2023 Saren general election

2023 Saren general election

November 25, 2023 (2023-11-25)
All 761 seats in the House of Commons 381 seats are needed for a majority 250 (of the 250) elected seats in the Senate
Turnout	91.27%
First party Second party   Leader Toriyar Tael Chyla Saniona Party National Labor Conservative/Nationals Coalition Leader since 3 December 2016 (2016-12-03) 1 February 2023 (2023-02-01) Leader's seat Ghazini (AF) Rochester (IB) Last election 389 seats 342 seats Seats before 370 seats 343 seats Seats won 390 345 Seat change 20 2 Popular vote 258,731,464 240,931,412 Percentage 34.38% 36.92% Swing 0.76 3.76 TPP 50.19% 49.81% TPP swing 0.03 0.03 TPP Votes 351,726,223 349,063,223

The 2023 Saren general election was held on November 25, 2023. The double dissolution snap election was called after the Tael Government lost a self-called Motion of No Confidence on September 6, 2023. With both the Government and the Opposition failing to then produce a constructive vote of confidence, Tael advised the President to call a snap election on November 25, 2023. This marked the first snap election in forty-two years (1981), and the first since 1943 to also feature a simultaneous snap election for the Senate.

This came after the Tael Government lost it's functional majority across July and August of 2023 after the defection of multiple Labor backbenchers to the crossbench.

The dominant issues of the election surrounded trust, integrity and stability in government, climate change and pathways of addressing it, and to a lesser extent housing, inflation and cost of living.

The Tael Government was re-elected in an upset having been expected to lose when the election was initially called.

Background

At the 2020 Saren general election, Toriyar Tael of the Labour Party was elected as Prime Minister after his party secured an absolute majority in the Saren House of Commons with 389 seats, an 8 seat majority. Between three by-election defeats, and sixteen defections, the NLP lost sixteen votes on the floor of the House, leading to the possibility of bill rejections on the floor. All sixteen defectors did so over the Climate Accord struck at the National Cabinet meeting in June of 2023. Concurrence among all Premiers and the federal government on a national energy program and the imminent passage of the Energy Guarantee Act 2023 (EGA23) led to sixteen MPs defecting. While the spur for defection was identical, some of the sixteen did so because of a belief it did not go far enough all the while others did so because it went too far. The Energy Guarantee Act passed on July 5 with the support of members of the Coalition's backbench in light of the support of all UCP Premiers across the nation.

EGA23's passage then led to continued debate on the Housing Act 2023, negotiations for which between the NLP and the Greens collapsed on July 10, with the Prime Minister declaring 'the Greens have sentenced a generation to homelessness'. The negotiation collapsing led to the defeat of the Housing Act on the floor of the House (382-370) as all defecting MPs refused to provide votes for supply. A further vote on August 1, led to the rejection of an auxiliary funding bill, constituting denial of supply and thus triggering an immediate recess to permit renegotiations to prevent a successful motion of no confidence.