Adammic national election, 2014
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| Turnout | 82.1% (▲12.1) | |||||||||||||||
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The 2014 National Election was held on 9–10 August 2014 in the Empire of Adammia, in which Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher was re-elected Prime Minister for a second term, defeating her sister Julie Foster.
Background
The previous national election, which was Adammia's first, was held on 25 August 2013. Under the Supreme Directive at the time, elections had to be held between six months and two years after the previous election, with the intention that elections would be held annually. Elections were called by Emperor Adam I during the last meeting of I Legislature of the Ruling Council on 12 July 2014. At the time, under the First Amendment to the Supreme Directive, passed by referendum the previous November, only Councilors were eligible to run for Prime Minister. The Councilors for the five provinces, following the previous month's local elections alongside by-elections for Watertopia and Myway in January, were Emperor Mother Jayne for Maternia, Crown Prince Daniel for Primoria, Sir Reginald Hall for Tytannia, Julie Foster for Watertopia, and Debbie Shaw for Myway. All of these Councilors were independent, not belonging to any political party.
Candidates
Sir Reginald Hall declined to stand, whilst Shaw was never consulted. On 3 August, the candidates were announced as Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher (the existing PM seeking re-election), Crown Prince Daniel, and Julie Foster. Crown Prince Daniel later withdrew his candidacy the week before the election took place, reportedly on the Emperor's advice.
Campaign
As with the previous national election, the candidates made no effort to campaign and their only communication with the electorate was in the form of the pre-election Adammic Express interview. The Express interviews were mostly thrown together at the last minute, with the state newspaper recycling some of the Emperor Mother's answers from the previous year's election, and paraphrasing her on others.[1]
The Emperor Mother was positive about her record, citing the first Foundation Day celebrations in April, increasing financial and economic stablity due to the Contributions Scheme and the establishment of the Capital Wine Company, growing citizenship numbers, and the Ruling Council's continued support for the Emperor's legislative improvements. Foster echoed this sentiment by congratulating the government on the annexation of Watertopia and Myway. In contrast to the Emperor Mother's centrist viewpoint, Foster expressed a more liberal outlook, suggesting that "lots of rules and regulations" would not be necessary.
The Express raised the issue of public spending as a major issue in its interviews; over the previous term, the Contributions Scheme had seen the Treasury run a consistent surplus, and there was speculation as to what this money might be spent on. Both candidates backed the Emperor's proposal of spending government money on a public monument listing the Empire's citizens, though Foster also suggested that a "social gathering" could also benefit from government funds.
The Adammic Express praised the Emperor Mother's knowledge of current political affairs, and pointed out Foster's lack of ministerial experience, whilst noting that the Emperor Mother was under much more pressure in this election than at the previous election, when her previous opponent, Sir Reginald Hall, had effectively conceded the election before voting had even begun.
Results
Emperor Mother Jayne won 15 votes (71.4%) to Foster's 6 (28.6%), a second consecutive landslide, albeit reduced from 2013.[2] The election gained the highest voter turnout in Adammic history to that point, with 23 out of 28 eligible full citizens casting ballots (82.1%). Two ballots were invalidated as they had attempted to vote for Crown Prince Daniel, who had by that point withdrawn from the race. The results were announced on AOT News on 11 August.[3] Incidentally, Amity Gilmour's role as a news presenter at this election was her first ever active role in Adammia, years before she would later become a senior government minister.
Aftermath
Following her re-election, the Emperor Mother pledged to "put more effort in for the next term in office". A Cabinet reshuffle took place on 17 August, with Foster being appointed to replace Sir Reginald Hall as Deputy Prime Minister, in keeping with the Austenasian custom that defeated election candidates were elected as Deputy PM. Foster also become Minister of Information. The public monument to Adammia's citizens which was endorsed by both candidates was realised two months later, with the unveiling of the Populus Imperium monument on 26 October 2014.
The Emperor Mother would be re-elected to another, third term in 2015, this time under the banner of her new Moderate Party. She would eventually be defeated in 2016 by Sir Paul McKenna of the Labour Party.
