Elections in Gabrielland

Elections in Gabrielland are held to elect government officials and other elected posts at a national, realm, regional, provincial levels, and local levels. Elections in all five levels of government exists. At the national level, only one of the three heads of states is elected, that being the Head of the New Frontier. All members of the provincial and regional legislatures are elected directly by the people using varying methods such as first pass the post, open list proportional representation, closed list proportional representation, and ranked voting to name a few. Regions and provinces may choose their own electoral system in the process. Members of the realm legislature and lower house of the national legislature are elected directly with multi member constituencies for both, and using an open list proportional representation for the realm parliament and ranked open list proportional representation for the lower house of the national parliament.

The constitution of 2000 has outlined the base of Gabrielt elections, mandating every level of government to conduct its own elections according to laws set by each body. The constitution also regulates the maximum term length of the head of the New Frontier, seat allocations in the national and realm parliament, as well as the number of seats a regional and provincial parliament may haave based on their population size. Thus, elections are administered and conducted at the provincial level as they set the regulations and proceedings regarding all elections. However, the timing in which subdivisions can conduct elections are determined by the national parliament, but subdivisions are still entirely free to determinee the term lengths and limits of each office.

Initially, only men were able to vote. Via the 1953 12th amendment to the Gabrielt constitution, women were allowed to vote for the first time in the 1954 local elections. Until 1964, no elections comission or board existed. The Elections Commission was established in 1964 to conduct all elections from local to national, whereas previously individual provinces would run the elections. The Election Watch was also created alongside the EC to monitor elections, and has the sole authoritative jurisdiction to report elections to the respective courts for allegations of fraud. Starting in 1970, all candidates must report their wealth and assets to the EC via a bill introduced in 1969. The Election Comission was also given the authority to disqualify candidates for failing to meet their criteria of selection. The EC and EW was suspended between 1976 and 1985 during the Gabrielt civil war and Arsyan Republic. Only the EC was refounded in 1985 as the sole election monitor and regulator, as states (and now various subdivisions) run the election according to their own rules and criteria.

Voting

Voting methods

Traditionally, each subdivision is free to choose its own type of voting method for its own local elections. Nationally, a multiple non-transferable vote is used for both the Gabrielt and Arsyan People's Communion and the Gabrielt and Arsyan Elder's Communion, both elected through multi-candidate constituencies.

National elections

There are two types of national elections, namely elections to the Gabrielt and Arsyan People's Communion (lower house) and the Gabrielt and Arsyan Elders' communion (upper house, also commonly the senate of Gabrielland). Both elections utilize a multiple non-transferable vote system in multi-candidate constituencies. For the lower house, constituencies are created based on provincial lines based on population, ranging from 3 to 8 representatives per constituency. Voters possess the same amount of votes as there are required candidates to fill, and filling out less than the maximum is allowed. All votes are treated as one vote, and all candidates who place above the required amount of seats to be filled are elected to the national parliament.

Elections to the Gabrielt and Arsyan Elders' Communion occur in a similar manner to the lower house. Elders or senators are chosen in three constituencies with a fixed amount of elders per constituency, namely 38 for Gabrielland, 10 for the Arsyan Realms, and 2 for the new frontier. Elections occur in a staggered pattern, with each senator falling into one of four classes. The classes rotate with each election cycle, and Senators are up for reelection once every eight years. The voting method is also similar to the lower house, with multiple non-transferable vote being used. Different from the lower house is the ability for voters to vote for more than the required amount of candidates by up to two votes. The candidate with the highest amount of votes and that meet the quota for that constituency and class at the time of the election are elected to the upper house of Gabrielland.

While some constituencies have term limits (as a ruling from either the province or region), others do not.

Realm elections

Elections to determine representatives for the realm parliament are the only elections that exist within the realm level. Each region is alotted a set number of representatives to represent their region in the lower house of the realm parliament, known as different names in diferent realms. The realm parliament does not have an upper house as it is a unicameral body. Each region possess different methods of election to the realm parliament, with some regions having a unified voting method for the entire region, while others leaving up to the provinces to decide the method used for the realm elections. Realm elections occur once every five years, occuring in years ending in a multiple of 5.