February 2021 Georgienstinian congressional election
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All 16 seats in the National Congress 9 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 74.1% ▼ 4.2 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Diagram of results by party. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The February 2021 Georgienstinian congressional election was held on 15 February 2021.
It resulted in a Georgienstine First victory, with the party seeing its first gains since the first congressional elections. The SLP/LDP joint list saw major gains too. Two newly created LP/SDP joint list also saw gains. Both took support from the New Democratic Party, which was not running a list. After the election, Social Democratic congressperson James Mark joined the Majority Caucus after the Liberal Party announced its decision to caucus with the Minority. This election was the first one with a live election night.
Background
The December 2020 Georgienstinian Congressional Election resulted in a National Front government led by Georgienstine First. Tom Mark was elected speaker with bipartisan support. Mark, a former deputy-speaker had replaced the incumbent speaker, Guy Watts numerous times as he was often absent. This made Mark the clear favourite to replace Watts as the speaker.
On 2 January 2021, Minority Leader Ariel Lederman resigned as a congressman to focus on his own micronation, Freedonia. Lederman was elected again to the National Congress 2 months later.
On 17 January 2021, the Socialist Labour Party dissolved to allow congresspeople from other parties to join their party due to the constitution stating that incumbent congresspeople could join a party if the party was less than 24 hours. This would make them count as founders. New Democratic congressman, Roy Jackson joined the party. Minutes later, the Liberal Party dissolved to let Minority Leader Azerianus Severanus join their party. Severanus was removed as Minority Leader hours later and decided to join the Majority Caucus. After this incident, Congress passed a constitutional amendment to allow congresspeople to cross the floor presented by Alexandre Olivier. The amendment was passed 9 to 3 with 4 congresspeople not voting.
On 27 January 2021, congressman Jimmy Foddle called for a leadership review for Majority Leader Alexandre Olivier. Majority Whip Ann Mark was the favourite to replace him. Originally, it seemed as if Olivier would be removed due to all congresspeople voting in favour of the removal. Olivier voted in favour of his own removal, falsely claiming that he had been chosen as acting Majority Leader in July 2020 and was supposed to serve in the office briefly, despite having served seven months in the position. He had also claimed that he had been promised the office of Majority Whip, despite the position not existing in July 2020. Olivier's comments were condemned by president Raphaël Olivier and many congresspeople. Many European congresspeople, ardent supporters of Ann Mark for Majority Leader called on the leader to resign. After a short discussion with the president, the president decided to oppose Olivier's removal and all Georgienstine First congresspeople changed their votes to keeping Olivier. The caucus ended up unanimously voting to keep Olivier.
On 29 January 2021, the Fatherland Movement's congressional leader, Ivan Brienović resigned after stating that he could not bear being in the same Discord server as Jonas Rhymer. This automatically made Louis de Blois the new congressional leader and was tasked with finding somebody to replace Brienović as a congressman. At first, de Blois argued that Brienović had not renounced his citizenship and that he could still serve in the National Congress. As Brienović was no longer a member of the Discord server and he did not live on Georgienstinian territory, he could not keep his seat. On 1 February 2021, the Fatherland Movement dissolved due to the lack of implicated party members. De Blois became an Independent congressman and Brienović's seat remained vacant.
Electoral system and organization
The National Congress is composed of 16 seats elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency, with a legal threshold of 1 full seat (6.25%), and residuals assigned by the D’Hondt method.
Campaign
Majority Leader Alexandre Olivier of Georgienstine First hosted meet-and-greets at the beginning of the campaign. Georgienstine First also released numerous humoristic posters, most of them on Secretary of State Jimmy Foddle. The party stopped releasing the posters after he and President Raphaël Olivier asked them to stop. The Socialist Labour Party released several posters too.
Results
| Party | Leader | Seats | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgienstine First | Alexandre Olivier | 8 | 53.5% | |
| SLP/LDP | Ben Olson | 5 | 30.2% | |
| LP/SDP | Ariel Lederman | 3 | 16.3% |
Notes
- ↑ Includes James Mark, who left to sit under the Social Democratic Party, before the first session of congress.