Difference between revisions of "Pacitalian general election, January 2006"

Revision as of 23:45, 14 October 2006

111th federal general election

Country	Pacitalia
Type	Federal election
Incumbent party	Federation of Progressive Democrats
Winner	Federation of Progressive Democrats
Prime-minister elect	Constantino Sorantanali
Balloting date	25th January, 2006
Latest poll	FPD 43.9, PSC 27.8, Strategic Vision (23-Jan-2006)

The 111th federal general election occurred in the Democratic Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia on 25th January, 2006. The incumbent Federation of Progressive Democrats, now led by Constantino Sorantanali, retained their hold on power with a victory that placed the FPD in their sixth-straight majority government dating back to 1988. This was despite the fact that the governing party's popular vote share dropped 9.1% from the 2004 election that saw Timothy Ell elected to a third term. The FPD earned 42.5% of the popular vote, while Fernando Chiovitti's Pacitalian Social Coalition won a 25.7% share. The Pacitalian Greens dropped from opposition status to third in the vote.

Results among major parties

The Federation was still a bit shaken up by the resignation of Timothy Ell, who had quit in order to raise his first-born child, which was due sometime in February of 2006. Ell was concerned that his continued stay in the office might lead to apathy among voters as well as fracture within the party as members looked for a new leader to direct them through the latter half of the decade. Wished well by numerous international political figures, Ell set off to raise his family, leaving the stage open for the next leader of the party. Constantino Sorantanali, a Sambucan, won the FPD's leadership contest in December 2005, defeating rivals Mariana Cosima Vincenza and Castel Devante, both from Ciocanto. It left only three weeks for Sorantanali to campaign but he emerged as a competent campaigner and a no-nonsense candidate for prime minister, even causing his first bit of controversy when he told reporters he would do his best to inhibit neighbour Space Union from adopting Absolute Capitalism, a Macabean-born ideology. The comments were a catalyst, as Space Unionist citizens revolted, booting the increasingly autocratic Harsimran Mann from office and replacing him with Satpul Singh. Sorantanali led the FPD to another strong showing, winning a 55-seat majority in the lower house and another senatorial majority.

Fernando Chiovitti was trying to campaign and reform the party's constitution to follow a more centrist ideology, and, according to numerous political scientists, and the numbers themselves, did an honourable job. He inherited a party fractured by the poor leadership of his predecessors Aracio Partiva and Verano Ampasora and funding and advertising scandals which were highly detrimental to the PSC's image. The party finished a dismal third in the 2004 elections, a mere month after Chiovitti had taken over, capturing just under twelve percent of the popular vote. However, they rebounded to wrest opposition status back from the Greens in the January 2006 vote, re-cementing their status as a top-three party in Pacitalia. It was indeed a very different scenario from just two years earlier where the party looked to be in danger of disbanding, as the PSC rebounded from a horrific count of 22 seats in the 2004 election to win 163 in an expanded parliament.

Meanwhile, the Pacitalian Greens, led by Neros Constantakis, settled back down into a more natural third in the January vote. They had only taken opposition status in 2004 because the PSC was in disarray and there was no other real option for an opposition to the government apart from the neofascist Partia di Traditionale or the Communists. Constantakis' leadership did not come into question post-vote as nearly everyone watching the election expected the settling to happen. The Greens still finished with a solid 12.6 percent of the popular vote and 70 seats in the Constazione Ampoliticato Federali.

A new party, the Non-Partisan Association, was making its electoral debut. It split from the FPD worrying that Timothy Ell and Constantino Sorantanali were taking the moral weight out of government, and nullifying its purpose. A caucus of 28 FPDers split left to form the centrist NPA, which fared very well under former Agustinate of Labour Aria Speranza, winning 41 seats in the CAF to finish fourth on election night. It had campaigned on a simple policy of "working government", one which minimised corruption, did not engage in what it called "partisan hackery", and focused on domestic growth in both the fiscal and social realms.

Results among minor parties

Marco Quirinamo's Partia di Traditionale had fared respectably in elections since its inception in 1988. However, it suffered heavy blows from the mismanagement of former leader Roberta Santo Paraggia and ex-party president Samueli Spragonti. The PdT replaced them with Quirinamo and Roach-Busterian Dr Alexander Farndorber, who worked to restore the image of the party and bring it slightly left out of its widely-unappealing neofascist beliefs to a more "moralist, Christian-democratic" ideology. The PdT gained from this, but only slightly, finishing with a share of the vote that was 0.4 percent higher than its 2004 tally. They won 15 seats in the 2006 vote.

The election saw the resurrection of the Workers' Cooperative Alliance in Pacitalia, led by Jávier Grandinetti. The party had disbanded previously in order to support the PSC but was increasingly dissatisfied with the latter's shift right and decided to reboot the party with Grandinetti at the helm. It did well in its first election campaign, capturing 1.6 percent of the popular vote and two seats in the Constazione Ampoliticato Federali.

Similarly, separatism reverted to political measures in order to continue to advocate Margheria's purportedly desired autonomy from the Pacitalian republic. The Gruppo Liberacione di Norte Pacitalia, responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in the 1970s and 1980s, and then again between 2003 and 2005, disbanded, and many members founded the Northeastern Independence Party, renouncing their old ways and apologising for their brutality. The NEIP captured a solid share despite its link with the GLNP, and captured just under 81.5 million votes to finish sixth on election night with three seats in the CAF.

Unfortunately, where two parties succeeded a third had to hit rock-bottom. Lemvi Megescu, who had led the party through countless elections and, who is still seen as the face of collectivist socialism ("supersocialism") in Pacitalia, campaigned lightly due to health reasons, and though he recovered from his surgery (a heart bypass), he did not do so in time to retain the Communist Party's share of the vote. They finished eighth, losing nine of their ten seats in the CAF, and losing nearly 80 percent of their proportionate votes from 2004.

The new Anarchist League of Pacitalia, led by Vera Campagnolo, also had a respectable finish for their first campaign, finishing last but winning over 15 million votes. The party will need to finish with more than 20 million votes in the next election if they wish to qualify for funding grants.

Trivia

• The FPD's popular vote share loss of 9.1 percent appeared to have been nearly completely gained by the NPA, who took 9.0 percent of the PV on election night.
• Similarly, the PSC's gain of 13.8 percent looked to be mainly drawn away from 2004 Green voters who themselves had switched from the PSC in the previous election. The Greens' popular vote share dropped 15 percent from the 2004 election.
• All nine party leaders were elected in the constituencies in which they were running, the first time since 1996 that this had happened.
• Internationally, most political parties (mainly those ideologically similar) officially expressed their support for the FPD, including, most notably Hamptonshire's Nationalistisk Republikaner Folkeparti (NARP), Popular Party and Center Coalition (all defunct), Nedalia's Liberal Party, Knootoss's SLP and RCPK. Comatican emperor Titus Celmaetus personally endorsed the FPD, as did the government of the Second Empire of the Golden Throne. This wide support for the right-of-centre ProDems was a contrast to the fact that they consistently polled below 50 percent leading up to the election, and did not, despite getting a majority of seats, earn more than 50 percent of the popular vote on election night.

Opinion polls

Full election results

	Pacitalian federal elections
	111th (2006) | 112th (2006) | Future: 113th