2039 Morranian Vice Presidential Election

The **2039 Morranian Vice Presidential Election** was held between March 13, 2039 and August 21, 2039 in order to elect the 7th vice president of Morra following Kairos Hemlock's assumption of the presidency. The election was the second separate vice presidential election, as well as the second executive level election to be held by the National Assembly of Morra.

Following the assassination of President Sunil Bakshi on February 20, 2039, the then-vice president Kairos Hemlock assumed the presidency with the full powers of the office, vacating her position as vice president automatically. On March 2, 2039, Speaker Peter Koonz began the formal process of initiating a vice presidential election by requesting potential candidates achieve 40 nominations in order to be eligible for the first round. On March 4th, Party of the Labourers (PvdA) leader Wilhelm De Croo announced his candidacy, followed by Liberal Party (LPM) leader Marine Le Pen and DENK leader Johannes de Klerk on March 5th. Similarly to the 2037 vice presidential election, factions within the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) failed to agree on a single candidate for vice president, with President Kairos Hemlock supporting her ally Fachnan Opus, whilst Speaker Peter Koonz backed deputy VVD leader Lammert van Raan for the role. All candidates other than Johannes de Klerk secured a place on the initial ballot.

After the 2037 vice presidential election, amendments were made to the electoral system at the behest of Speaker Peter Koonz and formally ratified by the National Assembly on February 28, 2039. In order to qualify for the first ballot, candidates had to secure the nominations of 40 members of the National Assembly, and had to meet all requirements to hold the office of vice president. Following the first ballot, any candidate who received fewer than 35 votes would be eliminated, alongside the lowest ranked 10% of candidates. After the second round of voting, any candidate receiving fewer than 50 votes would be ineligible to continue to the third round. If no candidate secured a majority in the third round, then a fourth ballot would be held; for the fourth round, new candidates would be allowed to appear on the ballot as long as they had the nominations of 100 members of the Assembly. Further rounds of balloting would be scheduled until only two candidates remained, with a certain proportion of candidates eliminated each round. In the case that no candidate in the head-to-head ballot secured 151 or more votes, runoff votes would be held. The speaker of the National Assembly may also opt to re-start the balloting process with a whole new slate of candidates.

On March 13, 2039, the first round of voting in the vice presidential election took place, with Wilhelm De Croo of the PvdA securing 72 votes, with Marine Le Pen of the LPM closely behind on 67 votes. Neither VVD candidate succeeded in gaining the support of more than 60 members of the National Assembly, though Fachnan Opus gained 59 votes. After a month's delay, Speaker Peter Koonz permitted a second ballot on April 16, 2039; neither VVD candidate changed their vote count, whilst 52 members continued to abstain. The only changes between the first and second round was the defection of 31 votes from the LPM towards Wilhelm De Croo, meaning that Marine Le Pen was eliminated. Between the second and third round of voting, the Brussels Massacre occurred on May 17th as the government of Speaker Koonz attempted to clear protestors from Warandepark, opposite the presidential palace - with 300 protestors dead, President Kairos Hemlock defected from the VVD and took up status as an independent. In a bid to punish Hemlock and her desired candidate, Opus, Speaker Peter Koonz withdrew Opus' official VVD candidate status to prevent VVD members from voting for him. Despite this, Fachnan Opus won 97 votes in the third round and remained the second placed candidate, with all rankings remaining the same, but with increased vote shares. On June 13, 2039, a fourth ballot was held, with Lammert van Raan's gain of 8 votes the only change between round three and four - despite this, van Raan was eliminated as the candidate with the fewest votes. On August 10, 2039, a fifth and final vote was held, with Wilhelm De Croo gaining a plurality of the vote but failing to gain the 150 votes required to be elected as vice president. Two days later, Speaker Peter Koonz announced the beginning of impeachment procedures against President Hemlock, and on August 21, 2039, Kairos Hemlock was removed from office as president, leaving Koonz to assume the role on an acting basis. With Peter Koonz having assumed the presidency, the government dropped plans for any further ballots in the vice presidential election after Koonz's assent reset the electoral process - twenty days later, acting president Koonz appointed Lammert van Raan as acting vice president.

## See Also

* Vice President of Morra
* 2039-40 Morranian Political Crisis