1978 Seketese General Election
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All 193 seats to the Commons Council of the Hérvynsken 97 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 92.9% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1978 Seketese General Election was the first fully democratic election after the 1970 Seketese Revolution and the first since the Kjedorates took power and suspended democratic elections in the 1920's. It was the first election the new pro-democracy Socialist Party (SY) and Democratic Party (DY) ever competeded in.
After a tight three way election, The two biggest pro-democracy parties formed a grand coaltion (SY and DY) along with the Liberal Party. The Kjedorate Party formed Chief Oppostion for the first time in its history, and it was the first time since 1950 that the Kjedorates were not in power. The Labour Party won its lowest amount of seats in it's history, holding onto only small mining towns in rural Seketan. The newly formed National Union Allience won a few seats in the working areas of Conelibek.
Background
Since the 1920's Seketan had been ruled by the authoritarian Kjedorate Party under Loren Allis. While technically there were still elections for the Commons Council, they were highly rigged with many liberal and pro-democracy candidates being banned or coerced into not running. This enabled the Kjedorates to easily win all elections between 1925-1973 with only token opposition, usually from the Liberal Party and Labour Party.
Around the 1970's several economic and social crises sprung up, such as hyperinflation and the stagnation of Seketans oil and gas sector, in a period of time known as Zemasy. Under these conditions unrest started to build, leading to many underground revolutionary and pro-democracy groups to form, such as the Workers Liberty Association, the Democratic Seketan Movement and the Student Democratic Union. Groups like these organized major protests across the country such as the Conelibek General Strike. These protests culminated into the 1978 Seketese Revolution, wherein the Kjedorate government caved to domestic and international pressure, allowing for free and open elections to be held in November.
Campaign
Given the short time period given between when the Kjedorate government announced elections and the actual election date, only roughly a dozen of political parties were able to be formed and registered with the new Seketese Free Electoral Commission (SFEC) in time, including the already existing Kjedorate Party, Labour Party, and Liberal Party. Competing parties were allowed to start formally campaigning on October 14 for a 1 month campaign period. Due to many of the new party's being rushed in their creation, the SFEC gave all parties Đ200,000SKD (about Đ1.2 millionSKD in 2021) to campaign, with a spending limit of Đ500,000SKD (Đ3 millionSKD today)
Major Parties
While the SFEC received and approved 14 applications for political parties, only about 6 were considered serious contenders to win seats as they were either prominent revolutionary leaders within their ranks, or were previously legalized parties.
Socialist Party
The Socialist Party was founded by Patjik Moulette after merging many left-wing revolutionary groups after the announcement of free and open elections. Moulette himself was the leader of the Democratic Seketan Movement, which he founded while a school teacher in Conelibek. The party attracted many students and middle class voters with their moderate platform and Moulettes personal charisma. The Socialist Party is pro-democracy and social democratic, sitting on the center-left of the Democratic Party, and right of the Labour Party.
Moulette and the Socialists were widely expected to win the election given their broad support amongst many demographics. During the campaign period they led polls, though there were fears that there may be vote splitting between the pro-democracy parties.
Democratic Party
The Democratic Party initially was a loose alliance of democratic movements that emerged during the 1978 Revolution. When the Kjedorate announced free elections, many of them formally integrated into the Democratic Party, including members of the Free Now! movement, Students for a Democratic Seketan, and factions of the Democratic Seketan Movement. 2 weeks before the campaign period they elected Michjeal Simonson, a former lawyer and human rights activist, as their leader.
During the campaign the party had large amounts of infighting, largely between the centrist liberal faction and the populist/libertarian faction. Despite the internal tensions, they were contenders for official opposition, with the Kjedorates polling above them for most of the campaign.
Kjedorate Party
Ever since the 1920's Seketan has been run by the authoritarian Kjedorate Party. They were ultraconservative, economically libertarian, and pro-unionism. They elected Þorn Manneir as their Prime Minister candidate, however he was not the "leader" of the party. That job was a separate office held by Etyjen Pesan until after the election in 1978.
There had been discussions about whether the Kjedorates should be allowed to run, with the Democratic Party threatening to boycott the election if they were allowed. Ultimately a compromise was met wherein the Kjedorates were still legal, but they couldn't use any of their old imagery like Alisee, which were notorious symbols of the dictatorship.
Surprisingly the Kjedorates polled in second most of the election, with many Seketese conservatives still seeing them as the only viable right-wing option.
Results
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| Party | Acym. | Leader | Seats | Votes | ||||
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| Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||||
| Socialist | SY | Patjik Moulette | 70 |  70 |
1,013,423 | 29.3% | 29.3%
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| Democratic | DY | Michjeal Simonson | 56 | 56 |
896,367 | 25.9% | 25.9%
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| Kjedorate | KY | Þorn Manneir | 42 |  96 |
887,581 | 25.6% | 51.0%
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| Liberals | ELY | Jeameson Treirþe | 9 | 1 |
276,945 | 8.0% | 0.1%
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| Labour | OeUC | Marc Joulette | 6 | 25 |
156,367 | 4.5% | 5.6%
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| National Union | UNCA | Simon Creatin | 4 | 4 |
134,987 | 3.9% | 3.9%
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| Independent | IND | N/A | 6 | 7 |
86,458 | 2.5% | 1.5%
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