Orion national election, 20 A.R.

The **20 A.R. national election** was the first national election that took place under the Third Constitution, and all 401 members of the Orion National Assembly were elected under ranked-choice voting.

Former Orion National Premier Hughes Stone Wheeler, the leader of the Rally for Orion, won a 26-seat majority in the Assembly because of her party's alliance with the Social Movement. Though the Coalition for the Republic received more votes than the Rally, the Rally defeated the Coalition in a landslide in the two-party preferred vote, winning an additional 21 seats.

## Rally for Orion Convention

Charron Shanor was elected National Premier in 15 A.R. with the understanding that she would likely be the last National Premier under the Second Constitution. Indeed, following the adoption of the Third Constitution at the Mount Heller Convention, the country shifted from a presidential to parliamentary democracy. Shanor was determined, however, to continue to serve as head of state in the next government. She immediately announced her candidacy to lead the Rally for Orion, and with the Seuele faction's backing, was widely expected to win the party's leadership election.

But Shanor's opponents, dissatisfied with her combative style, turned to Hughes Stone Wheeler, whose term in the National Senate was coming to an end. Stone Wheeler, a delegate to the constitutional convention, had repeatedly disavowed harboring any ambition to return to national leadership. Her politics were also slightly out of touch with modern Orion — her previous stances on social policies had resulted in the formation of two different left-wing political parties, and she was forced to distance herself from legislation that she had previously championed. The Seuele faction remembered Stone Wheeler's tacit endorsement of Carmody Noah at the 5 A.R. convention, and were suspicious that she wasn't in tune with the party ideologically. But those weaknesses notwithstanding, Rally staffers and strategists, desperate to avoid losing a winnable election with Shanor at the helm, strongly pushed Stone Wheeler into the race, and just days before the convention, she announced her candidacy, with a pledge to serve no longer than ten years.

As the convention heated up, many of Shanor's would-be opponents declined to run, opting to endorse Stone Wheeler instead. The Seuele faction aggressively whipped votes against the decorated war hero and former premier, pushing Shanor on the basis of her palatable ideology. But many of the delegates had experienced negative run-ins with Shanor over the course of her administration, and were reticent to hitch themselves to her. Stone Wheeler also enjoyed the unspoken — but widely known — support of the convention's organizers and the party's elites, and was able to effortlessly convince delegates to support her candidacy once again.

Rally National Convention
leadership vote

In the end, Stone Wheeler comfortably defeated Shanor, dealing a major blow to the Seuele faction. But Stone Wheeler knew how to build bridges, and nominated her former rival as the party's deputy leader, which was accepted by acclamation. And she privately met with Landrieu Seuele, promising her a position in a Stone Wheeler government.

## Coalition for the Republic Convention

At the start of the Coalition for the Republic's convention, the presumed frontrunners were former National Premier Ruben Blair, National Senate Minority Leader Lockhart Riley, and Carmody Noah. However, wishing to avoid the debacle at the 5 A.R. convention, Noah declined to run, endorsing Blair. Indeed, much of Coalition's establishment lined up in support of Blair, whose term as National Premier had acquainted her well with the party's base.

Riley, however, presented a more aggressive, assertive approach. She anticipated that Stone Wheeler would emerge as the Rally's standard-bearer, and understood that she was an electoral steamroller. The Coalition would need a bold approach if it wanted to win a majority in the parliamentary election. Riley also dabbled in nationalist rhetoric, arguing for the need to curtail immigration from the former Cheissia into the country. Much of the rhetoric was thinly-veiled, racist contempt for Seuele and far-left leader Gaugnier Sullivan.

Blair's allies, however, fiercely combated Riley's bombast, arguing that the party couldn't push itself to the extreme, because it would likely depend on the more centrist National Alliance to form a majority. But Riley argued that the Coalition was positioned to win more seats than the Rally and the Social Movement combined, which would likely enable it to form a government without having to ally with the National Alliance.

Coalition National Convention
leadership vote

Riley did far better than expected, and managed to draw blood from Blair, who was forced to tack to the right to maintain her momentum heading into the convention. But Blair still won comfortably, and she was in no mood to accommodate Riley's harsh ideology, which she considered repulsive and repugnant to a pluralist democracy. Though many of her supporters encouraged mending fences with Riley by naming her deputy leader, Blair refused, instead tapping Durant Gordon.