Imaguan Party of Democrats

Democratic Party Partito Democratico
File:ImaguaDemocratic.png
Founded	1 July, 1945
Dissolved	11 July, 1979
Split from	Democratic Party of Imagua
Merged into	National Labour Party
Headquarters	Cuanstad, Imagua and the Assimas
Ideology	Libertarianisml
Political position	Centre to Centre-right
Colors	Gold
Legislative Council	0 / 60
House of Commons	0 / 70
Political parties Elections

The Democratic Party (Etrurian: Partito Democratico d'Imagua) was a political party in Imagua and the Assimas. Established in 1945 when the Liberal Party renamed itself to the Democratic Party in order to affiliate itself with the Democratic Party in the United Provinces, the party would exist until its merger with the National Labour Party in 1979.

Its zenith was under the leadership of Rupert Cox from 1968 to 1980, when in the 1976 general elections, the Imaguan Party of Democrats were able to take one seat in the Lesser House, and won a by-election in 1978 which increased their presence to two members of Parliament. Due to the creation of the National Labour Party in 1978, the Democratic Party voted to merge with the National Labour Party the following year in order to avoid splitting the opposition.

History

Establishment and early years

Following the merger of the Democratic Party with the Labour Party to create the Democratic Labour Party of Imagua, a faction of members opposed to the merger, led by former party leader Abraham Halfacre, held an "extraordinary" party conference to establish the Imaguan Party of Democrats on 7 January, 1948.

There, he invited "all true Democrats" to rally under a continuing Democratic Party, with nine of the eleven Democratic senators joining the continuing party.

However, when the party tried to register with Elections Imagua under the Democratic name, the application was rejected as the name would confuse voters. This forced Halfacre to call the party the Imaguan Party of Democrats.

As well, due to the short time between the merger and the 1948 general election, Halfacre had a hard time finding candidates to run for office. However, he managed to field twenty-two candidates before the writ was dropped.

While Halfacre ran a vigorous campaign, and managed to finish second in much of the constituencies in Cuanstad, the lack of a national presence hampered the party's success. Nonetheless, Halfacre spent the next four years building up a IPD presence across country, vowing to run in "every constituency" by the next general election in 1952. He also nominated Gilberto Rotolo to be their presidential candidate.

This paid off when in 1952, the Imaguan Party of Democrats fielded a full slate of candidates and received more votes than in 1948, although not enough to win any seats, let alone win the presidency. Disappointed, Halfacre resigned, and a leadership race saw Reginald Wheeler win, making him the first Bahio-Imaguan to lead a political party besides the Bahio-Imaguan Party.

Under Wheeler's leadership, the IPD became firmly centre-right, as it sought to position itself as a centrist alternative between the centre-left DLP and the right-wing Sotirian Democrats.

However, his ethnic background helped reduce support for the party, while his decision to nominate Tamara Ferrandino to be the party's presidential candidate, greatly harmed his prospects of election. Thus, in 1956, the IPD were only able to field sixty-eight candidates, as two constituency associations (Saint Fiacre's and Sullivan West) refused to participate in protest of Wheeler's leadership. The 1956 election saw substantially fewer votes for the IPD than in 1952.

With this loss, Wheeler resigned, and was succeeded by Enoch Saunders. Saunders sought to heal the rift within the Imaguan Party of Democrats, and to rebuild its strength so that it may return to the Lesser House of Parliament.

By the 1960 general election, Saunders was able to field a full slate of candidates, and increased his vote share from the 1956 election, although no MPs were elected. Their presidential candidate, Luke Johnson, fared poorly.

However, the Imaguan Party of Democrats gained representation in Parliament when in 1961, DLP MP Otto Newman was expelled from the DLP, forcing him to sit as an independent. He quickly affiliated himself with the Imaguan Party of Democrats, and quickly increased his strength within the party, by virtue of him being the sole representative of the IPD in the Lesser House. This led to Newman becoming party leader.

In the 1964 election, Newman ran for the Premiership, while Rodolfo Osso ran for the Presidency. Newman lost his seat, with no IPD MPs being elected. In the aftermath, Newman resigned as leader of the IPD, and was succeeded by Osso.

As the first Etrurian leader of the party, Rodolfo Osso spent much of the time trying to increase his party's popularity on the Assimas Islands, as he believed that the party would appeal to the Etrurian community better than either the DLP or the Sotirian Democrats.

This alienated many on the island of Imagua, with the result that Osso led the party to its worst showing since 1956, while only fielding sixty-nine candidates.

Leadership of Rupert Cox and zenith

Rupert Cox, 1970

After the devastating defeat in 1968, the Imaguan Party of Democrats forced Rodolfo Osso to resign as party leader. At the leadership convention, they nominated Rupert Cox to lead the party.

Under Cox's leadership, he sought to restore the party's reputation, as two decades of being shut out of the Lesser House, with the exception of Otto Newman, had made the Imaguan Party of Democrats a "fringe party." Thus, he instituted policies to recruit new members from across the country, to align the party with centre-right values, and to attempt to establish a toehold on the Lesser House.

Thus, over the next few years, Cox and the IPD contested by-elections, and established a "full slate" of constituency associations. By the 1971 leadership convention, Cox was confirmed to be the presidential nominee, while Erico D'Antonio was to run for the premiership.

The 1972 general election saw the IPD make huge gains compared to 1968, as they fielded a full slate of candidates, and ran a "vigorous campaign." At certain points, it seemed likely that the IPD would gain one or two seats in the Lesser House, which at that point became urgent, as only a single IPD senator, 74-year old Boyd Morrissey remained in the Senate.

However, when the results came in, the Imaguan Party of Democrats gained no seats. Despite this, the Imaguan Party of Democrats received its second member of Parliament when following disagreements with Democratic Labour Party leader Pietro Muro in 1973, Clelia Pavon joined the Imaguan Party of Democrats. Her presence became more critical when in 1974, Morrissey died, leaving her as the sole representative of the Imaguan Party of Democrats in either chamber of Parliament.

During this period, Rupert Cox continued to build up the party's profile: at the 1975 leadership convention, Clelia Pavon was nominated to be the presidential nominee for the Imaguan Party of Democrats, while Cox was to run for the premiership.

The 1976 general election campaign was an important watershed moment for the Imaguan Party of Democrats, as during this campaign, Rupert Cox was a serious challenger to the DLP and the SDP, with many polls from that estimating that many Imaguans were ready to vote for the Imaguan Party of Democrats.

When the 1976 election results came in, Cox won his own seat. However, the high number of votes for the IPD allowed the Democratic Labour Party to keep a majority government, as they won 47 seats.

Cox would be joined by Ted Branson in 1978, when he was elected to succeed deceased DLP MP Aaron Grant. During this period, the IPD was seen as a more moderate party than either the DLP or the Sotirian Democrats.

However, at the 1979 leadership convention, it was decided that in order to help give the National Labour Party "viability" in the coming election, it was decided to merge the Imaguan Party of Democrats with the National Labour Party.

Political positions

The Imaguan Party of Democrats was a centre-right political party, based on the traditional ideals of classical liberalism.

Election results

Election	Leader	Candidates	Seats	+/-	Position
1948	Abraham Halfacre	22/66	0 / 66		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1952		63/63	0 / 63		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1956	Reginald Wheeler	61/63	0 / 63		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1960	Enoch Saunders	63/63	0 / 63		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1964	Otto Newman	65/65	0 / 65		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1968	Rodolfo Osso	64/65	0 / 65		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1972	Erico D'Antonio	67/67	0 / 67		Extra-parliamentary opposition
1976	Rupert Cox	67/67	1 / 67	1	Third party