2020 Azmaran legislative election

2020 Azmaran general election

19 April 2020
All 150 seats in the Folksmot 75 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	91.02%
Party Leader % Seats ± Workers' Party Eryk Jorśsun 32.1% 51 -5 Gold Flame Freidrik Aleksaanderssun 19.0% 30 +6 The Radicals Ana Freidriksdohter 13.0% 19 +6 Centre Party Aansgaar Jonssun 10.4% 16 -6 Green Party Liis Jonsdohter 9.1% 14 +5 People's Party Hank Hankssun 4.0% 6 -2 Socialist Party Karl Kryssun 3.2% 5 -2 Free Alliance 08 Collective leadership 2.8% 4 +1 Grey Party Niina Karlsdohter 1.7% 3 0 New Azmara Collective leadership 1.2% 2 -3 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Thingspeaker before Thingspeaker after Eryk Jorśsun Workers' Sofija Anasdohter Workers'

The 2020 Azmaran legislative election was held in Azmara on 19 April 2020. All 150 seats in the Folksmot were contested, being elected in eight multi-member constituencies.

As part of a campaign largely dominated by discussion of issues of climate change, especially the ramifications of the Tuaisceart-Süd II pipeline, the result saw significant gains for the left-liberal Radicals and the Green Party, both of whom made opposition to the pipeline and investment in the green economy key parts of their platforms. Both took small portions of the Workers' Party's 2017 support base, yet for the most part the party's support base remained constant.

The election also saw Gold Flame affirm themselves as the leading party of the centre-right, making significant gains, largely at the expense of the Centre Party, who also saw their support bleed to the regionalist Free Alliance 08 as a result of the 2019 devolution in Haadland and Hytklif.

Immediately after the election, the Workers' Party, the Radicals and the Green Party entered negotiations to form a government together, which was marked by dispute between the socially conservative trade unionist side of the Workers' Party with the anti-pipeline activists in both the Radicals and Greens, yet was ultimately resolved in early July as former Interior Minister Sofija Anasdohter was confirmed as Thingspeaker in a confidence vote on the 13th.

Background

The 2017 election saw a major victory for the Workers' Party, who surged from their historic low in the 2014 election to win 56 eats and 35.2% of the vote, with the Raad-Groon pact the party had formed before the election with the Green Party and the Socialist Party winning 72 seats overall, beating the incumbent bourgeois bloc coalition government of Gold Flame, the Centre Party and The Radicals, who won 59 seats. As a result, Thingspeaker Sofija Freidriksdohter resigned the night of the election and conceded to the Raad-Groon pact, who would form a left-wing minority government led by Workers' Party leader Eryk Jorśsun, who became Thingspeaker on the 30th April.

Jorśsun's government, which featured nine ministers from the Workers' Party, three from the Greens and two from the Socialists, pursued a reformist social democratic platform of significant green investment spending with the government significantly reversing the privatisation of the transport, energy and communications sectors, with the government consolidating its majority control over Azmaariś-Lesten, Azmaariś-Stroom and Azmaariś-Telekom in order to significantly invest in public transport, renewable energy and digitisation, paid for by a raise in taxes on high earners and large corporations. An investment fund to help with the regeneration of new industry in areas with high unemployment as a result of the country's deindustrialisation in the late 20th century and Azmara's traditional reliance on tripartite negotiations in wages and incomes policy was revitalised.

Progressive social reforms were also undertaken, with the government confirming its commitment to and fast-tracking the gender self-identification bill proposed by Sofija Freidriksdohter, establishing limited home rule for the provinces of Haadland and Hytklif and adopting an official pluralist policy towards Azmaran's traditional dialects. On immigration, however, the government maintained a more conservative line, with new Interior Minister Sofija Anasdohter saying there would be "no changes" to the country's points-based immigration system.

The election's date was officially announced by Jorśsun on the 29th February to honour the three-year term limit on the Folksmot. The date would be confirmed by the Folksmot itself when it voted on March 3rd to dissolve itself for elections, and as a result the Folksmot would be officially dissolved by President Maarija Ryginsdohter the following day.

Election system

The 150 members of the Folksmot are all elected using party-list proportional representation under the Wiljâmssun method in eight constituencies which are defined as contiguous with the eight provinces of Azmara.

There is no threshold for a party to win a seat, with seats being allocated to any party that is allocated a seat by the application of the quota. Furthermore, the use of an open list means that voters for a specific party select a specific candidate from the party's list to give a personal vote to, with a party's candidates being elected in the order of personal votes they received.

The amount of seats allocated to each constituency is allocated proportionally to the amount of eligible voters within the constituency, and is redistributed after each census, with the current seat distributions being modelled on the 2013 census.

Region	Seats
Aalmsted	15
Groonbank	38
Haadland	12
Hytklif	8
Nordberg	6
Ostlaak	17
Sompland	24
Westmaark	30
Azmara	150

Voting is mandatory for all Azmaran citizens aged 18 or over, with voter registration being an automatic process and the Voter Registration Act of 2006 mandating a fine for registered voters under the age of 70 who did not vote and cannot give a sufficient reason as to why they did not vote.

Participating parties

Party		Ideology	Political position	Leader	2017 result	In government
	Workers' Party	Social democracy, pro-Eucleanism	Centre-left	Eryk Jorśsun	56 / 150	Y
	Gold Flame	Conservative liberalism, economic liberalism, pro-Eucleanism	Centre-right	Freidrik Aleksanderssun	24 / 150	N
	Centre Party	Agrarianism, Sotirian democracy, pro-Eucleanism	Centre-right	Aansgaar Jonssun	22 / 150	N
	The Radicals	Social liberalism, green liberalism, Euclean federalism	Centre to centre-left	Ana Freidriksdohter	13 / 150	N
	Green Party	Green politics, progressivism, Euclean federalism	Centre-left	Liis Jonsdohter	9 / 150	Y
	People's Party	National liberalism, right-wing populism, souverainism, Eucloscepticism	Right-wing to far-right	Hank Hankssun	8 / 150	N
	Socialist Party	Democratic socialism, left-wing populism, Eucloscepticism	Left-wing to far-left	Karl Kryssun	7 / 150	Y
	New Azmara	Multiculturalism, progressivism, intersectionalism	centre-left to left-wing	Collective leadership	5 / 150	N
	Free Alliance 08	Regionalism, federalism	Centre-left to centre-right	Collective leadership	3 / 150	N
	Grey Party	Pensioners' interests	Centre	Niina Karlsdohter	3 / 150	N

Campaign

The campaign for the election officially began after the official dissolution of the Folksmot on the 4th March. Initial polls indicated a significant lead for the Workers' Party, with Jorśsun maintaining a positive approval rating and a lead of 13% on Gold Flame leader Freidrik Aleksaanderssun in preferred Thingspeaker polling, with his reforms being generally popular and the party having governed in generally good economic conditions.