2023 West Arcadian Snap Election
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| Registered | 86,291,102 (  0.5 pp) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 66,530,439 (77.1%) (  0.2 pp) | |||||||||||||||||||
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The 2023 West Arcadian presidential election was the 16th presidential election since 1952 elections and the third snap election. The election was held on Wednesday, 25 October 2023. The Federal Liberal nominee, Speaker of the Free Assembly Andrei Burtos was elected over Mihailo Dimitros, prime Mmnister and acting president. Burtos defeated Dimitros by almost seven points and 4.3 million votes, a comfortable margin in an election originally thought to be much closer.
The office of President had been vacated since Prak Varnolstrenyk, elected in 2018 suffered a brain aneurysm and resigned from office due to medical reasons. Varnolstrenyk was ineligible for a third term and would have finished his term in 2024 regardless. Dimitros was renominated by his party without debate in a move pundits ascribed to both his personal popularity and position as prime minister and acting president. Burtos was also nominated easily, having led the Federal Liberals to take control of the Free Assembly in the 2021 elections, easily defeating several rivals, including senator Jakob Harpaz and governor Lydia Vellas. Burtos ran a more moderate, domestically focused populist campaign, which promised to take a harder line on East Arcadia, renegotiate trade deals with neighboring countries, and refocus spending on domestic priorities and infrastructure while also calling out Dimitros' growing unpopularity and public dissatisfaction with his acting presidency. Dimitros emphasized his experience under the Varnolstrenyk Administration, denouncing Burtos as an "oversized lawyer" and dangerous populist, advocating the expansion of Varnolstrenyk's policies.
The campaigns focused heavily on domestic issues, and debate centered largely around a sluggish Arcadian economy and stagant growth of the past year. Other major issues included relations with the East, peacekeeping in the post Third Great War era, social welfare programs, and the centralization or federalization of the Arcadian government. Foreign economic policy, including military spending, foreign trade deals, and terrorism were also discussed. Dimitros attakced Burtos's policies as ineffective and financially unsound while the Burtos campaign sought to characterize Dimitros as a plutocratic politician who had been in power for too long. Polls prior to the election indicated a close race.
On Election Day, Burtos over-performed his polls, winning sizeable majorities in most stats and winning the popular vote by over 4.3 million votes. Burtos' surprise victory was perceived as pushback against the almost eighteen years of control by the New Conservatives. Other candidates were relatively minor, with only 1.1% of voters voting for a candidate other than Burtos or Dimitros.