Gylian presidential election, 1975

Gylian presidential election, 1972

22 January 1972
Turnout	94,8%
File:EiínDairyn(small).jpg Nominee Eiín Dairyn Maria Elena Durante Party Ind MED–NPP Final vote 3.091.845 2.633.794 Percentage 54,0% 46,0%
File:Gylias-elections-presidential-1972-final.png Results of the final preference distribution by region   Eiín Dairyn   Maria Elena Durante
President before election Eiín Dairyn President after election Eiín Dairyn

Presidential elections were held in Gylias on 22 January 1972.

Incumbent Eiín Dairyn was re-elected, defeating Maria Elena Durante, who was supported jointly by the Movement for Emancipation and Democracy and New People's Party.

Procedure

The election was held through instant-runoff voting.

Candidates were registered with Elections Gylias in accordance with normal procedures. They could either be nominated by a political party or electoral bloc, civic organisations, or self-nomination as independents.

Candidates

Candidate		Nominator		Office(s) held	Details
Eiín Dairyn	File:EiínDairyn.jpg		Independent	President of Gylias (since 1958)	Campaigned on promotion of the arts and culture.
Maria Elena Durante			Movement for Emancipation and Democracy–New People's Party	Senator for Ḑarna (since 1962)	Campaigned on promotion of economic nationalism and left-wing populism.
Sima Daián			Independent	None	Campaigned on promotion of aristerokratia.
Gerard Harmsen			National Bloc	Mayor of Velouria (since 1960)	Campaigned as the main conservative candidate, on promotion of demopolitanism.
Violet Bonham			Liberal Union	None	Campaigned as the main liberal candidate.
Hildegard Wirner			LSD Party	Deputy for Herlan (since 1969)	Campaigned on promotion of acid communism.
Françoise Chatelain			OMFLG–ACFEN	None	Campaigned on promotion of francité.
Luiza Monteira			Centre of Constitutional Monarchists	Deputy for Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk (since 1962)	Campaigned on promotion of monarchism.

Results

Candidate		Nominator	First count	%	Final count	%
	Eiín Dairyn	Independent	1.103.510	17,5%	3.091.845	54,0%
	Maria Elena Durante	MED–NPP	1.084.592	17,2%	2.633.794	46,0%
	Sima Daián	Independent	1.071.981	17,0%
	Gerard Harmsen	NB	775.610	12,3%
	Violet Bonham	LU	769.304	12,2%
	Hildegard Wirner	LSD Party	725.164	11,5%
	Françoise Chatelain	OMFLG–ACFEN	491.850	7,8%
	Luiza Monteira	CCM	189.173	3,0%
Others/write-ins			94.587	1,5%
Total			6.305.770	100%	5.725.639	100%
Registered voters and turnout			6.718.844	94,8%

Maps

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First count pluralities by region

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Final count majorities by region

Analysis

The election reflected the dynamics of the late Golden Revolution: it was the first presidential election after the consoldiation of conservatives into the National Bloc, and the first to include the LSD Party, which built on its spectacular debut in the 1969 federal election.

In the first count, Eiín Dairyn's first preference votes declined even further, setting a record for smallest plurality that would be broken in 1986.

Maria Elena Durante benefited from the significant gains the Movement for Emancipation and Democracy had made in municipal elections since 1967, which had improved its campaigning apparatus. She improved on her performance, winning pluralities in much of north and north-western Gylias, and surprisingly finished second. The final count thus became a contest between two candidates of the left.

Sima Daián, taking over from Ser Şanorin as the main aristerokratia candidate, managed to retain most of Ser's voters from the last election, finishing third with 17% of first preference votes.

Velouria Mayor Gerard Harmsen won a plurality in Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk and Nauras, and led the National Bloc to a strong fourth place finish. Violet Bonham largely repeated her performance from 1967, although she narrowly lost a plurality in Elena to Eiín. LSD Party foresitter Hildegard Wirner won pluralities in Mişeyáke and Nezyál, being aided in the latter by incumbent Governor Amanda Leloup.

In the final count, Eiín largely gained vote transfers from Sima and Françoise's voters. Gerard, Violet, Hildegard, and Luiza's voters tended to transfer evenly, and Maria Elena's unexpected advance to the final count accounted for a somewhat higher share of exhausted ballots. Ultimately, the greater share of centrist and centre-right transfers gave Eiín victory by 54% to 46%, her highest margin in a presidential election.

Maria Elena held onto the regions she'd gained pluralities in, won Mişeyáke and Nezyál from LSDP vote transfers, and gained majorities in Envadra and Herlan, which had given pluralities to Eiín in the first count. However, Eiín carried the regions where Gerhard and Violet had won pluralities, particularly Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk, ensuring victory. Eiín later joked that the final round was "a relaxing walkover" by comparison to 1967, when she's come within 20.000 votes of losing to Ludmila Canaşvili, and subtly insulted Maria Elena by praising Ludmila as "an opponent I felt honoured to nearly lose to".

During the campaign, Maria Elena was undergoing treatment for cervical cancer, and did not reveal this to the public. The strain of campaigning is believed to have contributed to weakening her, causing her to die of the disease later that year.

Historians regard Maria Elena's presidential campaign as a precursor of the wretched decade, as Aén Ďanez and the Revolutionary Rally would use similar populist and demagogic rhetoric in the 1976 federal election, and indeed pick up much of the support the MED had built up before its dissolution.