Sabioveronese general election, 2017

Sabioveronese general election, 2017

14 May 2017
All 20 seats of the Parliament 11 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	100%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Andrew Blackhorse Apollo Cerwyn Snø Jens Party Liberals (Sabia and Verona) Left Alliance (Sabia and Verona) National Artists' Guild Leader since 26 August 2015 10 May 2016 5 March 2017 Leader's seat Alios Alios Alios Last election 9 seats, 41.9% 4 seats; 20.9% 6 seats; 37.2% Seats won 10 6 4 Seat change ▲1 ▲2 ▼2 Popular vote 27 15 9 Percentage 52.9% 29.4% 17.6% Swing ▲11 pp ▲8.5 pp ▼19.6 pp
Prime Minister before election Shounn Virny National Artists' Guild Prime Minister-designate Noa Dargany Liberals (Sabia and Verona)

A general election was held in Sabia and Verona on 14 May 2017, convoked by the Constitutional Assembly, which came into power on 8 March 2017 following a constitutional referendum to change the Constitution of Sabia and Verona. All 20 seats of the unicameral Parliament and prefects for the central regions' prefectures were elected.

The results of the election were growth for the Liberals and the Left Alliance, with each party gaining MPs, and a massive loss for the ruling National Artists' Guild, which passed from being the second-largest party to third place. After the election, the Liberals formed the 9th government, headed by Noa Dargany, who succeded the Guild's Shounn Virny as Prime Minister on 22 May 2017, when the new Parliament took office.

Background

At the 2016 general election, the Unity Party won the most seats in Parliament, but the National Artists' Guild (second most seats) and the recently reformed Left Alliance (third) formed a weak coalition government counting with a plurality just a seat smaller than Unity's. After a couple of months of unstable rule, the coalition began to unravel over the Left's calls for constitutional reform, one of their long-standing platform points. After the La Plata incident, a controversy with NNS Prime Minister Shounn Virny at the epicenter, cals for the PM to resign were made by both the Left and the Liberals, who teamed up to push for the invokation of a constitutional assembly. After a referendum, the parties all agreed to convoke a Constitutional Assembly to replace the controversial 2015 Constitution.

The Constitutional Assembly approved a new constitution on 20 April 2017, and it was ratified the following day by King Tarik. Fresh elections were originally set for 30 April, but after an appeal by the National Artists' Guild, the interim Electoral Commission moved the election date to May 14.

Electoral system

The 2017 election fell under the Electoral Law adopted by the Constitutional Assembly of 2017, so the electoral system employed in this election was different than that used in previous years. The new electoral law imposed a closed list proportional representation system with two legislative districts corresponding to the two regions of metropolitan Sabia and Verona: the City of Alios and Gonn. Out of the 20 overall MPs, 9 correspond to Alios and 11 to Gonn. This system differs from the first-past-the-post employed in the 2015 and 2016 elections.

Participating parties

In the 2017 election, the only three existing parties of the Kingdom will present candidates in the two constituencies. This three-party system has been in place since before the 2016 election, when two DSN MPs broke away from their party and joined the Left Alliance.

• The Liberals (J) were the largest party in Parliament, with 9 out of 20 MPs. Originally founded as the Unity Party in 2012, the Liberals are the oldest political party in the Kingdom. They espouse liberal conservative and capitalist values, having presented their platform, the "New Valtirian Plan", in November 2016. The Liberal leader at the time, Andrew Blackhorse, was a popular politician who held the record of being the longest-serving leader of any party in Sabioveronese history, having beaten Unity founder Graham Müntz in March 2017. The Liberal support base lay mostly among native Southern Valtirians.

• The National Artists' Guild (DSN) was the second largest party in Parliament with 6 out of 20 MPs. They were founded as an offshoot of factions of the Left Alliance and Bakinn upon the foundation of Alios in the Haronos Plan. It was one of the two parties de jure in government, led by party chief and Prime Minister Shounn Virny from 2015 on. Virny resigned the party's leadership in early 2017 due to the results of the March 2017 constitutional referendum and the La Plata incident, and the party had been led by Snø Jens since then. Though nominally a left-wing democratic socialist party, the DSN was broadly considered to be nationalist and bleuberrist party to the center of the spectrum.

• The Left Alliance (R), with only 4 seats in Parliament, was the smallest party and a junior partner in the government coalition. It made significant gains in the 2016 election, "stealing" support from the embattled Artists' Guild. The party was originally founded in February 2014 as one of the factions to surge out of the collapse of the Socialist Party of General Napoléon Bleuberrie, and became the Kingdom's main left-wing party, later shifting its focus on green politics and direct democracy. Former Prime Minister Léon Galieri was the Alliance's leader in 2014. After the Haronos Plan, the Alliance did not participate in the 2015 general election, losing national representation and becoming a regional party alongside Bakinn. The party became a national contender in 2016 when it merged with Bakinn, and received parliamentary representation when MPs Narcissus Clyne and Andreina Rossini broke away from the DSN to join the Alliance. The party's current leader is Apollo Cerwyn.

Results

Distribution of seats in the Sabioveronese Parliament after the 2017 election.

The election resulted in major gains for the Liberals and the Left, which won one and two seats in Parliament, respectively. The National Artists' Guild lost nearly 20 pp and two seats. The Liberals were the largest party both in Gonn and Alios, getting over 50% of the popular vote, but still failed to reach a majority with only 10 seats. Immediately after the election's results were released by the Electoral Commission, the Left ruled out forming any coalitions with the Artists or the Liberals. The Liberals then became the most likely to form a government, with Liberal leader Andrew Blackhorse being mentioned as favorite to become PM.

Party		Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Liberals	Andrew Blackhorse	27	52.9%	10	▲1
	Left Alliance	Apollo Cerwyn	15	29.4%	6	▲2
	National Artists' Guild	Snø Jens	9	17.6%	4	▼2

Popular vote
Liberals			52.9%
Left Alliance			29.4%
National Artists' Guild			17.6%

Parliamentary apportionment
Liberals			50%
Left Alliance			30%
National Artists' Guild			20%

Elected MPs

District	MP	Party
Alios	Andrew Blackhorse		Liberal
	Apollo Cerwyn		Left
	Narcissus Clyne		Left
	Noa Dargany		Liberal
	Simor de Jena		Liberal
	Dímeros Grenouille		Liberal
	Snø Jens		Guild
	Andreina Rossini		Left
	Donnel Seaworth		Liberal
Gonn	Kastor Gevras Drigy		Left
	Félix Gauvier		Left
	Shassel Marlaryen		Liberal
	Palomène Lockhart		Liberal
	Emmanuel Starlynn		Liberal
	Balthassar Valoty		Liberal
	Shounn Virny		Guild
	Franxêska Bagos		Liberal
	Harmê Bertram		Guild
	Orion Bennet		Guild
	Hierba Kebragi		Left

Aftermath and government formation

Prime Minister Shounn Virny assumed responsibility for the National Artists' Guild's poor performance, asking the Sabioveronese people not to blame party leader Snø Jens. Shortly after election day, Virny pointed out on his Twitter account that the Liberals' government formation talks were being headed by Deputy Leader Noa Dargany, instead of Blackhorse. The next day, the Liberal leadership revealed Dargany was their pick to become Prime Minister, as Blackhorse intended to step down from the party's leadership in the near future. On 19 May 2017, Dargany received the King's mandate to form the 9th government of Sabia and Verona, which was confirmed by the 3rd Parliament on 22 May.

See also

• Sabioveronese general election, 2016
• Sabioveronese constitutional referendum, 2017
• Sabioveronese Constitutional Assembly