2023 Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party leadership election

> *For other races, see 2023 Chawosaurian elections*
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The **2023 Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party leadership elections** was a party leadership election held by the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party to elect the new leaders of the party after its current leader, Sydney Lucas Webster, abruptly stepped down. It will be held the same time of the 2023 Chawosaurian Opposition leadership election for the very same purpose, the first round is to be on Friday, August 4, 2023, and the second round will be on Friday, October 6, 2023, the date of the electoral college vote is on Friday, December 1, 2023. This election saw for the first time in Chawosaurian history that a black person has ran for a high-ranking political office or position in Chawosaurian politics.

In an unsurprisingly prolonged but quicker-than-expected standoff in the party's electoral college, Johnathan Saint Nicholas Montgomery VII was declared the winner of the 2023 SDWLP leadership election on December 1, 2023, in the party's electoral college after extremely tense negotiations and the popular vote-led runoff system failing to deliver a winner on October 6, 2023. Montgomery defeated his toughest opponent, Jacklyn Lynn Brissett King, in the electoral college by a margin of 367-241 electoral votes, Montgomery won the 357 votes needed to win the sixth and final round, and he is set to take office as Leader of the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party on January 1, 2024, to succeed Sydney Lucas Webster, the swiftness of the resolving of the electoral college fight was unexpected due to the fact that it was expected to be a bit similar to the 2023 U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives elections in the United States, where Kevin McCarthy struggled immensely to win the Speaker, ultimately winning the gavel on the 15th ballot on the fifth day, then in October 2023, when Republicans struggled immensely in similar Speakership elections to elect one.

This was a brutally hard election to win, it was very crowded with a lengthy long list of candidates running to succeed Webster. The first round triggered a runoff, Johnathan Saint Nicholas Montgomery VII and Jacklyn Lynn Brissett King faced each other in the runoff on October 6, 2023. At this point, the race remained too close to call. The election was so close that the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party said an electoral college would have to be initiated if neither Montgomery or Brissett King achieve 50.1% of popular vote support. The Social Democrats looked to the guidance of the Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria to settle a potential 50-50% tie. It was declared by the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party that the election was so close that neither candidate can get 50.1% of the popular vote and that an electoral college will have to step in to settle this statistical tie. The race to win electors have begun, lasting about two months. Montgomery is successful in almost the entirety of the western hemisphere, North Eurasia, the Pacific Rim, and Southeast Asia. Brissett King is successful in the American Black Belt region, all of Africa, and parts of Southern Asia. The two candidates divided Australia.

Anticipating a bitter electoral college fight, the Social Democrats borrowed the rules of the Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria regarding an electoral college to settle a popular vote tie in the second round, it was decided that the electoral college balloting will be under a two round system, where the two highest vote getters from the first round who failed to win a majority will have to face each other in the second round, where electors will face the choice to either vote for one of two of the highest vote getters from the first round, or abstain, which would lower the majority threshold to make the process easier. Adding all 868 seats in the Federal Assembly of the Continent Union and 55 seats from the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace, totaling 923 seats occupied by Social Democrats, they will all serve as electors, and 461 votes is the threshold required to win outright.

On December 1, 2023, the first round of electoral voting began, and as expected, both Montgomery and Brissett-King failed to receive a majority due to stubborn opposition, but the two-round rule collapsed as supporters of the non-two-getters refused to relent, 347 Social Democrats refused to vote for Montgomery and Brissett-King due to their strong and unbreakable support for the candidates who were defeated in the first round on August 4, 2023. Ultimately, five ballots were held on December 1, 2023, and they all failed to deliver a majority, but the list of options have exhausted due to a successful war of attrition against several Social Democratic delegates into narrowing their options. In the afternoon of December 1, 2023, Montgomery unexpectedly won the sixth ballot after tense negotiations, and a larger than expected number of Social Democrats voting present.

The final result provoked a blowback from Black Chawosaurians, who saw the defeat of a black woman by someone who is well-connected to the Chawosaurian political class as an example of the Empire of Chawosauria's historical lack of commitment to black people, this causes general resentment of the lack of black representation in the highest ranks of Chawosaurian politics, and it does not help too much that this election was held only a few years after the George Floyd protests of 2020 to 2021. Throughout Chawosaurian history, there has never been a Chawosaurian political leader or a high-ranking head of the Chawosaurian government who is black, and there is surging fatigue amongst Black Chawosaurians of this.

## Background and Process

### Pre-2023 Events

The Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party's current parliamentary leader is Sydney Lucas Webster since the 2020 Chawopolis Palace minority party leadership election to replace the embattled parliamentary leader, Prime Minister Jonathan Sidney MacCarthy III. In a powerless position, Webster worked with the Chawosaurian Communist Party-led 2020-2024 Chawosaurian Government to battle the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, and launching the Green New Deal in Chawosauria and enacted the Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria. Webster's caucus destabilized during the fallout of the Suicide of Joe Walz in February 2021, he led two unsuccessful bids to become Prime Minister of the Empire of Chawosauria through the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace as a result of a numerically large Communist Party supermajority elected in the 2019 Chawosaurian legislative elections, tasking the Communist Party to support the agenda of now communist Supreme Leader Shang Jong Parker who was elected to power in the 2019 Chawosaurian direct election in a landslide victory over then Supreme Leader Ekewaka Mikala Kalawai'a.

Webster struggled to gain momentum during the 2024 Chawosaurian legislative elections, facing highly unlikely prospects to be Prime Minister and whether he'll be able to lead his party to victory against a first time parliamentary majority government, which historically, a parliamentary majority is amongst the toughest to defeat especially if one is serving a first term.

This election will be a two round popular vote based system. SDWLP voters will have a say in who gets to be the party's parliamentary leader. On the first round of voting, voters will select two people to face each other in the second and final round, which in the final round, voters would have select between two choices. The new parliamentary leader will assume the role on January 1, 2028, well ahead of the 2029 Chawosaurian legislative elections.

### Webster's Abrupt Retirement

Webster's mother, Eleanora McClellan Webster, died from an aneurysm at age 93 in her Berkshires home on March 20, 2023, sending Sydney Webster into a state of deep grief. There were rumors that Webster would immediately retire, and he decided to do so.

### Sprinting to Hold Election

Due to Webster's unexpected retirement, the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party was forced with the task to hold the election to replace him ahead of the 2024 Chawosaurian elections.

## Candidates

Sydney Lucas Webster II was widely revered to be the frontrunner of the SDWLP race, due to being the parliamentary leader's son and is well aged to remain as parliamentary leader for a longer while than his father is able to. On August 25, 2022, Sydney Lucas Webster II said he will not be a candidate to take his father's place, expressing his fatigue with politics in general and discontent with his father over his 1986 divorce with his mother and countless extramarital affairs that partially led to the divorce. Webster's departure from the race has caused a highly up-for-grabs election to replace old man Webster. Jacklyn Brissett King and James Barber became high profile candidates.

There had been a rising perception that baby boomers have become too old school for Chawosaurian politics,

### Declared Candidates

* **Jacklyn Lynn Brissett King** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **James Leo Barber** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Johnathan Saint Nicholas Montgomery VII** - former Federal Chancellor of the Continent Union
* **Jack Leo O'Callaghan** - defeated candidate for the Imperial Senate of the Empire of Chawosauria in the 2022 Chawosaurian Senate special election in the British Isles
* **Joseph Wallace Berks V** - part of Berks Industries
* **Paul Weber** - no background
* **Zachariah Phineas McCloskey III** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Casper Tyler Potter II** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Lochlainn Wilkie MacKenzie X** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Scamander Alexander** - no background
* **John McLee** - no background
* **Zayden Leo Webster** - youngest son of Sydney Lucas Webster
* **Tom Mark** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Lyndon Jackson** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Jack Leo Wallace V** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Bill Layton** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Wendy Joyce** - no position
* **Joe Leaders** - no position
* **Nancy Parker** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **James Leo McCulloch** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Leonidas Dell'Acqua** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Leolin Iolo Owsley XIII** - candidate for the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace in the 2024 Chawosaurian legislative elections
* **Bryan Griswold** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **James Gryder** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **John Burrow** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Tony Vega** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **John Hiram** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Samuel Whitelaw** - Member of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace

### Potential Candidates who missed deadlines

* Adel Snøybiǫrn - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* Jonathan Sarban Boleslaus VIII - Vice President of the Empire of Chawosauria
* Leonidas Valerianus Rawlings - no office, running in the 2024 Chawosaurian legislative elections
* Garfield Lionel Belshaw IV - no position
* Jonathan Michael Roosevelt - no position
* Jonathan Alexandria Roosevelt - no position, Timothy Max Roosevelt's youngest son

### Declined to be candidates

* **Sydney Lucas Webster** - incumbent parliamentary leader
* **Ekewaka Mikala Kalawai'a** - former Supreme Leader of the Empire of Chawosauria
* **Jonathan Sidney MacCarthy III** - former Prime Minister of the Empire of Chawosauria
* **Samantha A. Montgomery** - Imperial Senator from the Senate District of New York
* **James Dylan Oakes III** - Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party parliamentary leader of the Federal Assembly of the Continent Union
* **Coriolano Adriano Bresciano** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Gregor MacGregor** - Member of Parliament of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace
* **Sydney Lucas Webster II** - son of Sydney Lucas Webster
* **Jonathan Lothian MacCarthy IV** - no position

### Popularity Problem

Polls from November to December 2022 showed that no Social Democratic candidate running is popular with the Chawosaurian general public. All of them have approval ratings as low as 20% with disapproval ratings at the 60s to the 70s. Sydney Lucas Webster is the only Social Democrat with positive ratings though narrow, a December Gallup Chawosauria poll showed that Webster had an approval rating of 48% to a disapproval rating at 46% with a margin of error of three. A BBC Chawosauria poll showed Webster's approval at a slim 49% but with a disapproval rating of 48%. The communist Supreme Leader Shang Jong Parker's approval rating by December 2022 was 77 percent as part of a rally 'round the flag boost from the recent passing of the British royal sovereign Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.

### Candidate Popularity

Despite the general unpopularity of the candidates, there are certain candidates Chawosaurians are attracted to, such as Lyndon Jackson, Tom Mark, Nancy Parker, Joe Leaders, James Barber, but the leader of the pack being Johnathan Saint Nicholas Montgomery VII. Montgomery leads the pack with 77% while the 23% is staggered by other candidates in a OneThousand poll from early February.

## Campaign

The current Leader of the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party is Sydney Lucas Webster and he was elected Leader of the Opposition in the 2021 Chawosaurian Opposition leadership election in a major blowout against Charles Walpole. Since becoming Leader of the Opposition in 2022, he built the Socialist Coalition with the governing Chawosaurian Communist Party and helped the Communist Party implemented their agenda from the 2019 Chawosaurian elections, helping ratifying the Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria, part of the Democratic Communism agenda, as well as passing several Green New Deal programs and many other progressive policies.

However, Opposition Leader Sydney Lucas Webster's cooperation with the Communist Party angered the conservative wing of the 2020-2029 Chawosaurian Opposition, Clinton-Blair Voters, and third way social democrats. Webster's chances of leading the Social Democrats to victory in the 2024 Chawosaurian legislative elections and be elected Prime Minister of the Empire of Chawosauria are extremely low, and his age (being 73 in 2023) was becoming an issue, resulting in Social Democrats to want a generational move from Webster.

## Results

### Popular Vote

In the first round, Johnathan Montgomery and Jacklyn Brissett King failed to achieve 50% to dodge a runoff, meaning they must face each other in a two-opponent runoff election. In the second round, another tie has occurred.

### Electoral College

There were six rounds on December 1, 2023, when two was supposed to be held, but the rule was defied by defiant Social Democratic rebels, and Montgomery led all the votes with Brissett King always going second, and it was believed widely, that this could be more like the January 2023 election for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but the leadership of the Social Democratic Workers' Labour Party were able to do what the Republicans failed to do on the first day of the U.S. Speakership election, which was to eliminate all the unpopular candidates to lower the list of options to put pressure on the rebels to either vote for the highest vote-getting candidates or vote present as their resistance to Montgomery and Brissett King would only prolong the process and embarrass the party for the 2024 Chawosaurian elections. Ultimately, the Social Democratic rebels relented and abstained their votes, lowering the threshold so low that it was enough for a candidate to win outright, and that candidate ended up being Johnathan Saint Nicholas Montgomery VII, who won 367 votes, just 10 votes above 357 votes needed to win, thus effectively defeating his closest opponent, Jacklyn Lynn Brissett King.

## Aftermath

### Backlash from Black Chawosaurians

Jacklyn Brissett King refused to concede, she accused the party of institutional racism against black women and several Black Chawosaurians were angered by the result, they were tired of constantly being marginalized in Chawosaurian politics.