With Eirian national elections just a month away, all major political entities in the country are scrambling to gain every inch of public support still left on the battlefield of politics. The Serso coalition that was supposed to be a temporary solution has been solidified into the “Unity Alliance”, and the remaining national parties have followed suit in forming voting alliances of their own. So, what’s all going on in the political scene, and who looks to gain the most from these upcoming elections?
First, the race for the Chancellor’s Manor. Since Chancellor Lancaster has decided not to run for his seat again, and instead run for a Senate seat, the field is completely open to challengers. Three major candidates have made themselves known on the debating and rallying circuit. The current Vice Chancellor, Leah Stendē of the Green Party, has won the ticket for the new Unity Alliance voting block. Her and her running mate, Moderate Right Senator Lynn Morrin, have been campaigning far and wide, and have earned the support of many current incumbents of high offices. The big question is, will they be able to hold enough support from both the left and the right to remain the most prominent contenders?
Another major candidate for the Chancellor’s seat is Formido politician François Vihrovs, former Governor of Plakanlauki Province. His running mate, Arthur Miezis, is a former Moderate Right Provincial Senator and retired Air Force Officer. They are running under the “United Right” voting banner, an alliance formed between the Formido Party and the Free Moderate Right faction of Senators. A good amount of their campaign resources have gone to attempting to fight the Unity Alliance for the Moderate Right vote, as well as framing the Moderate Right Senators who joined the Unity Alliance as “traitors to their voters”. It’s currently unclear if their efforts to sway moderate voters have succeeded.
The final major contenders to the ticket are Arnis Ronis and Juliette Lefevre, representing the “Rising Liberty” voting alliance. Ronis is a longtime member of the Progressive Faction, a Senator since 2014, and was crucial in setting up the Eclipse Party after the Eirian Civil War. Lefevre is a socialist firebrand, more popular with younger voters. She is well known for leading the “March on Merēta” rally against mandatory minimum sentences in Krastalen Province, gaining her respect from many sides of the political spectrum. Their campaign has spent a lot of resources trying to attract voters away from the Green Party and to their Progressive-Socialist alliance. Only time will tell how many swing voters were convinced.
In the three-way race for Chancellor, it is clear that the Stendē-Morrin ticket is the ticket to beat in this race. Both opposing candidates are attacking the Unity Alliance’s base from both sides, attempting to chip away at the large voter base the Unity Alliance’s parties had in the 2020 Election, before the Legrand-Dukov Scandal and the subsequent dissolution of the two major Eirian big tent parties. This scandal has made national polling fluctuate, and makes it incredibly difficult to predict a result for this election.
The Senate and Local Elections are a bit more varied. The three Election Blocks running for the Chancellor’s seat aren’t united into neat alliances, but are spread out into small, local parties. Local parties across Eiria with similar ideologies form National Parties, which are the actual parties that sit in the Senate. As such, the elections for the 450 Senate Seats are very complicated. Each of the nine provinces are divided into Kortairei, or districts, that roughly have a population of one million. Every Kortair elects five senators, via party-list proportional representation. Local Party lists are ranked by every voter, providing an instant runoff system in case of ties.
With the Unity Alliance parties looking to maintain their majority coalition status in the Senate, parties in voting alliances have to maintain tenuous friendships in order to survive in this political climate. The unpredictability of this election is unprecedented, and on the First Day of February, as the nation wakes up in the morning, the citizens of Eiria shall see the results of this new age in Eirian politics.
