After a tense election and 24 hours of vote counting, Workers’ Party leader and incumbent Chief Minister Alejandro Lopez has given a speech claiming electoral victory before the press and ecstatic supporters. The Workers’ Party won 39.2% of the vote and 154 seats, gaining 2 seats in what is the strongest electoral performance by any party in over 30 years.
The night was not so kind to the Workers’ Party’s coalition partners, however. Although they have maintained their majority, albeit narrowly, the People’s Party lost 13 seats and only barely held onto its status as the third-largest party in the Chamber of Deputies. Meanwhile, the Alliance for a Green Future was the biggest loser of the election, plummeting to 23 seats (-15).
It was largely the right-wing that grew at the expense of the smaller coalition parties. The Conservative Party and Freedom Party both gained 15 seats apiece. This is a spectacular result for the Freedom Party, which has jumped from being the smallest party in the Chamber of Deputies to the fifth largest of the eight parties.
This rise of the right-wing can be explained by the fears many have of mass migration. With unrest once again rising in Mallacaland, and the upcoming referendum on the status of the Kaijan Islands holding the potential to re-open tensions there, many in Aredoa fear a further rise in migration levels. The number of applications for asylum in Aredoa has skyrocketed in the last 5 years, reaching the highest levels since recordkeeping began. This has caused unrest and even riots around the country. The Freedom Party capitalised on this certainty by promising a complete ban on migration from Mallacaland and the Kaijan Islands in its manifesto.
Sensing this rise in right-wing sentiment, the Liberal-Democratic Alliance lurched to the right during the election campaign. This backfired spectacularly as they failed to do enough to siphon votes from the Conservatives and Freedom Party, while also losing many of their more progressive supporters to the Social Justice Party, which gained 9 seats.
With election results finalised, Alejandro Lopez has been invited by President Maria Ortalez to re-form government and now has seven days to pass a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. While it may seem likely that the incumbent coalition will return to power, there have been rumours circulating that the Greens may seek to bow out of government. Many in the Greens believe that their losses are due to the compromises they were forced to make last term as the smallest government party, and that only a return to opposition can turn the party’s fortunes around. This would leave the incumbent government without a majority and scrambling to find a replacement junior partner.
While the sun sets on a day of celebration for some, solace for others, tomorrow will undoubtedly bring about a week of negotiation, agreement, and scheming by political leaders.
