Pantocratorian National Democratic Party

Pantocratorian National Democratic Party

Parti Démocratique National Pantocratorien
Established	1858
Defunct	1992
Economic ideology	Classical Liberalism
Social ideology	Classical Liberalism, Conservatism

The Pantocratorian National Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique National Pantocratorien) was the most electorally successful Pantocratorian political party in the mid-20th Century, occupying the government benches in the Pantocratorian Imperial Parliament for forty five years of the last century. It became defunct when the United Christian Front won all five hundred and forty seats in the 1992 election, and was officially deregistered as a political party in 1995. Its principal objective, the creation of a written Pantocratorian constitution, was never accomplished.

Founding

The National Democratic Party was founded in 1858 by a distinguished judge, Monseigneur de la Justice Sir Manuel Demetriou, a Knight Master of the Order of the Pantocrator. It was not immediately successful or popular, winning just three seats in the 1860 election, all of them in New Rome. The party failed to capture the public imagination until after the uncharismatic Sir Manuel's death in 1871. When a sitting member of the Imperial Parliament dies, his or her legal heir takes the member's seat. Controversially, Sir Manuel's legal heir was his only child, his daughter Theodora Soissons. In the decree dissolving the previous parliament in 1860, Emperor Manuel IX had allowed women to vote for the first time. There had been no new elections since 1860, and until Theodora Soissons assumed her father's seat, there had been no female MPs. The novelty of a woman in the Imperial Parliament attracted much more interest in the National Democratic Party from the electorate than did its new parliamentary leader, especially from the newly enfranchised women voters.

Cross Benches (1872 to 1889)

In 1872 with the death of Empress Theodora II, the governing Frank Party began to fragment dramatically as Emperor Manuel IX became increasingly irrelevant to the political process. Seeing the opportunity to be instrumental in the demise of the long-incumbet Frank Party, the primary opposition party, the Peacock Faction, gathered up support from the minor parties, including the National Democratic Party, to try force fresh elections. When the Government finally lost enough MPs through defection away from the Frank Party, the National Democratic Party voted with the Peacock Faction in a motion of no confidence in the Government. The Emperor was forced to dissolve the Parliament and call fresh elections in 1873.

In order to capitalise on the electoral appeal of a woman in parliament, the National Democratic MPs made Theodora Soissons their leader in 1872, and were rewarded in the 1873 elections with capturing a large proportion of the female vote, winning an additional twenty four seats, all in Pantocratoria's cities. No party emerged from the 1873 elections with a clear majority, and so the newly enlargened National Democratic Party sat itself on the cross benches, able to lend support to either side on motions of confidence and supply, becoming the proverbial king-makers of the new parliament. Their support of the Peacock Faction didn't last very long - the disintegrating Frank Party was much closer ideologically to the National Democratic Party. In 1875, when it became clear that despite the instability of the new parliament, the Emperor had no intentions of dissolving it and calling fresh elections for some time, the party removed Theodora Soissons as its leader - Soissons had shown no real political aptitude, and thus Louis Pelopenies was re-elected leader by the National Democratic party room by a comfortable majority.

It became utterly impossible to support the Frank Party ministry in 1882 when the Frank Party finally collapsed altogether. Many former Frank Party MPs joined the National Democratic Party, bringing its parliamentary presence up to forty nine seats, making it the largest grouping after the Peacock Faction. Through supporting the Peacock Faction's efforts to form government, the National Democratic Party in fact hindered Peacock recruiting efforts - not needing to pick up any of the ex-Frank Party members meant that Peacock recruiting of the new independents was lack lustre in the extreme. In the short term they were able to form a minority government with the National Democratic Party's support, but in the long term they were ensuring they they would one day follow the Frank Party into oblivion.

In 1889, the National Democratic party room was convinced that a fresh election would see them equal the Peacock Faction in the parliament. Against his better judgement, Louis Pelopenies gave in to the will of the majority of his parliamentary colleagues and withdraw support in the Peacock Government, ensuring its collapse and forcing the Emperor to dissolve the parliament and call fresh elections. As he had feared, Pelopenies narrowly lost his seat to a Peacock candidate, but as the rest of the party had hoped, the Pantocratorian National Democratic Party's representation increased dramatically, reaching one hundred and ninety seats. The Peacock Faction maintained its two hundred and two seat plurality, with the new Free Trade Party achieving an all-time high on its electoral debut with sixty seats. The remaining eighty eight seats were fragmented between tiny parties and independents. Unable to form a stable government with an alliance with the Free Traders, the Peacock Faction proposed a formal coalition agreement to the National Democratic Party, and the two formed a coalition (Peacock-led) government. In the same party room meeting as that in which the coalition agreement was signed, the National Democratic Party elected a new leader - Louis Achides.

Coalition Government (1889 to 1892)

Opposition (1892 to 1904)

Government (1904)

Opposition (1904 to 1913)

Government (1913 to 1914)

Opposition (1914 to 1936)

Government (1936)

Opposition (1936 to 1945)

Government (1945 to 1970)

Opposition (1970 to 1975)

A Kind of Government (1975 to 1992)

Parliamentary Leaders

• Monseigneur de la Justice the Honourable Manuel Demetriou, KMOP (1860 to 1871)
• Louis Pelopenies (1871 to 1872)
• Theodora Soissons, MOP (1872 to 1875)
• Louis Pelopenies (1875 to 1889)