2037 Morranian National Assembly Election

The **2037 Morranian National Assembly Election** was held on Thursday February 12, 2037 and was held to elect the 5th National Assembly of Morra, marking the fourth occasion that all 300 seats in the legislature had been up for election. The 2037 election was the first time that a snap election had been held as the result of a presidential dissolution, with the preceding Fourth National Assembly being the shortest lasting legislative session in Morranian history. Turnout was 88%, with 29,352,432 ballots being cast in the election.

Following the 2036 Morranian National Assembly Election, a coalition of opposition groups led by PvdA leader Marianne Thieme succeeded in forming a government together with Thieme as leader. However, just 42 days into the Thieme administration, half of the government unexpectedly withdrew from the administration in the evening of December 31, 2036, leaving only the PvdA and the Progressive party as members of the government in a minority status with no coalition in place to replace them. On January 14, 2037, Speaker Marianne Thieme released a televised statement in which she exposed the role that the VVD-led administration of Peter Illich had played in the release and spread of the Derigo disease outbreak in Morra; the following day, President Bakshi formally dissolved the National Assembly of Morra and called for fresh elections, which would be the second election in just 4 months.

During the election campaign, Speaker Marianne Thieme was assassinated by unknown assailants, leaving the PvdA without leadership; in the vacancy of leadership, senior politician Federico Pinedo assumed the position of speaker of the National Assembly, as well as becoming acting head of the PvdA. Following Thieme's death, the already fractured opposition coalition splintered further as internal policy debates became increasingly toxic, whilst the executive branch effectively silenced certain opposition parties by refusing to grant them time on national broadcasts to make their pollical cases to the public. Due to the government campaign against the democratic opposition, five of the nine nationally competing political parties had new leaders by the time of the election. Such suppression of opposition forced President Sunil Bakshi to make a speech to the nation on February 6, 2037 to pledge non-interference in the election, although it is widely regarded that Bakshi continued to direct his government to repress opposition groups in spite of his pledge.

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 January 20, 2037. In order to be elected to the National Assembly, political parties and independent candidates must be registered with the civil service. Following the election, the political party 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.

On February 14, 2037, the results of the National Assembly election were made public by the Morranian Electoral Commission, with the VVD receiving 98 seats, the PvdA receiving 72, the APA receiving 44, the Progressive party receiving 36, DENK receiving 24, the New Party receiving 11, the Liberal Party receiving 7 and independent candidates gaining 8 seats. On February 19, 2037, newly elected members of the National Assembly of Morra were formally sworn into office by acting speaker Federico Pinedo; upon the beginning of the new legislative session, Speaker Pinedo resigned his position, allowing President Sunil Bakshi to nominate Frank Wassenberg as speaker designate, effectively giving Wassenberg the de-facto power of the presiding officer until an election on February 20, 2037 confirmed him as speaker.

Within days of Wassenberg's re-appointment as speaker, a coalition agreement between the VVD, APA, New Party, and several independent members of the assembly was signed, allowing for the formation of the second Wassenberg administration. The new administration came to be dominated by public outcry over the government's knowing distribution of the Deirgo disease, as various factions within the National Assembly fought intense political conflicts over how to respond to the revelation. Following an intense debate in June 2037, the knowing spread of the disease became a criminal offence and outlawed by the National Assembly, despite the objections of several prominent members of the governing VVD. Due to her role in attempting to create a coalition in favour of maintaining existing Derigo legislation, Vice President Eris Assecla was impeached and removed from office by the National Assembly on July 28, 2037 due to the politically untenable nature of her position following the outlawing of the disease.