This has been my on again, off again project for the past month; a map of the results of the 2009 elections to the lower house of the legislature of my fictional country project, Sondstead, which you may remember from the
Wikipedia infobox for it's largest city and the
general map of the country I posted previously. I apologize for the description being an absurdly wordy treatise on a subject that I doubt most of you care about and for being unable to resist posting the Sondsteadish-language version.
Quite a bit to explain here. To start with, some notes on Sondsteadish society and general politics; religiously, the majority of Sondsteaders, just over 58%, are Arian Christians, with a substantial minority of just over 16% being Protestants, with 13% being members of the Evangelical Church in Sondstead (Encompassing a Lutheran majority and Calvinist minority, also note that "Evangelical" in the name is not used in the American sense) and 3% being of charismatic/Christian right/evangelical denominations. The second largest religious minority, about 3%, are Muslims, two thirds of those being Sunnis. A small minority of those, about one eight of a percent, numbering around 19,000, belong to the Sondsteadish Tatar minority, who were invited into the country in the 16th century from central Europe to serve as cavalry soldiers. They historically had disproportionate influence in the fields of military and politics and are well integrated into general society, but retain their religion and a degree of ethnic autonomy, including a reserved seat (
Reserferätset) in parliament.
Ethnically, about 81% are ethnic Sondsteaders, with the largest minority, some 7%, being the Makeish, a Finno-Ugric group (Given I'm a monoglot English speaker and a very novice conlanger, Estonian is used as a stand-in for their language) who make up a majority, around 63%, of the population, in the autonomous Makeish Republic and have nationalist ambitions. Related to them (And closely related to each other) are the Almai and Nen people (Northern Saami used as a stand-in), who largely live in the country's far north, including northern Makeland, and are suspicious of Makeish nationalism. A diverse immigrant population chiefly includes black Africans (Mostly from Sondstead's former colonies), Moroccans, Iraqis, Azeris, Italians, and Hungarians.
"1:s seden" and "2:d seden" mean "1st seats" and "2nd seats", respectively. This refers to the election system used in federal elections in Sondstead; each constituency (Besides the Antilles and the Tatar reserved seat) returns two members and each voter can vote for two candidates (But not vote twice for one candidate) and major parties usually run two candidates in every constituency. The candidate receiving the most votes in each constituency is elected to the constituencies
1st seat, the
2nd seats are allocated to parties based on their statewide popular vote performance, receiving the a member first from the constituency their candidates received the highest percentage of the vote in, then the one were they received the second highest, and so on. Three states (Cheruskerland, Renmark, and Sitonland) return an odd number of members and so have an additional 2nd seat not tied to any constituency referred to as an adjustment seat (Juste̊rame̊ntse̊t).
Sondstead has, since World War I, maintained a foreign policy of armed neutrality, although still seeking good relations with their old ally Britain. In the 1950s and 1960s, to safeguard this neutrality, they developed a nuclear bomb, with their first test,
Läfinä-I, on May 10 1967 in the Krüksbör Special Military Zone in the Northeastern Lands. Their arsenal peaked in the 1980s at around 100 warheads and has since declined to between 50 and 60 warheads in the form of fighter-launched cruise missiles and road mobile IRBMs. The nuclear arsenal is an very controversial issue in Sondstead; Prime Minister Jen Hälsberger, a neutralist foreign policy hawk who was instrumental politically in the bomb project, was fatally shot on January 6 1968 by a far left militant who identified the nuclear test as a motivating factor, and the controversy continues to the present day.
In the 2009 federal election, eleven parties were elected to the People's Assembly (
Fölkstingjh), the lower house of the Federal Diet (
Bindesder);
The
Conservative Party (
Könserfädif Pärtiy) is a liberal conservative party broadly similar to the British Conservatives, Swedish Moderates, or American moderate Republicans, generally supportive of privatization, market liberalization, lower public spending, a strong military policy, continued European Union membership, and Atlanticism, including joining NATO. On social issues the party is divided between urban modernizers and rural traditionalists. They are opposed to further Makeish devolution and are the most explicitly unionist party in Makeish politics. Their support base comes from rural areas, affluent voters, and middle class professionals.
The
Socialist Labour Party (
Socialist-Arbat Pärtiy) is a social democratic party comparable to other European parties of that vein. Their economic policies are broadly based on social corporatism and they support the
flexicurity model, but have been colored by neoliberalism as most centre-left parties worldwide have in recent years. On social issues they strongly support feminism and social equality. The party is neutralist on foreign affairs and generally soft Eurosceptic, but supports dismantling the nuclear arsenal. The party draws support from the urban middle and working classes, immigrants, government employees, and pensioners.
The
Centre-Liberal Party (
Centre-Liberäl Pärtiy) is a centrist and social liberal party also influenced by the Nordic agrarian political current. It is supportive of a welfare state but not as extensive and pervasive as the one advocated by the SAP, a well regulated free market economy, market environmentalism, moderate taxation, decentralization, and a strong focus on human and civil rights. On foreign policy they are strongly neutralist, soft Eurosceptic, and historically were staunchly anti-communist and supportive of maintaining a nuclear arsenal. The party is chiefly supported by rural voters, especially farmers and small business owners, but is also strong among educated middle class voters in urban and rural areas.
The
Christian Democratic Alliance (
Kristjan-De̊mokradisjh Aljans) is a Christian democratic, Christian right party, most comparable to the Dutch ChristianUnion or Swiss Evangelical People's Party and to the right of most Christian democratic parties in Europe. It is opposed to abortion, drug legalization, euthanasia, gay marriage, pornography, and prostitution but strongly supports the welfare state and nuclear disarmament and is also in favour of environmentalism, lenient policies on asylum seekers, strong foreign aid programs, and soft Euroscepticism. It is mainly supported by nonconformist Christian denominations and revivalist movements in the two main churches.
The
Green-Left Party (
Grenr-Winsträ Pärtiy) is a left wing, democratic socialist party. It was only founded in 1992 when the Communist Party and Green Party merged, and distinction between the two wings still exists, but it broadly supports equality of class, race, and sex, environmentalism, human rights, multiculturalism, foreign aid, lenient asylum policies, and complete nuclear disarmament while opposing neoliberalism, privatization, globalization, and European integration. It has a broad but shallow support base of the poor, immigrants, women, college students, and intellectuals.
The
Sondsteadish Peoples' Party (
Sündstedrisjh Fölkspärtiy is a national conservative, nativist, and Eurosceptic party. It proposes drastically decreasing immigration from non-western countries and rejects multiculturalism while accepting a multiethnic society where minorities assimilate to the majority culture. On social issues it is largely conservative while supporting a strong welfare state. The party also strongly supports Sondsteadish nationalism and unionism. Their supporters are mostly working class whites, particularly in areas which have been hit hard by deindustrialization and have large immigrant populations.
Erakond Mägimaa (In English meaning roughly
Party for Makeland) is a center-left nationalist party, similar to the Bloc Québécois, Plaid Cymru, and Scottish National Party. It is a big tent party with support from a broad swath of society, united mainly by support for Makeish autonomy and possible secession, but leans left economically, has a non-interventionist foreign policy, and supports environmentalism.
The
Democrats (
De̊mokrade̊n) are a radical progressive party, most closely comparable to the Democrats 66 in the Netherlands. They support decentralization, abolition of the monarchy, participatory democracy, and civil rights. Their support mostly comes from college students, the urban middle class, and intellectuals. They are part of the Independent Working Group (
Unafhoniy Arbatsgrup), an alliance of small reformist and regionalist parties.
Our North (
Üre Nort) is a regionalist party centered in the states of Cheruskerland and Northeastern Lands, supporting decentralized government, social conservatism, and a strong welfare state. It is supported by rural voters in parts of those states and is part of the Independent Working Group.
The
Makeish Workers' Nationalist Party (
Mägimaalased Töötajate Riigi Erakond in Makeish) is a small party in the Makeish Republic, supporting a hard left platform, Makeish nationalism, and republicanism. They are in alliance with the Erakond Mägimaa.
Almai & Nen Interest (
Almaj & Nen Interesänt) is a regionalist party dedicated to advocacy on issues pertaining to the Almai and Nen ethnic groups in northern Sondstead, and a member of the Independent Working Group.
Unafhoniy in Sondsteadish simply means "Independent". The one independent member of the People's Assembly is Abram Möhmetssünr, who represents the Tatar reserved seat and caucuses with the Independent Working Group.
(Feel free to comment on what party you would root for. God knows I bothered to write that for some reason.
The single biggest issue in the election was the economic downturn and the incumbent Socialist Labour/Green-Left government's corruption and mishandling of the economy; notably, Prime Minister Rübert Hnütjeärd, identified with the right wing of the party, had been forced to resign on March 6 over allegations he accepted illegal campaign donations from the financial industry including companies which had been implicated in negligence and even criminality during the crisis. This left inexperienced leftist Jen Ämsel, formerly Deputy PM, to lead the party into a challenging election against Conservative leader Kristina Lindkwist, a trained economist and modernizer within the party.
The second biggest issue was defence; Ämsel had proposed nuclear disarmament, complete withdrawal of Sonsteadish peacekeepers from Afghanistan, cutting a quarter of all active duty troops, and abolishing the national service while Lindkwist proposed modest cuts, continuing the mission in Afghanistan, and refocusing the military on counter-insurgency missions. Ämsel was also hurt when, following the royal household's purchase of two armored limousines estimated to have cost Kr 3 million (Roughly $500,000) each ahead of King Christopher IX's 2010 Silver Jubilee, he suggested parliament abolish the monarchy to save money, which proved to be red meat for the Conservative base.
On election night, October 5 2009, the results were;
Conservatives 118 seats
Socialist Labour 115 seats
Centre-Liberals 51 seats
Christian Democrats 23 seats
Green-Left 20 seats
Erakond Mägimaa 7 seats
Democrats 6 seats
People's Party 6 seats
Our North 2 seats
Almai & Nen Interest 1 seat
Makeish Workers' Nationalist Party 1 seat
Independents 1 seat
Lindkwist was able to form a Conservative-Centre Liberal-Christian Democratic coalition and became Prime Minister on October 19 2009.
