Suffrage protests of 1934-35

The suffrage protests of 1934-35 are a series of public demonstrations, civil disobedience campaigns, and strikes by non-enfranchised Themiclesians in response to the government's attempt to introduce conscription, when the Imperial Menghean Army was advancing on Themiclesia in the Prairie War. The Liberal minotiry government capitulated to the protest in April 1935 to enact universal adult franchise and to form the Union Government with the Conservative Party and Progressive Democratic Party, proceeding to govern during the Pan-Septentrion War.

State of the franchise

In the franchise for elections to the Council of Protonotaries, the representative chamber of the Themiclesian parliament, the right to vote was defined by a number of statutes that established individual franchises for definite groups of individuals. Originally limited to high-ranking members of the Civil Service, new franchises were created during the 19th century first for university graduates and faculty, then educated property-owners, then poll tax payers, and then their spouses and children. Most of the extensions occurred between 1845 and 1900, during which the Liberals enjoyed an uninterrupted period of political dominance; these extensions were hinged on the obvious pretext that most new voters would be Liberal voters. At the same time, the Conservatives adjusted their platform to suit rural smallholders; fearful of reprise if disenfranchising them, the Liberals were pressured to enlarge the urban vote to counterbalance a resurgence of Conservative support in the countryside in the 1860s. Furthermore, the Liberals were also supported by university graduates, who tended to be more open to Casaterran enlightenment during the 19th century and pushed for broader political participation. Resulting from a confluence of these factors, the following groups were enfranchised as of the 1933 general election:

1. Civil servants above the Ninth Class, their spouses, children, and grandchildren
2. Civil servants below the Ninth Class
3. Fellows of the Academia Thimiensis and Academia Filium Patriae
4. University graduates and faculty
5. Gentlemen owning real property or capital equipment taxed at the value of €500 or more (approx. $60,000 in 2019 Int'l $) and their spouses
6. Householders paying poll taxes at least €1 per annum
7. All men and women above the age of 25, who have passed the Literacy Examination

Amongst those who are specifically excluded from voting:

1. Mentally unsound
2. Undischarged bankrupts
3. Felons currently in prison
4. Enlistend men and petty officers of the military services (but not commissioned officers)
5. Habitual drunks, opium addicts, "notorious louts, thugs, and confederates to criminal enterprises and disorderly social organizations"
6. Persons of questionable character (mainly prostitutes, magicians, street performers, geomancers, bodyguards, and other minor groups)
7. Vagrants (individuals away from their registered home)

These restrictive rules were subject to much criticism from progressives. The provisions against habitual drunks, questionable character, and vagrants have an almost-perfect exclusionary effect on voters who are engaged in public movements, such as unionization, political activism, and football clubs. Additionally, scholars have noted that this franchise was particularly harsh against young adults. While there was no age limit for the property franchise, it was in practice rare for young adults to have this much taxable property, though they could obtain it later in life after a successful career. They were also unlikely to be householders, as they generally chose not to take a spouse until financial security. The provision against vagrancy also excluded any young adult who migrated from rural areas to industrial centres, and it is believed the Liberals excluded them for their Conservative tendencies. The literacy franchise was lambasted as "a farce" by critics. Prior to the 1932 election, only 1.2% of all test-takers passed, and they were not granted an automatic pass for future elections. Those defending the literacy franchise claimed it was fair since the characters were drawn randomly from a dictionary, but its opponents pointed out that "fairness means nothing if it is too difficult", and university graduates could not boast anything more than a 10% passing rate. Members of the armed forces were excluded from voting as it was thought they were vulnerable to pressure from their officers to vote a certain way.

Conscription question

Themiclesia invaded Dzhungestan in 1926 and occupied it until Menghe deployed troops in consequence of the Nationalist Revolt of 1932, during which the government massacred supporters of the Nationalist Party, which received funds from the Menghean government. The Nationalists' platform was to re-align Themiclesia with the emerging bloc of Menghe and Dayashina, whose rallying-cry, spiked with racist beliefs, was to end Casaterran influence in Hemithea. This line was, however, highly unorthodox domestically, and all mainstream political parties (Liberals, Conservatives, Progressives, and Democrats) were at least neutral to Themiclesia's close commercial ties to powers such as Anglia, Hallia, and Tir Glas. The massacre of the June 1932 demonstration killed a nephew of the Menghean emperor, though the government did not know as much at the time. Themiclesia's rapid advance, with Casaterran approval, towards Dzhungestan, taking its capital city in only 19 days, spooked Kwon. Abruptly accusing the Themiclesian government of collusion with the Casaterrans, Menghe in 1933 called for volunteers to assist the Khan of Dzhungestan regain his throne and repulse the Themiclesians. Themiclesia's East Expedition Force (EEF), numerically inferior and logistically strained, could not effectively resist the Menghean advance. Moreover, the Themiclesian Foreign Office believed a diplomatic solution was possible and repeatedly sent negotiators to Kwon's court, while asking the EEF to fight only infrequently; their efforts were ultimately unanswered, and the front rapidly regressed towards Themiclesia. By mid-1934, the EEF was defending Themiclesia's eastern border, and the Liberal government began debate in parliament to impose conscription or to raise new volunteer regiments.

Despite strong whipping for a conscription statute, the Liberals formed only a minority government, being 18 seats short of a majority. In 1926, the Conservatives sternly opposed the invasion and mercilessly ridiculed the EEF's every act in its newspaper, the Alliance Press; yet with a Liberal majority, the invasion pressed forth. By 1929, however, disputes with Dzhungestani authorities and mounting costs of the occupation had injured the Liberals' political position, which weakened to a minority, by two seats, in 1930 and again in 1932, by six seats, after the massacre. In both cases, the Liberals remained in government by forming a coalition with the small Democratic Party to keep the Conservative-Progressive alliance at bay. Themiclesians were shocked by the news of the Menghean victories in Dzhungestan after the 1933 election, and, with an impending vote of confidence implied in the 1934 budget, the Liberals dissolved parliament for a general elections in Dec. 1933, hoping that a wave of editorials in the Shinasthana Globe, the Liberal Party's newspaper, criticizing Menghe and obstruction by the opposition, and appealing to the sense of danger, would grant them a majority government. Despite a record number of editorials printed and columns purchased in minor newspapers, the Dec. 1933 election saw the Liberal share further wane to 18 seats short of a majority; nevertheless, the Liberals remained in government as the opposition was disunited over the question of franchise and options to resist the Menghean advance. Feeling confident that the opposition was not capable of uniting, the Liberals introduced the conscription bill in March 1934.

Letter scandal

While parliament was ambivalent over the conscription bill, referring it to committee several times after first reading, many leaders of public movements, such as the Campaign for Universal Franchise (active since 1891), were indignant. As common practice at that time, government bills were printed on major newspapers in summary form, and criticism soon surfaced. Most sharply, Dr. Mjawh Ning, writing on the Alliance Press, called conscription a breach of the social contract: he argued that parliamentarians could represent the best interests of their constituents but could not fight for them at war, so should not be permitted to conscript their constituents. As newspapers continued to print hostile articles that, above all, accused the Liberal government of diplomatic incompetence and dishonesty after multiple assurances to the public that the Menghean negotiation was progressing well, the Liberal government started to counter-attack, printing articles written by industrialists defending the war effort as "a good source of employment". These letters backfired greatly, being taken as evidence of "political parasitism" that union leaders accused of the Liberals (and Conservatives to some extent as well) in light of the conscription bill. A particularly frank letter, in May 1934, by the National Union of Labourers (NUL), said that the Liberals "have taxed us through parliament, have work us through our employers, and are now sending us off to die by this accursed bill. What difference is there between working for the Liberal capitalist and the Menghean menace? Or, more precisely, why should we fight for a government that, for labourers, offers nothing more than a hostile government?"

That month, NUL mobilized its members in the Army's contracted manufactories for canned food and rifles to go on strike; while this did not hurt the Army immediately, having generous stores of both, it did provoke the Liberal government to order the Chief of Staff of the EEF to circulate amongst his forces an appeal for letters home complaining of insufficient rations and worn armaments. Several dozen were collected and printed with their senders' permissions on major newspapers. However, it soon emerged that these letters were written at the government's behest, prompting the Democratic Party to cross the floor in parliament, claiming the Liberals have "debauched soldiers, making them weapons of public sympathy against the NUL and shields for the government's incompetence dealing with labour". To disspell the public uproar over the improper compulsion of letters, the Liberals introduced a bill to grant soldiers the franchise so that "they may speak for themselves", mainly to vindicate the Liberals' position; as soon as this was made public, the Conservatives threatened a motion of confidence, as it was against their ideology that military personnel were fundamentally "poor judges of character".