2038 Congress of North Africa election

The **2038 Congress of North Africa election** was held Saturday May 15, 2038 to elect members of the 4th Congress of North Africa, and was the first congressional election to be held under the guidance of the North African Authority, as well as the first election under the 2037 constitution of North Africa. It was also the first legislative election with more than two political parties contesting election, and the first since 2034 in which the Christian Loyalist Party won no seats.

In March 2034, the North African Federation was formed as a union of nations in sub-Saharan Africa to pool sovereignty and resources in the face of expansionist aggression from the Bovido Imperium. In January 2037, General Meles Zenawi attempted a coup against President Jean Bagasauo but failed to take control of the whole country, which in turn led to civil war. In August 2037, the Shanghai Pact brokered a peace treaty between the major factions of the civil war, on the condition of the dissolution of the North African Federation and the ruling Christian Loyalist Party; under the new North African Governing Authority, the country was administratively split into two federal regions, with the armed forces' Patriotic National Military Administration (PNMA) in the north and the Shanghai Pact's Occupation Zone (SPOZNA) in the south of the country. After a two month transition period, Meles Zenawi was appointed as president of North Africa in November 2037 and began cooperating with the Shanghai Pact to hold new elections in early 2038.

Following the promulgation of a permanent new constitution on March 18, 2038 with the consent of the two federal regions, preparations for fresh legislative elections began in earnest, with several new political parties being certified to participate in the election. Alongside the already existing African Federalist Party and People's Democratic Front (UNDÉPO), the Patriotic National Front was given electoral certification on March 23rd, whilst President Meles Zenawi's January 12th Movement was given certification on March 24th. Under the terms of the 2037 Treaty of Kampala, the Christian Loyalist Party was barred from running in the election and similar Bagasauoist parties were prohibited too.

Simultaneous elections were held in the Patriotic National Military Administration (PNMA) and the Shanghai Pact Occupation Zone (SPOZNA) on May 15, 2038. Despite electing representatives for the same legislature, the PNMA and SPOZNA used very different electoral methods; in the PNMA, the region was split into 10 multi-member constituencies, each electing 30 representatives using proportional representation. Contrastingly, in the SPOZNA, 300 single member constituencies were established by dividing up former larger constituencies from the North African Federation, and representatives were elected using first-past-the-post. Several instances of ballot irregularities were noted by international observers - in several SPOZNA constituencies, local residents were either deterred or barred from voting, whilst occupying soldiers were ordered to vote by commanding officers. In the PNMA, ballots only had a choice between the Patriotic National Movement and the January 12th Movement, both of which had ties to the armed forces and PNMA leader Meles Zenawi.

Following the closing of ballot stations in the evening of May 15, 2038, the North African Electoral Board (NAEB) certified the results across the country and produced a complete list of elected representatives on May 23, 2038; the African Federalist Party won 243 seats in congress, the Patriotic National Movement won 168, the January 12th Movement won 134, and the People's Democratic Front (UNDÉPO) won 55 seats. The former governing Christian Loyalist Party received several thousand votes through write-ins, but were barred from winning any seats by agreement of the PNMA, SPOZNA, and NAEB. The newly elected congress met for the first time in Banjul on Monday May 24, 2038 in preparation of presidential elections to be held on May 31st, and appointed African Federalist Party leader Patrice Talon as leader of the opposition.

Despite being the largest party in the Congress of North Africa, the African Federalist Party proved unable to form a government after the leftist UNDÉPO refused to back Patrice Talon for the presidency; instead, incumbent president Meles Zenawi was elected as president after securing the backing of the Patriotic National Movement and standing on a ticket with PNM leader Victoire Dogbé as his vice presidential nominee. The election of Zenawi and Dogbé as PNMA-backed candidates with support of the northern military prompted significant tensions with the Shanghai Pact's governing body in the south of the country, which had favoured the African Federalist Party in the election. In the aftermath of the election, President Zenawi sought to use his government's legislative majority to re-write the constitution and end the transitional occupation of the country, but abandoned the plans following the surrender of the Bovido Imperium to the Shanghai Pact in September 2038, which ended active conflict in the continent and began a process of redrawing borders.