Sydalene legislative election, August 2018
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
256 seats in the National Assembly 129 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 67.59%  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Sydalene legislative election, August 2018 was held on 7 August 2018. It was the first nation-wide election in Sydalene history and Elections elected all 256 members of the National Assembly, featuring 115 seats from single-member districts and 141 seats based on party-list proportional representation. The election took place concurrently with regional elections in throughout the Royal Domain, Tanas Toron, and local elections.
The centre-right coalition, led by the People's Party earned a plurality of seats, while Franġiskani earned the second most seats, and most votes among the party-list voting. The centre-left coalition, led by Adeodata Saabi and the Modern Left, came third. No party or coalition achieved an outright majority, resulting in a strained chamber election for Speaker.
Three weeks of negotiations between numerous parties from across political spectrum eventually resulted in the People's Party Speaker candidate, Pelae de Arvad, elected to the role.
Background
The 2018 legislative election was originally scheduled for 19 November 2017, but was postponed by royal decree on 1 October due to the death of King Jordan IX and the ascension of Melisende III. The 2017 election was set to be the first nationwide legislative election in Sydalene history, following an amendment to the Consitution signed into effect in 2015, establishing the National Assembly as the lower chamber of Parliament.
The postponment was met with protests in major cities, such as Ostracine, Philippopolis, and Santa Gilles, with Ostracine-based protests even gathering outside of Palis de Aultavilla. Queen Melisende III eventually left Ostracine for Ascalzar, where she maintained her postponment. The Queen eventually announced that elections would be held in the coming year and appointed Fernande Mifsud as Chancellor. The 2018 election was later announced for August, with the Council of Ministers preparing to institute the reforms required ahead of the election. Mifsud's appointment and the announcement of elections quelled many protests and saw the Queen's return to Ostracine.
Electoral system
The election featured 115 constituencies that were elected by single-member districts under a first past the post system. Another 141 members were elected by party-list proportional representation. All list members of parliament were elected in multi-member constituencies based on domain borders. All 115 single member constituencies were drawn ahead of the election.
Voting eligibility
To be eligible to vote in the legislative election, one must be:
- registered to vote with the Royal Registry;
- aged 20 years old by the registration deadline of 6 July 2018;
- a Sydalene citizen; and
- not excluded from voting (whether by legal incompetency, found guilty of or convicted of a felony, not an adherent of a nationally recognized religion) or not disqualified from voting (sitting in the Chamber of Peers).
Timetable
| 19 May | Queen Melisende III announced postponement of 2018 legislative election by royal decree; measure approved by the Senate |
| 22 May | Election date announced for 7 August 2018 |
| 23 May | Commencement of official campaign period |
| 6 July | Last day to register to vote |
| 7 August | Voting day: national polls open at 8 am with polls closing at 9 pm, all voters queued outside of their proper voting station by 9 pm may still cast their vote. Vote counting to begin at 10 pm |
| 14 August | National Assembly is sworn in and assembled |
Coalitions and parties
There were sixteen registered political parties running candidates in the August 2018 election, and 51 independent candidates that were not members of a party. Of all parties standing candidates, nine political parties were contesting in elections for the first time, though all parties were contesting for the first time on the national level. Two possible coalitions formed before the election date: the Centre-right coalition, which included the People's Party, Catholic Justice, and the Traditional Party; and the Centre-left coalition which included Modern Left, Liberal Alliance, Progress, and the Green and Agrarian Party.
Results
| Coalition | Party | Proportional | First-past-the-post | Total seats |
± | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||||
| Centre-right coalition | People's Party (PP) | 1,355,075 | 19.8% | 31 | 1,523,113 | 22.2% | 38 | 69 | –1 | ||
| Catholic Justice (JK) | 472,656 | 6.9% | 11 | 439,010 | 6.4% | 0 | 11 | –15 | |||
| Traditional Party (T) | 202,093 | 2.9% | 0 | 87,310 | 1.3% | 0 | 0 | –9 | |||
| Total seats | 42 | 38 | 80 | –26 | |||||||
| Franġiskani (F3O) | 1,569,991 | 22.9% | 36 | 1,338,310 | 19.5% | 28 | 64 | +39 | |||
| Centre-left coalition | Modern Left (XM) | 1,125,936 | 16.4% | 26 | 1,409,348 | 20.6% | 29 | 55 | –2 | ||
| Liberal Alliance of Christians (LAC) | 232,210 | 3.4% | 5 | 412,319 | 6.0% | 3 | 8 | +4 | |||
| Progress (P) | 92,092 | 1.3% | 0 | 98,313 | 1.4% | 0 | 0 | –3 | |||
| Total seats | 31 | 32 | 63 | –1 | |||||||
| Alternative Democracy (AD) | 502,521 | 7.3% | 11 | 591,213 | 8.6% | 13 | 24 | +4 | |||
| Patriot's Movement (PM) | 379,553 | 5.5% | 8 | 162,314 | 2.4% | 0 | 8 | –2 | |||
| New Democracy (DG) | 301,231 | 4.4% | 7 | 102,414 | 1.5% | 0 | 7 | +7 | |||
| Republican Party (PR) | 281,139 | 4.1% | 6 | 109,121 | 1.6% | 0 | 6 | +3 | |||
| Total | 256 | – | |||||||||
