Legislative elections are scheduled to be held in the United Provinces of Alsland by 5 September 2022. All 201 members of the Folkssenaat will be up for election.

Background

2022 Alslandic legislative election
All 201 seats in the Folkssenaat; 101 seats needed for a majority
	Opinion polls
	The distribution of seats between each constituency.
Government before election; Moller cabinet; NB-PA-HSU-G-AK	Government after election ; TBD;

The 2018 legislative election had resulted in the end of the Premiership of Liekele Ykema who had been Premier for 8 years prior to the election. The National Bloc, Humanist Sotirian Union, Progressive Alliance and Green - Alternative Choice all made gains at the expense of the previously governing Liveable Alsland and the opposition Alslandic Section of the Workers' International whilst the Kirenian People's Party kept their 11 seats. In the case of the Progressive Alliance it went from 10 seats prior to the election to 35 and became the largest party of the left in Alsland.

Following the election, President Rita Rebane asked Hepke Veltman from the National Bloc to form a coalition. The following negotiations were the longest in Alslandic history and took 4 months whilst Liekele Ykema remained as acting Premier. The negotiations involved all political parties and an agreement was reached between the National Bloc, Progressive Alliance, Humanist Sotirian Union and Green - Alternative Choice to form a coalition which would have a similar composition to the previous government of Liekele Ykema. Veltman became Premier on 27 December 2018 during a special inauguration ceremony and his government was sworn in later that day. During the negotiations Veltman was accused of tax evasion by multiple news sources, Veltman denied the allegations but was granted immunity from prosecution after being sworn in as Premier.

In 2020, Veltman announced his candidacy for the President of Alsland and Rebane announced her retirement from politics. The move was condemned by his coalition partners who argued he was abandoning a position he had been elected to, as such the Progressive Alliance, HSU and Greens all refused to back another National Bloc Premier and instead demanded Finance Minister Ottila Möller from the Progressive Alliance be sworn in as Premier if Veltman stood down, Veltman ultimately agreed to stand down during the campaign and won the Presidential election narrowly. Möller was sworn in as Premier on 25 April, the same day Veltman resigned as Premier and was sworn in as President by Rebane.

On November 31, the Dellish regionalist Maitiid party announced they would be competing in the legislative election after not running in 2018. The party only fielded candidates in the Dellish Community. The Orange Party was founded on 16 July 2021 as a union of right-wing parties opposed to the government, the Party grew rapidly in support amongst dissatisfied National Bloc voters. On 26 January 2022, an opinion poll showed 58% of Alslanders disapproved of Möller's government which was the highest disapproval rating of her government, days later Möller called a vote of no confidence against her own government by resigning, the government won the vote of confidence and Möller was reappointed Premier. The vote of confidence caused a rift between the National Bloc and the other coalition parties after the Bloc's leader Ermnbryht Vrihte called for an early election and a new interim Premier.

Electoral system

All 201 Senators are members of 18 constituencies which represent each Province of Alsland. Senators are elected using the party-list proportional representation, using the Boeri method. A party or list must win 3% of the nationwide popular vote to be eligible to win seats and the seats would be divided by how many votes that list won in each constituency. Regionalist and parties representing specific communities are excluded from this rule and must only win enough votes to qualify for seats in the constituencies they are competing in.

There is no federally recognised voting age and each community sets it's own voting ages for elections, instead it is precedent to let each Community decide on the voting age for elections. In the Swathish Community and Holsaten Community the voting age is 16 whilst in the Dellish Community and Martish Community the voting age is 18. The Dellish Community also has mandatory voting laws however there are no punishments for failing to vote. All Communities have automatic voter registration and all communities use voting machines to cast ballots 7 of the major parties running wish to establish a Federal voting law to standardise Alsland's voting laws. Voters from abroad can request a ballot via mail from their embassy and these ballots must be returned to the embassy or consulate the day prior to the election.

However the laws regarding candidates are the same across the country, to be eligible to stand for the Folkssenaat a person must be at least 18 years old and have Alslandic citizenship. If a candidate has dual citizenship they are allowed to retain it since 2019, prior to this a candidate would have had to renounce their previous citizenship.

Date

According to the constitution of Alsland, legislative elections must either take place on the first Monday of September 4 years after the last legislative election, or be held on the same day as a Presidential election. Days on which federal elections are held are designated as public holidays as of 2020 to encourage voter turnout. As per the 2017 elections law, this will be the last election to have a fixed date which allows for snap elections following 2022.

Political parties

Nine political parties were represented in the Folkssenaat upon the dissolution of the 26th Folkssenaat.

Name		Ideology	Position	Candidate	2018 result		Current seats
Name		Ideology	Position	Candidate	Votes (%)	Seats	Current seats
	Blok	Liberal conservatism	Centre-right	Ermnbryht Vrihte	25.7%	51 / 201	51 / 201
	PA	Progressivism	Centre-left	Ottila Möller	18.5%	35 / 201	33 / 201
	HSU	Sotirian humanism	Centre to centre-right	Hilda Schaaf	17.6%	32 / 201	31 / 201
	ASAY	Councilism	Left-wing to far-left	Olari Lippmaa	14.2%	27 / 201	27 / 201
	LA	Liberalism	Centre	Liekele Ykema	12.3%	24 / 201	24 / 201
	KRP	Regionalism	Centre-left	Ahto Malk	6.7%	11 / 201	11 / 201
	ORP	Right-wing populism	Right-wing	Elsert Wassenaar	Did not exist		11 / 201
	GAK	Green politics	Centre-left	Sjearp Groeneveld	4.8%	10 / 201	6 / 201
	TFA	Social liberalism	Centre to centre-left	Kairi Sokk	Did not exist		6 / 201

Pre-dissolution composition

Party		Seats

	National Bloc	51
	Progressive Alliance	33
	Humanist Sotirian Union	31
	ASAY	27
	Liveable Alsland	24
	Kirenian People's Party	11
	Orange Party	11
	Green - Alternative Choice	6
	Together for Alsland	6
	Independent (Urjo Eenpalu)	1

Campaign

Debates

Alslandic legislative election debates, 2022
Date	Channel	Subject	Venue	P Present S Surrogate NI Not invited A Absent invitee INV Invited
				Groeneveld	Lippmaa	Malk	Möller	Schaaf	Sokk	Vrihte	Wassenaar	Ykema

31 July	ANS 1	Climate change debate	ANS Main Studios	P	P	P	P	P	NI	P	P	S
9 August	ANS 1	Accountability debate	ANS Main Studios	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
16 August	ANS 1	Federal debate	ANS Main Studios	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
19 August	DTRT 2	Dellish debate	DTRT Centre	INV	INV	NI	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
20 August	ANS 1	Federal debate	ANS Main Studios	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
23 August	MRT 1	Martish debate	MRT Rahu studio	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
27 August	SLBS Mainline	Swathish debate	ANS Studios - Swerdia	INV	INV	NI	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
28 August	HLRB 2	Weranian debate	HLRB Campus	INV	INV	NI	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV
3 September	ANS 1	Federal debate	ANS Main Studios	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV	INV

Issues

There were several key campaign issues throughout the campaign. Two of the most important were government accountability which was brought to the forefront by the SYFA spying scandal in mid-July and the issue of Dellish independence which became a heavily debated issue with major figures both domestically and internationally coming out against the proposed independence referendum. The proposed referendum had been announced on 22 July by Felkert Smits for the Summer of 2023. All the federal parties came out against the proposal and all demanded the Dellish government suspend it's planned referendum until a new government could be installed to negotiate with the regional government.

Constitutional reform also became a major campaign issue after the Alslandic Section of the Workers' International, Green - Alternative Choice, Liveable Alsland and the Progressive Alliance all agreed to hold a constitutional convention to radically reshape Alsland's government. Reasons for the constitutional convention ranged from giving the regions more of a say in politics, making Alslandic politics less divisive and to ensure key rights in Alsland such as LGBT rights, gender equality and other anti-discrimination policies were enshrined in the constitution.

Other major issues which became themes of the campaign were:

Climate change
Health
Education
The Euclean Community
Immigration
Security

Party campaigns

Alslandic Section of the Workers' International

Green - Alternative Choice

Humanist Sotirian Union

Kirenian People's Party

Liveable Alsland

National Bloc

Ermnbryht Vrithe speaking at the National Bloc's manifesto launch

Having suffered numerous humiliating election defeats at various regional and local elections the National Bloc had fallen behind other political parties in opinion polls and was forecast to win between 8–12% of the popular vote which would have been the party's worst electoral defeat in it's history. The party was not helped by the disapproval rating of the incumbent government which the National Bloc played a large role as the largest party in the coalition and cabinet. Part of the reason for the National Bloc's decline was because many voters believed the party lacked vision and had lost credibility according to an interview with the party's ex-leader Ạþulf Ġestiġe. The party launched it's manifesto on 31 July and it was criticised by many within the party for failing to acknowledge the party's dire situation in opinion polls. The manifesto also opposed any constitutional reforms and defended the national equality system which had been introduced by the party in the 1960s, the system had been called an abject failure by a Folkssenaat report which listed it as a cause for fuelling separatism and advocated for it's replacement.

The bloc was criticised by other parties for running a negative campaign which focused on attacking other political parties instead of it's own policies. It's campaign was condemned by other politicians for allegedly promoting conspiracy theories and xenophobic sentiment by pointing out Sjearp Groeneveld's immigrant background and Kairi Sokk's former membership of the Gaullican Social Democratic Party. The party refused to pull the ads and instead issued a justification on it's campaign website. The party also spread fears about an ASAY led government. Some activists from the party were filmed on social media telling voters that an ASAY government would raise taxes on the middle class and cause an economic crisis.

Orange Party

Progressive Alliance

Ottila Möller was the Alliance's candidate for Premier as well as the incumbent Premier

The Progressive Alliance launched their manifesto shortly before the SYFA spying scandal emerged and were the initial favourites to win the election. During the SYFA spying scandal the Alliance's credibility was called into question especially after it was revealed the government had known about the scandal days before it was revealed to the public. In response to the scandal Ottila Möller who was the party's candidate for Premier agreed to hold a public investigation into the government's actions during the scandal which was supported by the Alliance's coalition partners.

The Alliance's campaign dedicated much of it's resources to trying to win back public trust in the party and Möller who despite having a high personal approval rating was not one of the main preferred candidates for Premier. Political experts also pointed out the party not receiving the backing from many other Euclean centre-left parties as had happened in previous national elections such as Hennehouwe, Scovern, Estmere and Paretia in 2021. Some experts attributed this to the Socialist Alternative for Euclea not willing to support the Alliance after the SYFA scandal and as the party's position in opinion polls dropped significantly throughout the campaign.

Some of the Alliance's manifesto goals included holding a constitutional convention to write a new constitution and end the national equality system which the Alliance claimed was harming Alslandic federalism. The manifesto also supported trialling free public transport during the next parliamentary term and privatising Alsland's rail network to promote innovation and competition. After initial confusion the Alliance backtracked on the latter policy and said they would keep Alsland's railway operator under government control. The manifesto also changed the Alliance's policy on immigration from outside the Euclean Community which had been criticised as Xenophobic and potentially racist, whilst still favouring controls on immigration it said it would support refugees and help skilled migrants enter the Euclean Community.

Together for Alsland

Kairi Sokk holding an interview with DTRT Radio during the campaign

Unlike other parties, Together for Alsland (TFA) ran an explicitly populist campaign which relied heavily on a massive social media presence which was partially funded by various domestic technology companies which had provided overwhelming support for the party and it's candidate for Premier Kairi Sokk. TFA's backing from these companies as well as it's massive social media presence was credited for it's rapid and unprecendented growth in support in opinion polls, by the end of July it was leading both the Progressive Alliance and Green - Alternative Choice in opinion polls. Sokk's own personal media presence also helped the party's campaign as she became one of the main preferred candidates for Premier. Many members from both the Progressive Alliance and Greens switched their support to TFA in it's early weeks. According to The Yndyk Times the party had also successfully courted many large donors of the Alliance and Greens to support them in the campaign.

A major theme present in Together's campaign was the promise to digitise Alsland's government and introduce forms of e-democracy. The Party's initial party platform also supported holding online referendums on certain issues. Early on in the campaign Sokk promised to create a government department focused exclusively on digitalisation which she claimed could make Alsland a world leader in the technology sector. The party's campaign material also promised to create thousands of new high-paying jobs in the technology sector which would help reduce youth unemployment and economic inequalities between the Swathish Community and the rest of Alsland. Much like other parties it supported a constitutional convention and promised to support creating one within a year of the election.

Negative comparisons between the party and other Euclean populist movements were also drawn primarily by the Progressive Alliance and Greens. One electoral leaflet sent by the Progressive Alliance to voters abroad compared Kairi Sokk to Premier of Paretia Isilda Cerqueira for their shared populist beliefs. The leaflets also drew doubts about Together's financial backers and implied that the party's financial backers would be able to control a Together for Alsland led government. TFA called for the leaflets to be withdrawn and issued a complaint to the Electoral Authority regarding the leaflets.

Together for Alsland formed the Modern Democracy list alongside VOX, Future.as and Alsland21. The joint-list included members from all 4 parties who would be affiliated with Together for Alsland if they were elected to the Senate.

Endorsements

Newspapers and media outlets

Publication		Notes
Hjoed	Together for Alsland	The first time the paper backed a party other than the National Bloc
The Yndyk Times	Liveable Alsland	Endorsed Liberal reformist candidates
The Hamptonshire Post	Together for Alsland	The first time the paper backed a party other than the Alslandic Section of the Workers' International
Werdau Observer	Together for Alsland
The Neevan Courier	Humanist Sotirian Union	Backed Together for Alsland in the Dellish Community
De Finansjele Krante	Liveable Alsland	Urged voters to oppose the Alslandic Section of the Workers' International
SRDT	Together for Alsland	Called for a centrist coalition

Individuals and organisations

Alslandic Section of the Workers' International

Orange Party

Progressive Alliance

Together for Alsland

Opinion polls

The progression of voting intentions throughout the campaign period ahead of the 2020 Alslandic legislative election. 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Notes

↑ Alongside Suwert Jorritsma
↑ Standing as a candidate in the 2022 Euclean presidential election
↑ Minister-President of the Martish Community

[1] Alongside Suwert Jorritsma

[2] Standing as a candidate in the 2022 Euclean presidential election

[3] Minister-President of the Martish Community

[a]

[b]

[c]

2022 Alslandic legislative election

Contents

Background

Electoral system

Date