Baptistois Liberal Party

Baptistois Liberal Party Parti libéral baptistois
Abbreviation	PLB
Leader	Disputed Robert Ménard Léopold Poullain
Founded	30 September 1990
Preceded by	National Republican People's Party
Ideology	Centrism Economic liberalism Conservative liberalism Bacheletism (minority)
Political position	Centre to centre-right
Colors	Blue, yellow
Seats	6 / 14
Website
www.liberal.sb
Political parties

The Baptistois Liberal Party (Principean: Parti libéral baptistois, PLB) is a centrist political party in Saint-Baptiste. The successor of the National Republican People's Party, the PLB is one of two main parties in Saint-Baptiste, alongside the Saint-Baptiste Reform Party. At present, the party forms the government, holding a majority of eight seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The party traditionally takes a more conservative approach to policy, although it is considered the more economically liberal of the two main parties, and attempts to ascribe to a catch-all and non-ideological position.

History

The Baptistois Liberal Party was founded on 30 September 1990, reforming what remained of the National Republican People's Party after Saint-Baptiste's democratization earlier that year. The party initially lost both the 1991 presidential and parliamentary elections, seeing itself form the official opposition to the Saint-Baptiste Reform Party (PAREF), which gained both a parliamentary majority and control of the presidency. By 1994, political fortunes had turned, and the PLB received a majority government under the leadership of Cyrille Bachelet, who later won the presidency in 1996. Under both Bachelet and Edouard Montgomery, the PLB pursued a policy of economic liberalism and minor privatization, creating a boost in tourism and involving with numerous multinational hotel chains. The party won a third term in government in 2000, with an unprecedent 12-seat majority.

Heading into the 2003 parliamentary election, the government had been embroiled in a number of scandals concerning possibly illegal financial transactions between former Minister of Home Affairs Lou Delannoy and numerous hotel chains, most notably Dumont Hotels, as well as a general air that the PLB had become increasingly corrupt under its 9-year tenure. As such, the party lost power in a landslide loss in 2003, with Montgomery himself losing his seat. In opposition under former Minister of Finance and Infrastructure Emmanuel Ménard from the mid-2000s onwards, the party recouped losses to PAREF in 2006, leading to an even split of seven seats between both parties and Saint-Baptiste's first hung Chamber of Deputies. The PLB would go on to narrowly losing the snap 2007 election.

With the popularity of the PAREF government collapsing during the 2009 general strike and increasing financial crisis to the liquidation of Saint-Baptiste's largest bank, the PLB under newly-elected leader Marc-Antoine Vernier surged in opinion polls, and returned to government in 2010 under a platform espousing increased welfare spending, subsidization of the hospitality industry, and an official investigation into corruption into Baptistois government institutions. The party increased its vote share in 2013, and in 2019 became to first party to govern with four consecutive majority governments.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Election year	Leader	# of votes	% of vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Govt?
1991	Pierre-Marie Blanchet	7,463	46.07 (#2)	4 / 14	4	Opposition
1994	Cyrille Bachelet	7,337	51.01 (#1)	8 / 14	4	Majority
1997	Edouard Montgomery	6,517	51.54 (#1)	8 / 14		Majority
2000		7,282	52.11 (#1)	12 / 14	4	Majority
2003		4,993	44.51 (#2)	4 / 14	8	Opposition
2006	Emmanuel Ménard	4,446	44.88 (#2)	7 / 14	3	Opposition
2007		5,005	43.52 (#2)	6 / 14	1	Opposition
2010	Marc-Antoine Vernier	7,137	47.63 (#1)	11 / 14	5	Majority
2013		7,248	51.05 (#1)	11 / 14		Majority
2016		5,802	46.66 (#1)	10 / 14	1	Majority
2019		5,053	42.34 (#1)	8 / 14	2	Majority

President

Election year	Candidate	1st round		2nd round
		# of votes	% of vote	# of votes	% of vote
1991	Édouard Bachelet	7,700	47.71 (#2)	7,317	43.98 (#2)
1996	Cyrille Bachelet	6,922	50.63 (#1)
2001	Cyrille Bachelet	7,191	57.81 (#1)
2006	Emmanuel Ménard	4,938	45.53 (#1)	5,109	49.58 (#2)
2011	Emmanuel Ménard	7,802	52.42 (#1)
2016	Emmanuel Ménard	5,983	44.65 (#1)	6,901	51.01 (#1)
2021	Marc-Antoine Vernier	4,367	27.30 (#1)	8,092	47.31 (#2)