3021 vote of no confidence in the Morgan Ministry

A vote of no confidence in the Wiltshire Labour government of Catherine Morgan occurred on 25 August 3021. The vote was proposed by Mitchell A. Crawley, the Leader of the Opposition, and was lost by the Labour government by a single vote (42 votes to 41), which was announced at 11.31 PM. The result of this vote led to Prime Minister Catherine Morgan calling for a general election, rather than giving the National Assembly the opportunity to form a replacement government.

This was the first time a vote of no confidence had been successfully used to bring down a government since 3013 and only the second ever instance of it occurring. Much like in 3013, the incumbent government was a minority government. However, Morgan's position as a newly appointed Prime Minister made the vote distinctly more shocking than that in the long time government of Edward Jellico.

## Background

Since the end of the IDO/NCR war, Wiltshire's politics entered a period of uncertainty over its future direction. The governing coalition - that of Labour and Stability AMs - ended with the conclusion of the war. Stability, a right-wing corporatist party, and Labour, a left-wing worker's rights party, weren't meant to work together besides in the time of national crisis which they found themselves in. Following the war, with the collapse of the Liberal Conservative Party, the Labour Party found itself as the largest party. As such, Jake Simpson formed a minority Labour government in order to prevent another general election being called due to parliamentary gridlock due to the fall of the LibCons (which gave minor parties big boosts in support within the chamber). Simpson - a popular wartime leader - easily garnered the support of the National Assembly and laid out his vision for Wiltshire's recovery.

Disaster struck, however, days later when Simpson was killed during an NCR-loyalist attack from Neu Wiltshire (now Winden). The attack, which resulted in the deaths of 600 Wiltshirians, killed the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister - Morgan MacDonald - and left Wiltshire without a Prime Minister. Quickly, the Labour Party elected Catherine Morgan, the Mayor of Minevgrad, to succeed Simpson as Prime Minister. However, Morgan did not have the same wartime track record that Simpson had garnered and, without a seat in the National Assembly, had few true allies within the chamber. In addition, shortly after her ascension to Terrace Street news became mainstream of Minevgrad's local government failures during Morgan's administration. Despite this, Labour continued to poll significantly ahead of the second-place Stability Party. This was enough to prevent a vote of no confidence as, in the eventuality of another election, Labour would easily have won.

However, Morgan's resignation as Mayor of Minevgrad led to a special election being called in which the Stability Party candidate - Vladimir Bragin - was elected over the Labour Party candidate, and Morgan's handpicked successor, Amos Kahneman. This defeat, in a Labour Party heartland, cemented the opposition's belief that they were able to defeat Labour. And so, with first blood, Stability called for the motion.

## Aftermath

> *See September 3021 Wiltshire legislative elections.*
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