2019 Weranian federal election

Next Weranian general election

31 May 2019
All 545 seats to the Volkstag 273 seats are needed for a majority in the Volkstag
Turnout	36,209,578 (77.91%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Otto von Hößlin Viktor Oberhauser Yvonne Buchholz (Spitzenkandidat) Party NKP SRPO Grüns Leader since 3rd August 2015 24th September 2014 7th November 2015 Last election 138 seats, 24.47% 157 seats, 25.42% 42 seats, 10.27% Seats won 244 85 80 Seat change 106 72 38 Popular vote 13,257,365 6,154,682 6,104,684 Percentage 36.61% 17.00% 16.86% Swing 11.20% 7.69% 6.33%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Veronika Althammer Käthe Schickdanze Arvydas Ražauskas Party PMZ DA NNK Leader since 31st March 2016 18th October 2014 20th March 1999 Last election 88 seats, 12.9% 34 seats, 8.22% 10 seats, 2.57% Seats won 32 30 30 Seat change 56 4 20 Popular vote 2,385,936 2,205,736 1,258,372 Percentage 6.59% 6.09% 3.48% Swing 7.31% 2.12% 0.99%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Peter Lötzsch Remigijus Balčiūnas Albrecht Ströher Party OSAI SDT OVFP Leader since 17th May 2012 23rd October 2014 16th August 2017 Last election 28 seats, 6.05% 29 seats, 3.47% 15 seats, 5.63% Seats won 22 10 8 Seat change 6 19 7 Popular vote 2,157,395 539,583 994,821 Percentage 5.96% 1.49% 2.75% Swing 0.07% 1.98% 2.85%
Chancellor before election Viktor Oberhauser SPRO Elected Chancellor Otto von Hößlin NKP

The 45^th general election was held in the Lands of the Weranic Crown for the Volkstag (the lower house of the Reichstag) on the 31^st May 2019. All 545 members of the Volkstag were elected under a single non-transferable vote system in multi-member electoral districts. The election was held in conjunction with elections for the Euclean Parliament. The election saw the governing coalition of the Social Democratic Radical Party, Modern Centre Party and the Sotirian Democratic Homeland decisively defeated by the National Consolidation Party which after 8 years in opposition returned to power in a coalition government with the Democratic Alternative.

The election was called on the 29^th March after the expiration of the previous Volkstag's term for the end of May by Chancellor Viktor Oberhauser. The election was dominated by the issues of public spending and climate change. Migration and the Euclean Community were minor issues in the campaign, whilst other foreign policy issues were largely ignored. Law and order became a prominent theme after an exiled Tsabaran journalist for the banned Badawiyan Examiner., Jaal al-Obeid, was attacked in Westbrücken. The campaign saw the NKP rise in the polls whilst the SRPO's attempts at triangulation were seen to backfire with their poll numbers dwindling.

The election saw the incumbent SRPO-PMZ-SDT coalition suffer one of the worst defeats of a sitting government collectively losing 154 seats with the NKP winning by a landslide and gaining the most seats. This was the highest increase in the NKP vote and seat count in their history compared to a prior election and their best result since 1975. The Greens also saw large gains narrowly being beaten by the SRPO who got the worst result in their history in terms of seats. The National Coalition for Independence became the largest party in Ruttland, largely at the expense of the SDT which also suffered a historic defeat. The Weranic Section of the Workers' International also recorded its worst result in over 100 years.

Electoral process

Werania has since 1908 used an single non-transferable vote in multi-member districts to send 545 representatives to the Volkstag. the exception is Ostry, which elects a single representative on the basis of first-past-the-post. The current electoral boundaries were approved in 2010 by the Electoral Board, with boundaries being decided every 10 years based on census data. Should a party have 273 or more representative in the Volkstag, it has an absolute majority and could thus govern autonomously, without a coalition partner. The constitution can be amended with a supermajority of two-thirds, or 360 deputies.

Voters have to registrar to vote by the 28 April. In order to be eligible to vote one must be over the age of 18, be a citizen of Werania, have a permanent address in Werania and not be currently in prison.

Background

At the last election the coalition government of the centre-left Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania (SRPO) and the liberal Modern Centre Party (PMZ) lost its majority. The opposition National Consolidation Party (NKP) lost a handful of seats with the major gains being made by third parties such as the Greens, Democratic Alternative (DA) and the Weranic Section of the Workers' International (OSAI). A three-way coalition government was subsequently formed between the SRPO, PMZ and the Sotirian Democratic Homeland (SDT), a small centre-right party that runs exclusively in Ruttland. Chancellor Viktor Oberhauser unveiled a new cabinet on the 14^th July 2015 with PMZ leader Veronika Althammer being reappointed Minister of Finance and SDT leader Remigijus Balčiūnas becoming Minister of Regional Development.

Following the election the NKP's leader Günter Schaefer resigned. His successor, former Defence Minister Otto von Hösslin, reorientated the party to the populist right advocating hard-line anti-immigration policies, rises in welfare spending, tax cuts and Euclescepticism. Following von Hösslin's election the NKP rose in the polls especially as the government lost popularity.

The SRPO lost popularity following the RotHaus scandal, when the government was accused of having during the 2015 election have given favourable breaks to construction company RotHaus Construction in return for political donations. Combined with continued austerity policies this led to a decline in support for the SRPO and PMZ and rise in support for the NKP and the Greens.

In the run-up to the election, the NKP grew in popularity as did the Greens whilst the SRPO fell into infighting. In 2018 there was a movement by the right-wing of the SRPO to install foreign minister Klaus Barchmann as Chancellor to replace Oberhauser who was increasingly seen as out-of-touch and unpopular with the electorate. However this plot fell through after the PMZ reasserted their confidence in Oberhauser as Chancellor of a coalition cabinet.

Timetable

29 March	Chancellor Viktor Oberhauser announced his intention to dissolve the Volkstag and hold an election for the 31st May.
1 April	Kaiserin Charlotte II approves of the Chancellor's request to hold an election.
4 April	Formal dissolution of the Volkstag; start of campaign period.
28 April	Last day members of the public could register to vote.
1 May	Last day in which members of the public could apply for proxy voting or postal voting.
18 May	Last day for candidates to file nomination papers.
31 May	Polling day
7 May	New Volkstag Assembled

Parties

Below are the parties of the outgoing 2015-2019 legislature who filed to run in the 2019 election.

Party		Ideology	Political position	Leader	2015 result	In government
	Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania	Social Democracy, Social liberalism	Centre-left	Viktor Oberhauser	157 / 545	Y
	National Consolidation Party	Sotirian Democracy, Conservatism	Right-wing	Otto von Hößlin	138 / 545	N
	Modern Centre Party	Liberalism, Economic liberalism	Centre	Veronika Althammer	88 / 545	Y
	Green Party	Green politics, Progressivism	Centre-left	Yvonne Buchholz Josef Kirui	42 / 545	N
	Democratic Alternative	Right-wing populism, National liberalism	Right-wing	Käthe Schickdanze	34 / 545	N
	Sotirian Democratic Homeland	Ruttish regionalism, Sotirian Democracy	Centre-right	Remigijus Balčiūnas	29 / 545	Y
	Weranic Section of the Workers' International	Euclomorhism, Democratic socialism	Left-wing	Peter Lötzsch	28 / 545	N
	Weranic Völkisch Freedom Party	Völkisch movement, Third Position	Far-right	Albrecht Ströher	15 / 545	N
	National Coalition for Independence	Ruttish nationalism, Populism	Syncretic	Arvydas Ražauskas	10 / 545	N
	Aldman People's Party	Aldman interests, Liberalism	Centre	Haiko Posthuma	2 / 545	N
	The Way of Courage	Ruttish nationalism, Left-wing populism	Left-wing	Rimantas Paleckis	1 / 545	N
	United Party	Weranian-Charlotte Islander unionism, Conservatism	Centre-right	Matthias Iha	1 / 545	N

Opinion polls

File:2015-2019 polling Werania.svg

Exit polls

Parties		Seats	Change
	National Consolidation Party	247	120
	Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania	87	70
	Green Party	78	31
	Modern Centre Party	35	53
	Democratic Alternative	31	3
	National Coalition for Independence	25	15
	Weranic Section of the Workers' International	24	4
	Weranic Völkisch Freedom Party	9	6
	Sotirian Democratic Homeland	6	24
	Others	3	2

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	±
	National Consolidation Party	13,257,365	36.61	244	106
	Social Democratic Radical Party	6,154,682	17.00	85	72
	Green Party	6,104,684	16.86	80	38
	Modern Centre Party	2,385,936	6.59	32	56
	Democratic Alternative	2,205,736	6.09	30	4
	National Coalition for Independence	1,258,372	3.48	30	20
	Weranic Section of the Workers' International	2,157,395	5.96	22	6
	Sotirian Democratic Homeland	539,583	1.49	10	19
	Weranic Völkisch Freedom Party	994,821	2.75	8	7
	The Way of Courage	254,724	0.70	2	1
	Aldman People's Party	222,849	0.62	2	-
	United Party	18,674	0.05	2	-
	Ostric People's Party	1,236	0.00	1	1
	Others	504,857	1.38	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		653,523	–	–	–
Total		36,209,580	100	545	0
Registered voters/turnout		46,474,226	78.95	–	–