In 2024, Kolda will vote for President and the National Assembly for the first time in 5 years. At stake is the future of the rapidly growing Nerian state. Will voters approve another 5 years of KLF-U control or will the political opposition take control of government for the first time in the relatively young nation’s history? Voters will consequently vote for the President and for their Senators and Deputies. Parliament consists of 240 members, 200 Deputies and 40 Senators. Delegates are elected nationwide, with 100 being elected by party list voting, while 90 are elected in first-past-the-post districts and the other 10 are elected first-past the post only in the Brissiac Republic. Senators are elected by region, with each region electing 6 Senators in a single district, the top 6 candidates becoming senators. Additionally, 8 Senators are chosen by the Brissiac Republic and 2 are chosen by members of the Farmer and Labor Committee of Workers.
In 2024, incumbent Edouard Senghor will run for re-election. Senghor started at the start of this year in his yearly address. “Our Republic has given us once an election, Our duty as Koldans is to vote, workers, owners, and citizens are all equal with 1 vote, 1 person”. Ironically, Senghor’s administration was criticized by the international community for winning an election where thousands of ballots were thrown out in 2019.
KLF-U: Koldan Liberation Front-Union
Seats: 12/40 Senate, 90/200 Assembly of Deputies
Primary: January 18th
40 years after it and Kolda’s creation, the KLF-U still controls Kolda. The Koldan Liberation Front-Union was founded in 1984, as a political arm of the KLF that had been fighting for the previous decade against the Brissiac Republic’s government. It wasn’t until 2004, that political opposition appeared in the form of the Republican Party. RP was formed by a faction of affluent and conservative members of the traditionally left-wing KLF-U. Although the RP was and counties to politically support the KLF-U by aligning with them politically in the 2005 and 2009 Elections. However, in 2009, the KLF-U had an internal conflict between the factions of Gano and supporters of businessman Jerome Hamoud-Diaw. Diaw was more in favor of a transition to a private economy with government oversight, while Gano was still ideologically aligned with state socialism. When Gano ordered the military to threaten the Faeleme, the minority group that Diaw was a part of, Colonel Adama Daouf launched a coup. Gano then fled to Brissiac leading to Kolda engaging in a brief civil war as the Koldan Republican Army briefly overwhelmed Brissiac forces along the border. Soon, however, Vice-President Edouard Senghor working with Brissiac recaptured Guineawaye in late 2009, not before Gano was assassinated in his estate in Saint-Paul.
Senghor quickly implemented reforms drawing widespread support allowing for him to be easily elected in 2014. Although, Senghor maintained elements of the regime such as state control of planning and the policy of Les Gens Séparation. When nationwide protests occurred in 2017, the military suspended internet access before killing around 40 protesters in various incidents. In the following, 2019 Election the KLF-U maintained control despite allegations of intimidation and voter fraud by political opposition.
DAP: Democratic Action Party
Seats: 5/40 Senate, 20/200 Deputies
Primary: February 10th
The Democratic Action Party was founded as The Democratic Action Party of 2009, receiving 5 seats in that year’s election. DAP’s political appeal to broad although is most popular among liberal voters in cities such as Gunieawaye, Lennes, and Tiuvioanne. In 2010, the party renamed itself as the Democratic Action Party with the Mayor of Lennes, Bernard Kaba being elected party leader. In 2014, Kaba received 14.5% of the vote, coming in 3rd behind the now-banned Social Action Party. The Social Action Party was largely responsible for the 2017 Protests, although the DAP didn’t involve themselves directly and was largely spared from the political purge that ended the movement. In 2019, young businessman Eduoard Wade ran as a candidate for the DAP receiving 34.5% of the vote, although independent investigations estimate thousands of Wade votes were not counted and voter intimidation was widespread in rural areas.
BUP: Brissiac Union Party
Seats: 12/40, 29/200
Primary: February 10th
Brissiac Union is as much a political institution as the KLF-U, this is due to the political control of Brissiac. Politically the two parties have long been at odds, although the policy of Le Gens Separation has meant the KLF-U has largely ignored Brissiac in exchange for the BUP to keep its matter south of the Banguala River. The BUP is largely intertwined with the business and tech industries in Brissiac as both industries have allowed Brissiac to have one of the highest HDIs in all of Neria.
Politically the BUP is conservative and supports a free market economic system. The BUP however can be split into two factions. The majority faction is an urban and more libertarian-minded faction headed by Jean-Paul Levar, an MP from Le-Seine Parrish. The minority faction is an older establishment faction, that opposes immigration and is more isolationist, their leader is Bernard D’ard a veteran of the Brissiac-Kolda War. Much of this fracturing is over the increasing number of Koldan workers living in Brissiac, and working in the tech and mining industries. Expect the BUP to dominate in Brissiac and also win the Brissiac Regional Elections held in November.
Koldan Republican Rally
Seats: 4/40 Senate, 24 Deputies
The KRP originally existed as a left-wing faction of the KLF-U, although has since been involved in its own political party. Although is still a political partner of the KLF-U, with the party benefits from its political machine while also existing separately. The KRP remains nostalgic for the Gano regime, and its supporters and leadership still hold onto the idea of Kolda as a worker’s paradise. KRP gets much of its support from urban workers but also from well-educated Leftists who can’t bring themselves to vote for KLF-U.
Worker’s and Farmer’s United Front
Seats: 4/40 Senate, 14/200 Deputies
Workers and Farmers consist of various regional dissidents from the KLF-U, who long towed the party line of the KLF-U. The party largely exists as a political organization to represent various labor factions and has largely focused itself on economic issues instead of political or social ones. The plight of migrant workers is often the focus of WFUF, who are known for their social media antics and are largely pointed to by foreign leftists as the “true socialists”. Additionally, the party has support among Brissiac Koldans who are mainly live in expansive, de-facto segregated suburban parishes around Saint-Paul.
Regional People’s Alliance
Seats: 0/40, 12/200 Deputies
The RPA is a political coalition of various progressive and populist local parties and deputies. Although the party has central leadership, it will not field a candidate for president and largely exists to boost the political aims of its members locally. Its largest faction is the Faeleme People’s Front, which represents the small minority group in Eastern Kolda. The Faeleme suffered political violence in the 2010s, as they were blamed for the assassination of Gano, the party itself is however right-wing and supports the implementation of Islamic justice in a new breakaway region of Faelemara.
Saw’ab Liberation Front
Seats: 1/40, 6/200 Deputies
The SLF is a militant organization first and a political party second. They have abstained from Parliament since 2014 and have only shown in Gunieawaye to demand an end to mineral extraction in the Moudjerria Region. They are less violent than the groups currently fighting in Moudjerria having made peace with the government since 2015, although they have splinter factors participating in a low-intensity conflict along the northern border with Lehvant.
Forces of Dawla
Seats: 0/40 Senate, 5/200 Deputies
FOD is a religious organization first and a political party second. Their primary belief is that Mahoumed Wauoff, a semi-mystical figure from the 13th Century is the final messenger of God. Although not strictly aligned with Islam or Christianity, they have adopted Arabic and taken upon many Islamic practices although they believe that instead of one god, nature is controlled by spirits called “Hracunas”. The FOD has taken a foothold in the political and economic elite of Kolda and is sometimes considered a cult.
