2042 Morranian National Assembly Election

The **2042 Morranian National Assembly Election** was held on Thursday November 6, 2042 and was held to elect the 7th National Assembly of Morra, marking the sixth occasion that all 300 seats in the legislature had been up for election. Turnout was 95%, with 34,457,749 ballots being cast in the election. Throughout the entire election process, there were numerous allegations that the Democratic Party of the People used its executive power to rig the election in its favour, and the election was described as "free but not fair" by international observers.

After coming to power in the 2040 National Assembly election, a coalition of the Party of the Labourers (PvdA), Democratic Party of the People (DPV), Progressive Party (PPM), and Liberal Party (LPM) formed a government under the leadership of Speaker Wilhelm De Croo of the PvdA and President Kairos Hemlock of the DPV. During the course of the government, the National Assembly passed several major reform bills, including the National Reform Act of 2040. Having realised that President Hemlock would never consent to the removal of presidential executive powers, Speaker De Croo collaborated with several opposition parties to force the state to hold a constitutional referendum on the issue. Following extensive meddling in the subsequent constitutional referendum in 2042 by the office of President Hemlock, the reform package was rejected by a large degree in official figures - in the aftermath, De Croo correctly accused Hemlock and the DPV of meddling in the election, though these claims were not widely believed and instead contributed to De Croo being forced from office in May 2042. On May 24, 2042, Ophelia de Ruiter of the DPV formed a new coalition government largely identical to the De Croo Ministry, but tensions began to emerge as the PvdA and PPM increasingly questioned the DPV's growing power over the electoral system. With the election of Pierre Moscovici as leader of the PvdA, the party collapsed the government and called for early elections, which were called on September 2, 2042 by President Kairos Hemlock.

In order to be eligible to receive seats in the National Assembly, political parties and independent candidates were required to register with the central government by October 1, 2042, though campaigning begun with the dissolution of the legislature on September 2, 2042. In order to be elected to the National Assembly, political parties and independent candidates must be registered with the civil service. Following the election, political parties will be given a percentage of seats in the chamber, rounded to the nearest whole number, proportional to the percentage of overall valid votes cast for the party. After the results are known, independent candidates are placed onto a *de-facto* party list in ranking of total votes cast, and the remaining vacant seats are allocated to independent candidates in the order of highest to lowest vote share until all seats in the National Assembly are taken.

During the election campaign, Pierre Moscovici revitalised the United Opposition of Morra opposition alliance after the group had been dormant since 2040, though only the PvdA and PPM retained their membership of the organisation, with the LPM opting to campaign in favour of a continued alliance with the DPV. Alongside the intra-party splits forming over cooperation with the DPV, the PPM membership became increasingly divided over the question through 2042; on September 12th, a group of discontented PPM members led by Hubertus Heil left the party to found the Movement for Democracy in Morra (BVDM) in order to continue cooperation with the DPV. Divisions between the parties opposed to the DPV meant that no opposition grouping managed to gain significant levels of public support and many commentators described the United Opposition as being more united against the formerly dictatorial People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) than the DPV. In addition, President Kairos Hemlock personally wielded significant influence over the Electoral Commission and used this power to influence the results in her party's favour.

On November 8, 2042, the results of the National Assembly election were made public by the Morranian Electoral Commission at a ceremony in Brussels, with the DPV receiving 108 seats, the PvdA receiving 64 seats, the BVDM receiving 37, the VVD receiving 29, the PPM receiving 17, the APA receiving 16, DENK receiving 12 the LPM receiving 12, the NP receiving 1, and independent candidates gaining 4 seats. The election was decried by observers, both domestic and international, as being institutionally biased towards parties supporting President Kairos Hemlock - in several cases, digital electoral registers were found to have been manipulated whilst databases with results were accused of having been edited by pro-Hemlock officials. Despite evidence of election rigging, all parties opted to accept the results and on November 10, 2042, Speaker Ophelia de Ruiter swore in all elected members of the National Assembly. After a week of negotiations, de Ruiter successfully managed to form a new coalition between the DPV, BVDM, and LPM, and was elected to a second term in office on November 17, 2042. Now in full control over both the executive branch and the legislature, President Hemlock continued her reforms of the Morranian political system with the backing of Vice President Fachnan Opus, Speaker Ophelia de Ruiter, and Christine Lagarde, the most significant ideologues of her administration.