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2000 Imaguan parliamentary election

March 24, 2000 (2000-03-24)
67 seats in the Chamber of Commons 34 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	81.71% ( 13.31pp)
First party Second party   Leader Agnes Ingram Ladislao Colacino Party Sotirian Labour Party Democratic Labour Party Leader's seat Knowleston-South Knowleston-South Last election 28, 49.07%1 39, 40.20% Seats before 30 35 Seats won 45 22 Seat change 15 13 Popular vote 472,295 272,055 Percentage 55.90% 32.20% Swing 6.83pp 8.00pp
Prime Minister before election Gerald Larsson Democratic Labour Party Prime Minister after election Agnes Ingram Sotirian Labour Party

The 2000 Imaguan general election was held on 24 March, 2000, to elect members of the Chamber of Commons to form the twenty-eight Parliament of Imagua and the Assimas. This election saw the Colacino-led Democratic Labour Party lose control of the Chamber of Commons to the Ingram-led Sotirian Labour Party, marking the first time since 1956 that a party other than the Democratic Labour Party formed government.

Background

Despite the efforts of the National Labour Party to form government in the 1996 general elections, and despite the combined votes of the National Labour Party and the Sotirian Democrats outnumbering the Democratic Labour Party, the Democratic Labour Party were able to secure an eleventh consecutive majority government, having continuously formed government in every election since 1960, although Dale Morse of the National Labour Party was able to become President of Imagua and the Assimas, defeating Isidoro Libero.

In the aftermath of the 1996 general election, the Sotirian Democrats, having failed in their attempt to regain representation in the Chamber of Commons negotiated a merger with the National Labour Party to end "four decades of socialist rule." After several months of discussions, the two parties merged to create the Sotirian Labour Party in March 1997, with the two parties officially merging the following month. This led to some small factions forming separate parties, with Ted Branson forming the New Labour Party, and Edwin Burke forming the Sotirian Defence Party, both professing to be the successors of National Labour and the Sotirian Democrats respectively.

From the start, the Sotirian Labour Party performed better in polls, while the Democratic Labour Party was seen by the Imaguan public as having "run out of ideas" and no longer innovative after having formed government for the past forty years. This was not helped by both the recent conviction of former Prime Minister Pietro Muro on corruption charges, and Baigent Powell's shady activities being revealed in 1997, leading to an investigation into its activities, and to the firm ultimately being shut down in 1999 after a trial that year was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

In June 1999, Erico D'Antonio was nominated to be the Sotirian Labour candidate for the Prime Ministership, but in August, following Dale Morse being diagnosed with brain cancer, Morse announced that he would not run for a second term: this led to a second convention in November, which named Erico D'Antonio the presidential nominee, and Agnes Ingram as the Sotirian Labour candidate for the Prime Ministership.

In September 1999, Gerald Larsson was named the Democratic Labour nominee for the presidency, while Ladislao Colacino was nominated to run for the Prime Ministership on behalf of the Democratic Labour Party.

Campaign

On 28 January, 2000, Dale Morse granted Gerald Larsson's request to dissolve Parliament, starting a 56 day-long campaign. From the start, the election campaign was marked by a substantial Solarian Labour lead, due to a strong combination of anti-incumbency against the Democratic Labour government, criticism over the Democratic Labour Party's corruption, and due to the campaigning of Agnes Ingram, who as the first Bahio-Imaguan woman to lead a political party, was able to dispel criticism from the Democratic Labour Party that the Sotirian Labour Party inherited the "racist tendencies of the Sotirian Democrats."

In both the Estmerish language and Etrurian debates on ITS, Agnes Ingram performed well, presenting the Sotirian Labour Party's plans for government, which included attracting investment from the information technology sector, relaxing immgiration requirements, increasing economic ties with the Arucian Cooperation Organization by permitting freedom of movement from ACO states, and to make government services run more efficiently by promising to "cut red tape" and take "tough action on obstructionist unions."

Unlike Ingram, who ran a largely "positive campaign," Ladislao Colacino ran a negative campaign, with Colacino accusing the Sotirian Labour Party of "plotting take your pensions away," attacking labour rights, and to dismantle the national parks system set out by Gerald Larsson "in order to open up land for development." Colacino also promised that if elected, he would "get the job done" and build social housing in Cuanstad to ease the city's looming housing shortage.

While most Imaguan political pundits predicted a Sotirian Labour victory from the start, with Ian Vilcinskas saying "the question isn't so much if the SLP will win, the question for them is how much can they win," some, particularly in the Democratic Labour Party were hopeful that the popularity of the Greens, New Labour, and the Sotirian Defence Party would be enough for the DLP to eke out a minority government.

(TBC)

Opinion polls

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Results

↓

45	22
S	D

	Party	Leader	Candidates	Seats				Votes		Status
				1996	Dissol.	2000	Change since dissol.	Popular votes	%
	Sotirian Labour	Agnes Ingram	67	28	30	45	15	472,295	55.90%	Government
	Democratic Labour	Ladislao Colacino	67	39	35	22	13	272,055	32.20%	Official Opposition
	New Labour	Ted Branson	32	N/A	2	0	2	41,498	4.90%	Unrepresented
	Sotirian Defence	Edwin Burke	67	N/A	0	0		28,206	3.34%
	Greens	Summer Nicholson	45	0	0	0		22,897	2.71%
	West Arucian Section	Jack Singleton	65	0	0	0		2,322	0.28%
	Assiman Independence	Battista Guglielmino	12	0	0	0		2,159	0.26%
	Farmer's	Greg Kukanauskas	27	0	0	0		1,974	0.26%
	Statehood	Jason Cook	12	0	0	0		914	0.11%
	Independents	N/A	33	0	0	0		235	0.03%
	Prohibition	Marianne Hjortsberg	38	0	0	0		192	0.02%
Total votes		Valid votes						844,747	99.9%
		Rejected votes						145	0.01%
Totals			465	67	67	67	67	844,892	100%
Registered voters/turnout								1,034,061	81.71%