one free six-month term as a result, and that Chen would not be punished due to her lack of knowledge of interference.

The election was therefore only to elect the Deputy President of Gapla. There were three candidates, and so there were two instant runoff rounds.

The first round divided as follows:

Party		Nominee (Deputy President)	Political position	Ideology	Vote
	Free Rightist Party (FRP) "Rightist Party"	Renaldo Chang	Right-wing	Libertarian conservativism	43	36.44%
	Socialist Republic Party (SRP) "Republic Party"	Connor Hetner	Far-left	Libertarian communism	41	34.75%
	AMASH Party (AMASH) "AMASH Party"	Gabe Itchez	Right-wing	Satire	34	28.81%
Votes Counted					118	100.00%

As no candidate reached a majority, the instant runoff process was initiated and the AMASH Party's votes primarily went to the Free Rightist Party (FRP), with 25 out of its 34 votes going to the party. 9 out of 34 votes went to the Socialist Republic Party (SRP).

The second round, done through instant runoff voting, divided as follows:

Party		Nominee (Deputy President)	Political position	Ideology	Vote
	Free Rightist Party (FRP) "Rightist Party"	Renaldo Chang	Right-wing	Libertarian conservativism	68	57.63%
	Socialist Republic Party (SRP) "Republic Party"	Connor Hetner	Far-left	Libertarian communism	50	42.37%
Votes Counted					118	100.00%

Renaldo Chang gained a majority in the second round, as was elected Deputy President.

Legislative election

Excluding the Deputy Presidency, 8 out of 10 seats in the National Assembly were contested in the election, with the Free Rightist Party having two guaranteed seats due to its control of both the presidency and the Deputy Presidency.

The legislative election was done through a closed party-list proportional representation system. The results divided as follows:

Coalition		Head of list	Political position	Caucus	Ideology	Vote		Seats	Add.	Total
	Free Rightist Party (FRP) "Rightist Party"	Wyatt Baek	Right-wing	Majority	Libertarian conservativism	64	54.24%	4	2	6
	Socialist Republic Party (SRP) "Republic Party"	Max Barrows	Far-left	Minority	Libertarian communism	31	26.27%	2	0	2
	AMASH Party (AMASH) "AMASH Party"	Dheer Patel	Right-wing	Majority	Satire	23	19.50%	2	0	2
Votes Counted / Total						118	100.00%	8	2	10

As Wyatt Baek was the head of list of the largest party in the majority caucus, he was elected as Speaker of the National Assembly. Connor Hetner became the Leader of the Opposition due to his leadership of the minority caucus.