2017 Capsland General Election

2017 Capsland general election

June 22, 2017 (2017-06-22)
All 650 seats to the National Parliament This is the result of the largest six parties, for the full result see below 326 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	69.20%
First party Second party Third party   Leader David George Bryant Rennard Wilson Daniels Party Democracy Party Social Democratic Party Socialist-Bloc Leader since 21 October 2016 6 December 2014 9 August 2012 Last election 202 seats, 31.04% 234 seats, 35.99% 37 seats, 5.71% Seats before 202 234 37 Seats won 212 129 101 Seat change 10 105 64 Popular vote 12,406,120 7,786,694 6,083,356 Percentage 32.61% 19.84% 15.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader David Marde Natalie Mason Gordon Hughmann Party Christian Democrats Green and Liberal Alliance Popular Front Leader since 9 January 2016 19 October 2010 20 May 2014 Last election New Party 86 Seats, 13.24% New Party Seats before New Party 86 New Party Seats won 85 54 34 Seat change 85 32 34 Popular vote 5,161,040 3,233,990 2,060,491 Percentage 13.15% 8.24% 5.25%
Results in the National Parliament
Executive Chancellor before election Bryant Rennard Social Democratic Party Elected Executive Chancellor David George Democracy Party

The 2017 Capslandian snap general election was called for the 22nd of June 2017. The then Executive Chancellor, Bryant Rennard, was forced by the Senate to call the election due to the collapse of the governing SDP-GLA-LU coalition following the 2017 Nashwell Scandal. The election was the first snap election since the assassination of EC Richard Cray in 1875 and the first snap election ever since the Malbury Voting Reform in 1971.

Background

Bryant Rennard's coalition was formed in 2015 and introduced many measures relating to Nashwell, the nation's public health service. The coalition remained intact and united until the early months of 2017. On the 4th of February, 2017, the Social Democratic Lord-Secretary of the Treasury, Mike Gaugar MP, announced that the promised ₡8 billion cash injection for Nashwell would not be committed that year. The failure to fulfil a key SDP manifesto pledge prompted fury from the electorate resulting in the largest doctor's union, NUFDoc, voting for strikes throughout the month of March crippling Nashwell services nationwide.

17 days later, on the 21st of February, an anonymous whistleblower leaked a government dossier detailing further government aims to privatise the Nashwell ambulance services in apparent 'cost-saving measures'. The unnamed dossier went into further detail on how the Libertarian Union was pressuring the Social Democratic Party behind closed doors to force through a parliamentary motion to make legal changes to the way Nashwell was structured, against the best wishes of their coalition partners in the GLA.

With the revelation that the SDP were going against their manifesto pledges regarding Nashwell, the GLA formally pulled out of the coalition on the 8th of April. Leading to the Senate to force through a snap-election in the following months.

Bryant Rennard promised to resign as leader of the SDP after the election was concluded. He resigned on the 5th of July, 12 days after the election results were announced and 5 days after David George's coalition was formed.

Analysis

The debate during the 2017 General Election was dominated by Nashwell funding and the March NUFDoc strikes. Immediately, a day after the general election was called, the Christian Democrats and the Democracy Party announced that they would form a coalition government if possible with a full focus on "restoring Nashwell to pre-SDP standards". This would be the first elections the Christian Democrats would participate in and the first election any two parties would declare they would form a coalition if possible before the results had been counted. The declaration by David George and David Marde soon began to have a positive impact in the polls and one day after the announcement, the Democracy Party overtook the SDP in polls nationwide for the first time in three years. Many political analysts saw this as a Democracy Party tactic to stem the potential loss of voters to the three new parties, who all had elements of centre-right politics.

This election was also Capsland's most crowded election with a total of ten parties taking part nationally. The new parties, the Popular Front, Christian Democrats and National Liberal Party were able to contest the election due to a loosening on the restrictions on political party formation by the Electoral Commission. In total, new parties received 19.79% of the vote, potentially due to the frustration with the electorate on the two main parties.

The SDP were less lucky with a rapidly rising Socialist-Bloc, voters and SDP members were leaving the party to what they saw as the next viable alternative. Throughout the course of the election, the Party Executive Committee (PEC), the executive arm of the SDP, proposed a joint electoral bid with the Socialist-Bloc but this was rejected by SB leadership vehemently. The Socialist-Bloc eventually ended up with their biggest electoral victory ever, obtaining an impressive 101 seats making it the fourth party to ever reach over 100 seats since the Malbury Voting Reform. Bryant Rennard was able to successfully negotiate the formation of an effective official opposition with the Socialist-Bloc by promising to resign; The Green and Liberal Alliance refused to join the opposition and instead joined the crossbench.

Results

Party	Leader(s)	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Democracy Party	David George	12,406,120	32.61	212	10
Social Democratic Party	Brant Rennard	7,786,694	19.84	129	105
Socialist-Bloc	Wilson Daniels	6,083,356	15.50	101	64
Christian Democrats	David Marde	5,161,040	13.15	85	85
Green and Liberal Alliance	Natalie Mason & Jeremy Garth	3,233,990	8.24	54	32
Popular Front	Gordon Hughmann	2,060,491	5.25	34	34
Liberation Party	Julien Piccard	733,927	1.87	12	3
National Liberal Party	Jared Garbute	545,540	1.39	9	9
Libertarian Union	Guy Garrison	459,195	1.17	8	31
Capsland Sovereign Party	Henry Farthing	384,625	0.98	6	37
Total	-	38,854,978	100	650	-
Registered voters/turnout	-	56,148,000	69.20	-	-

Formation of a New Government

Coalition talks began on the 23rd of June three hours after the election results were finalised at 9am. As per convention, the largest party had the first chance to form a workable government and obtain a parliamentary majoirty. The Democracy party emerged from the election as the largest party and therefore began joint talks with the Christian Democrats. Before the election the leaders of the two parties, David George and David Marde, agreed they would form a government where possible and having already hashed out an agreement prior to the election results the talks quickly succeeded and ended that day giving David George's government a guaranteed 297 seats, just 29 seats short of a majority, leaving only the Green and Liberal Alliance and the Popular Front as viable coalition partners.

The Democracy Party started talks with the Green and Liberal Alliance on the 24th of June. While the GLA leadership was open to the idea of joining the government, GLA MPs who had just recently narrowly retained their seats were more reserved about the idea. On the 28th of June, co-leader of the GLA, Natalie Mason announced that the coalition talks were unsuccessful due to a refusal by David George to accept a GLA motion to reform the Senate and that the GLA would join the crossbench and not align itself with the SDP or DP.

After this, the Popular Front was invited to join the government and with some concessions involving student tuition loans and worker's wage increases, the Popular Front joined the government on the 4th of July. The next day on the 5th, parliament reopened and held the first sitting of the new DP-CD-PF government.