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The Right Honourable Sotty Haloranov | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Sotty Haloranov, 1954 | |
| 16th Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas | |
| In office 23 April, 1952 – 23 April, 1956 | |
| President | Victor Redmond Keswick |
| Deputy | Jim Stevens |
| Preceded by | Frederick Maynard |
| Succeeded by | Martin Ellingham |
| Member of Parliament for Tarnstead | |
| In office 12 February, 1917 – 23 April, 1964 | |
| Preceded by | Harold Cavalier |
| Succeeded by | Dwane Harris |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sotirian Perkins February 24, 1876 Evertsgard, Saint Christopher's, Colony of Imagua |
| Died | 6 August 1969 (aged 93) Cuanstad, Imagua and the Assimas |
| Nationality | Imaguan |
| Political party | Democratic Labour Party |
| Other political affiliations | ISESWI (1903-1919) ISP (1919-1937) Labour Party (1937-1948) |
| Spouse | Molly Egnell |
| Children | 3 |
Sotty Haloranov (born Sotirian Perkins, 24 February, 1876 - 6 August, 1969) was the seventh Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas, serving from 1952 until 1956, and a trade union leader.
Early life
Sotty Haloranov was born as Sotirian Perkins on 24 February, 1876 in Evertsgard, Saint Christopher's Parish (present day Evertsgard, Cuanstad) to Archibald Perkins, a blacksmith of mixed race, and to Tabitha Perkins (nee O'Halloran), a housewife of Caldish descent, as the youngest of six children, and the only son to survive childhood.
His early life was marked with tragedy: his father abandoned Tabitha and their children in 1879, and in 1881, Martha died of scarlet fever, leaving Sotty and his siblings orphaned.
According to Sotty's biography, a sailor from Vinalia took pity on him, and adopted him as his own, bringing him back to Vinalia where he was sent to school and studied at a university. In gratitude, Sotty would adopt the sailor's surname as his own. However, most historians dispute the veracity of Sotty's claims, citing Imaguan census records from 1891 reporting that he and his siblings lived with his paternal uncle near Lundholm, his surname not matching grammatical rules in the Soravian language and his surname's similarity to his mother's maiden name, and his "penchant for embellishing stories," with his 1942 and 1961 accounts of his experiences in Vinalia barely matching up.
In 1899, Sotty moved to Cuanstad where he took a job as a dockworker. His experience as a dockworker made him interested in politics, particularly as he resented "contributing to the economy of Imagua but not having a say in the politics of this land." This led him to becoming involved with the Dockworker's Union by 1900, and by 1903, he would join the Imaguan Subsection of the Estmerish Section of the Workers' International.
Political career
Early political career
After Sotty Haloranov joined the Imaguan Subsection of the Estmerish Section of the Workers' International, he became involved in the party newspaper, where he wrote about his experiences and his treatment during his time at the dockyards in Cuanstad, and the necessity for the Imaguan working class to "stand together against the elites."
At the same time, he remained involved in the trade union movement, but now focusing on trying to get the trade unions to cooperate with one another. In 1907, he was able to help forge an agreement between several trade unions to form a trade union centre, the Imaguan Trade Union Federation, with Sotty saying that it would "strengthen ties among the labour movement." Sotty would become involved in the ITUF's oprations, although he was not in a leadership position for the ITUF.
In 1908, Sotty Haloranov would stand in his first election, standing for Tarnstead. Although he stood little chance of winning, due to the fact that most people in Tarnstead did not own enough property to be able to vote for the Chamber of Commons, this experience taught him "the value of campaigning and the value of appealing to the common man." He would place a distant third, only securing five votes.
This experience emboldened Sotty Haloranov to fight for universal male suffrage, as Haloranov believed that "if anyone is deprived of the opportunity to vote just because they are poor, like my parents and family were, then it is a sign that we need to change the system."
Haloranov would run again in 1909 and 1913 but failed to get elected. However, in 1917, Haloranov succeeded in getting elected to the Tarnstead constituency, defeating Democrat MP Harold Cavalier, and he was sworn in on 12 February, 1917.
MP for Tarnstead
One of his first acts as MP for Tarnstead was advocating for universal male suffrage, with Sotty Haloranov supporting the Labour Party's demand to introduce universal male suffrage as a precondition for participating in a coalition government with the Democrats. At the time, Sotty Haloranov opposed women's suffrage, believing that women would "only vote as their husbands and the church dictated to them," effectively "diluting the voice of the people."
However, when the Estmerish Section of the Worker's International split in 1919, the Imaguan subsection also split. Despite his left-leaning views and sympathy to council socialism, his dislike of Ethel Cropper, who he later described as being "uncooperative and impossible to reason with" meant that Sotty Haloranov stayed with the party, which would become the Socialists.
After Peter Hansson died in 1920, Nelson Egnell became Chief Minister, and per constitutional convention, a snap general election was called. Due to the passage of universal suffrage, the Socialists were able to take advantage of newly-enfranchised supporters to sweep into power, as well as poor economic conditions as a result of the Great Collapse, with Sotty Haloranov winning his seat with 68% of the vote. During this time, Sotty Haloranov began advocating for "Imaguan independence," believing that Imagua was "now at a stage where it can and should take its rightful place on the world stage," while he served as parliamentary secretary for the Labour Minister.
Thus, by 1924, Haloranov comfortably won with 73% of the vote against his Democratic opponents. After the 1924 election, Haloranov was sidelined by Nelson Egnell, due to Haloranov's advocacy of Imaguan independence, although he retained his position as parliamentary secretary. Following the start of the Great War and subsequent Gaullican occupation of Imagua, Sotty Haloranov would use his position among the trade unions to "sabotage Gaullican authority" and advocate for Imaguan independence from both Estmere and Gaullica. This led him to being arrested in 1930, where he was detained until the liberation of Imagua.
Post-war
Sotty Haloranov, 1950 Following the liberation of Imagua, Sotty Haloranov would briefly enter cabinet as Labour Minister, but after the 1936 elections, the Labour Party returned to the opposition benches, but Haloranov was able to keep his seat with 81% of the vote. However, the stint in opposition, plus Haloranov's history of resistance, garnered him respect, and helped increase his position within the Labour Party.
He would develop close ties to Wilbur Smith, who would lead the left-wing faction of the Labour Party. During his time in the backbenches, Haloranov started to advocate for including more Bahio-Imaguans in government, and in 1939, declared segregation on the island "a sin."
Haloranov would win his seat with 76% of the vote in 1940, and 71% in 1944. During this time, Haloranov emerged as an opponent of the United Provinces, fearing that the larger provinces would overwhelm Imagua, and criticised the adhesion of the Assimas and New Accadia (present-day Bonaventure) as "reducing Imaguans to a mere minority in the federation." He would help promote the idea of Imaguan independence among working class Imaguans, which would play a factor in Imagua's expulsion from the union in 1948.
That year, Haloranov would keep his seat with 72% of the vote. Due to his high position within the newly-merged Democratic Labour Party and the Imaguan labour movement more generally, he was expected to become the party's nominee for the Imaguan premiership for the 1952 elections.
As opposition leader, Sotty Haloranov criticised the governing Sotirian Democrats, accusing them of having made "no tangible progress" on worker's rights and on the rights of Bahio-Imaguans, and accusing them of continuing to operate "as if Imagua was still part of the Estmerish Empire." Haloranov also promoted the establishment of several state-owned enterprises to help "bind the country together," and promised to engage in land reform.
His rhetoric, in addition to the growth of trade unions meant that by 1952, he was seen as a serious contender to become Prime Minister. During his campaign against incumbent Prime Minister Frederick Maynard, Haloranov promised to engage in land reform to help the poor, begin ending segregation on the island, and making "twenty years of progress in four." Despite concerns of his age, Haloranov was able to lead the DLP to victory in that year's general election, winning 34 seats with 50.03%. Haloranov kept his seat, with 75% of the vote in his constituency.
Prime Minister
On 23 April, 1952, President Walter Redmond Keswick appointed Sotty Haloranov to be the Prime Minister. Haloranov would appoint his cabinet, appointing Jim Stevens to be his Deputy Prime Minister on the same day.
Immediately after being sworn in, Sotty Haloranov began setting up state-owned enterprises. Two of them included the Imaguan Television Service, which would broadcast television across the country, and the Imaguan Maritime Service, whose goal was to provide cheap service between Imagua and the Assimas, so to enable people to travel more freely between the two. Sotty Haloranov also passed laws to help strengthen labour rights in the country, with a law in 1952 enshrining the principle of equal pay for equal work and by another law in 1953 to institute a card check system.
However, the outbreak of the Carucerean Revolution in 1953 and the collapse of the United Provinces would prove to be his greatest challenge as Prime Minister, because Haloranov was sympathetic to the goals of the Social Liberation Movement. However, he felt constrained because the United Provinces was Imagua's largest trade partner at the time, and he feared that if he were to recognise Carucere's independence, Imagua would be isolated in the West Arucian. In addition, outright supporting Carucerean independence would make Imagua appear to be "moving towards Tretyakism," which he felt would further isolate Imagua on the world stage.
After discussions with Raymond Rivière, Prime Minister of the United Provinces, Haloranov would recognise Carucerean independence on September 9th. This decision was met with harsh criticism from the Sotirian Democratic Party, as the SDP believed that Carucere would be a "Tretyakist base in the West Arucian," and condemned land reform as being "proof" that Carucere was going to be pro-Chistovodia.
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Personal life
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