Dragon Kingdom general election, 540 A.C.
After a tumultuous 52 months in office, the Solidarity-People's Party coalition sought another term in office.
Solidarity entered the election led by Anya Enyart, a veteran politician from the South. She had served as leader for 11 years prior to the election, and had served as Prime Minister for the past six years; she had been a member for the Parnell-1 district in the House of Commons for 31 years.
The
People's Party was led by Sir Thomas Wright, who represented Zopvan-2 for 11 years going into the election. Wright was a member for one of the safest People's Party districts in the entire nation, being located in the heart of rural Glyndar. His party, as usual, focused on its Glyndar heartland as well as the Central region - both areas it routinely dominated under the DK's first-past-the-post electoral system.
The
Liberals were led by John Gustavson, who represented the district of Peterport-3. This general area was dominated by tall apartment buildings alongside the beach. Niflheimians were a major voting bloc in North Peterport and the Liberal leader was one of them; their hope was that they could flip enough districts in New Druk City to win the election.
Finally, representing the more well-off, and many old voters, as well as a chunk of the farmer vote, was the
Unity party. Led by Anita Bayreux, a 15-year incumbent representing Correze in the House of Commons, they had high hopes; partially because of vote-splitting potential in many rural districts (between PP and Solidarity) might allow them to wins in the Central region.
The campaign was lively, feisty, and competitive. The results of the election were under doubt until the last districts in New Druk City reported the results. In the end, the FPTP electoral system, which the Liberals promised to reform, ended up costing the Liberals; they piled up massive landslides in lakefront constituencies and otther rich enclaves that were safe for the party, 'red-ribbon' seats (so nicknamed because of the red rosette of the Liberals). Solidarity won 18 of 29 seats in Peterport, despite losing the PV there to the Liberals 44%-41%. Solidarity won 19 of 30 seats in New Sabin, despite losing the PV to the Liberals 42%-41%. Solidarity won 19 of 36 seats in Faro, despite losing to the Liberals in the PV by a margin of 39%-34%. Solidarity thus did decently in NDC, though they failed to win pluralities in any of the six boroughs in terms of borough-wide popular vote.
The story was similar outside of the big city. Solidarity held on to its strongholds in the suburban/rural cantons of Cramwick, Spellthorne, and Pentney. In these areas, there existed a huge union presence; many blue-collar industrial towns encircled the city. These areas saw minimal swings away from Solidarity. Unity gained one seat, but only by a margin of 4%; the seat was also open, with 42-year incumbent Elisa Roderick retiring, and Solidarity wound up picking a poor candidate to replace her.
In the South, the Liberals made a strong push, but mostly failed to make an impression. Their only major successes were half a dozen pickups in Metro Deloresford (civil servant land, so a traditionally Liberal area; nonetheless, Solidarity had done well here in in the last election), and a star Liberal candidate, John Henner, upsetting the Prime Minister by 19 votes in her constituency. Enyart went down in defeat despite the fact that Solidarity easily won all the neighboring districts. She would return to the House several months later after a by-election in Peterport-27, but not without suffering a 20-point swing in the process.
In Irdegynarth many constituencies were marginal. The Liberals won mostly rural constituencies, while Solidarity easily won in most of Copeland and Unity won the suburbs. New Quay was largely pro-Unity, with the Liberals only winning one seat on the island - the seat coextensive with the most urban portion of the commune of Bashvok, a fishing and tourism town notably more downmarket than its neighbors.
Glyndar, as expected, went solidly for the PP, as did the Sky Isles. This was not a shock; Glyndar was much more likely to vote PP than other areas were, and the Skye Isles were heavily Glyndarian. The main exception was the more pixie-dominated areas and the core cities, both of which voted Liberal. The Colvincia suburbs also largely voted for Unity, but the winning margins were quite small compared to Enshed or New Quay.
Drukovia was very predictable in this election - the civil servant-heavy South Drukovia went Liberal, yet the more well-off northern half of the capital voted for Unity. Both parts of the city elected 25 MPs, so it was exactly a 25-25 split.
In the end, the Liberals, despite finishing with over four more percentage points than Solidarity in the popular vote, got only 15 more seats. Government formation in the period afterwards was uncertain, but Unity and Solidarity eventually formed a coalition government, with Enyart yet again serving as PM, something many previously felt to impossible for her. Many feared that the centrist nature of the coalition government's agreed-upon program would reduce voter enthusiasm in the next election, but Enyart was more focused on serving more than a decade in office...