Adammic national election, August 2017

Adammic National Election August 2017

12 August 2017
Turnout	82.76% (▼ 9.24)
Candidate Prince Jake Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher Sir Paul McKenna Party Liberal Moderate Labour Popular vote 11 9 4 Percentage 45.8% (▲ 45.8) 37.5% (▼ 10.3) 16.7% (▼ 35.5)
Prime Minister before election Sir Paul McKenna Labour Elected Prime Minister Prince Jake Liberal

The August 2017 National Election was an election in the Empire of Adammia held on 12 August 2017 in which Liberal Party leader Prince Jake was elected as the Empire's third Prime Minister. The Moderate Party candidate, Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher, former Prime Minister from 2013 - 2016, finished second. The incumbent Prime Minister, Sir Paul McKenna of the Labour Party, saw his vote share collapse and finished in third place. It was the first ever three-way election in Adammia, and the Liberal Party's first and only national election victory prior to its merger into the Liberal-Moderates a year later.

Background

Paul McKenna won the 2016 for the Labour Party by a single vote. Prior to this, Emperor Mother Jayne had won the 2013, 2014 and 2015 elections. The past two elections had been fought between Labour and the Moderates, as the Liberals did not have any eligible candidates, as they were all either too young, or, in Emperor Adam I's case, prohibited from running for Prime Minister due to being Monarch.

McKenna's term had seen high levels of inactivity. In September 2016, Emperor Adam I had begun studying at the University of Birmingham, and his new academic and social life left him little time to work on Adammia, although several of his flatmates did join the Empire as part of the colony of Alluria. Due to the physical distance between the Emperor and the rest of the government, many functions were suspended, such as the vital Contributions Scheme, which underpinned the nation's finances. In March 2017, the Emperor announced special inactivity measures which included the dissolution of the Colonial Council and a downgrade to observership in the Grand Unified Micronational. However, shortly afterwards, his involvement with the University of Birmingham Liberal Democrats society led to him joining the "Liberal Drinks Mafia" and introducing micronationalism to them. Ems Simpson was the first of these people to join Adammia, founding Pererria. Adammia began to return to activity, with the Adammic Express being rebooted.

Upon returning to the Yorkshire provinces, the Emperor called local and national elections on 24 June. The local elections took place on 15 July, with all the incumbents being re-elected. However, candidates were slow to come forward; Watertopia would not declare its local election until September, whilst Myway's local election never took place at all. Also on 15 July, the Liberal Party held its first ever conference, where a constitution was approved (making it the first Adammic political party to adopt a constitution), Emperor Adam I was appointed as the party's first President, and Prince Jake was elected as the party's leader.

Candidates

Under the Supreme Directive at the time, the Prime Minister was directly elected by the citizens, and had to be a member of the Ruling Council. There were three parties represented in the Council, and one independent.

Having turned 12 years old the previous November, Prince Jake was now able to run for Prime Minister, allowing the Liberal Party to finally be able to contest a national election for the first time. The addition of Sir Christopher Hall to the party's ranks opened the possibility of an alternative candidate, but Hall was considered too inactive, and Prince Jake became leader - and therefore the party's nominee - unopposed.

On 30 July, the Moderate Party and Labour Party re-nominated their candidates from the previous two years, former Prime Minister HIH Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher for the Moderates and incumbent Prime Minister HG Sir Paul McKenna for Labour. Neither party had a formal nomination process, but both candidates were unopposed within their own ranks.

By this time, the only remaining independent candidate in the Council was Crown Prince Daniel, who had long since ruled out running.

Campaign

The Liberal Party was the first unveil its manifesto, on 15 July. Drafted by the Emperor, it included proposals to merge Adammia's nine ministries into five in the interest of streamlining the Cabinet, developing the judicial system, investigating the possibility of an intermicronational summit in Birmingham or London, and subsidies for new companies. Labour published their manifesto on 5 August, arguing for the continued suspension of the Contributions Scheme until it was needed, increasing the price of wine to 10p (which had originally been suggested by Emperor Mother Jayne at the previous election), and scrapping the defence budget. The Moderate manifesto was launched on 6 August was broadly similar to Labour's, and like previous Moderate manifestos focussed mostly on the family life of the House of Hall.

The Adammic Express "hyped up" the campaign more than any previous election, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of all the candidates and their manifestos. It noted that the Moderates had spent much of their manifesto discussing what they would not change, which arguably reinforced its "moderate" image. The election was also the most policy-rich to date, with all three parties publishing detailed manifestos.

In the traditional pre-election Adammic Express interviews, published on 11 August, McKenna adopted an uncharacteristic Trump-like attitude, fuelling speculation that he may have lost interest in trying to win the election, or that he was about ready to condede; the Express already predicted at this stage that McKenna could lose much of his vote to the Liberals. Meanwhile, Prince Jake gave an interview which greatly embarrassed his backers in the Liberal Party, directly contravening the party's position on cannabis legalisation (thus ironically adopting a more authoritarian stance than the other two candidates), and admitting that he didn't really understand Adammic politics. Emperor Mother Jayne gave the most conventional interview response, and again pushed her party's family-based angle.

In its final pre-election analysis, the Express predicted that Emperor Mother Jayne had the best chance of winning, but noted that Prince Jake should not be written off.

Results

Prince Jake won 11 votes (45.8%), just two votes ahead of Emperor Mother Jayne on 9 votes (37.5%). McKenna received just 4 votes (16.7%); his vote share drop of 35.5% remains the worst vote share collapse in Adammic history as of 2020.

Territorial division	Turnout	HIH Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher	HG Sir Paul McKenna	HIH Prince Jake
Primoria	100%	1	1	2
Maternia	100%	1	0	1
Tytannia	100%	0	1	0
Watertopia	100%	1	0	1
Myway	100%	1	1	2
Alluria	50%	0	1	1
Dearneland	100%	1	0	0
El Grandens	100%	0	0	1
Kappania	100%	0	0	1
Midgard	0%	0	0	0
Pererria	100%	0	0	1
Non-territorial	71.4%	4	0	1
Total	82.76%	9	4	11

Analysis

Much of Prince Jake's support came from the larger provinces of Primoria and Myway, where many of the residents were Liberal Party members who had previously voted Labour due to the lack of a Liberal candidate; this accounts for much of the collapse in McKenna's vote share. The Liberals also performed well in the new areas of Alluria and Pererria, believed to represent appetite in these areas for more radical policy. Whilst the Moderates continued to do well in the abroad citizens category, where they enjoyed the traditional support of the Ordo Vladius, this did not transfer to the newer territories; the Emperor Mother's family-based policies arguably had little relevance for these citizens. As with the previous election, the support of the Adammic National Party helped to decide the result, with the ANP surprisingly choosing to endorse their old rivals, the Liberals. However, the Liberals ignored the ANP's assertion that this entitled them to concessions. Labour's collapse in support has been attributed to their positioning in between the conventional, family-based Moderates and the more radical Liberals, where they failed to stand out.

Aftermath

Prince Jake formed his Cabinet on 19 August, immediately after the passage of the Government Ministries Act 2017. The greatly reduced number of ministries meant that the Liberals only needed to form a coalition with Labour, putting the Moderates into opposition for the first time ever. Emperor Mother Jayne became the first officially-recognised Leader of the Opposition (although the then-independent Sir Christopher Hall had been considered the de-facto opposition leader during Adammia's earlier years). Sir Reginald Hall continued to serve as Deputy Prime Minister, with McKenna becoming Minister of Defence.

However, the many delays in organising both the local and national elections had solidified the Emperor's decision to begin relocating Adammia's central government to newer Birmingham territories. This process began in September and concluded in October; Prince Jake had very little to do with it. On 28 October 2017, the Fourth Amendment to the Supreme Directive was approved by referendum, allowing the minimum length of a Prime Minister's term to be cut from six months to just one month. At the same time, the Empire of Adammia Act 2017 rearranged most of the provinces, with the Ruling Council moving to the new province of Serkatia. With Prince Jake unable to attend this new province, a national election was called for 19 November, ending his term early. In the interim, he formed a new provisional Cabinet, with Sir Alex Helliker serving as Deputy PM. Helliker went on to win the November election and succeed Prince Jake as the Empire's fourth Prime Minister.

See also

Elections in Adammia