2020 Culudrian General Election

The **2020 Culudrian General Election** was held on November 11, 2020 (Culudria Day), with the Runoff for the Prime Minister election on December 18, 2020. Offices up for election at the national level include the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, as well as all Parliamentary offices. This was the first general election since 2008 to not feature an Incumbent Prime Minister running for a second term, as incumbent Marco Bartesz of the Culudrian Social-Democratic Party is being term-limited.

Dante Elgerasz won the Prime Minister election by a margin of 0.37% in the General Election and a record smallest margin of 0.05% in the runoff, making this the tightest Prime Minister election in Culudrian history. In Parliament, the Culudrian Social-Democratic Party was able to hold its majority in both houses, and will therefore maintain its majority government for the 3rd straight election term, having gained it in the 2016 General Election and defended it in the 2018 Interim Election.

Vox's gains in the parliament mean that it will continue to serve as the Opposition Party for the second straight term, having taken that role from the United Culudria party in the 2018 Interim Election.

## Electoral System

For the Prime Minister and Senatorial elections, the winner will be determined by a plurality voting system. However, if one candidate fails to gain "a clear lead" (2% or more votes over the second-placed candidate) over the others, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates which will determine who takes the seat.

For the House of Delegates election, each province uses a proportional representation system; this means that for each province, the party who wins a certain amount of votes will win approximately that proportion of the 10 seats available. In order to win a seat, however, a party must have minimum 10% of the vote.

Coalitions or alliances (such as the Culudria First coalition) were only allowed in the Prime Minister election.

### Voting Eligibility

To vote in the election, one has to:

* Be 18 years of age or older on Culudria Day;
* Be registered to vote on the Culudrian Electoral Register;
* Be a Culudrian and/or Shakhtarian Citizen;
* Reside in a Culudrian address; and
* Not be disqualified from voting (i.e. currently in prison OR being a member of the royal family OR sitting on any Culudrian National court).

The deadline for voter registration was set at 7 business days before the election (November 2, 2020). Anyone with multiple addresses registered is only allowed to vote one time so as to not gain an unfair advantage in voting. It was reported on November 4th that about 29 million Culudrians had registered to vote in the election.

## Parties and Candidates

Over 10 different political parties and coalitions registered with the Electoral Register to run for a seat. All candidates running either represented one of these parties or coalitions or registered themselves with the Register as independent candidates.

### Prime Minister Election

This election would decide who would become the 39th Prime Minister of Culudria, as the incumbent Marco Bartesz was term-limited and therefore was not allowed to run.

#### Culudrian Social-Democratic Party

The CSDP were the first party to register with the Register, on May 25, 2019. On November 24, 2019, CSDP president Mirko Vespucci announced that a field of 7 candidates would compete in the party's primary, of which Dante Elgerasz, senator from Southwest Culudria, emerged as victorious on August 7, 2020. Two days later Elgerasz selected Jyn Érso, his co-senator from the same region, as his running mate.

#### Vox

Out of a field of 3 candidates announced on December 14, 2019, Sydow Ben Craid once again took the Vox Prime Minister nomination for the fourth time in a row on July 26, 2020, after his success in 2008 and failures in 2012 and 2016. He chose the same running mate as all those years, Robert Cordun.

#### Culudria First

On December 15, 2019, United Culudria announced a field of 5 candidates that would participate in the party primaries set to be held in June. However, it was later rumored that UC would agree to a coalition that was being seeked by Dénes Débuis and his proxy party, the Débuis Party, should no candidate win a clear 60% supermajority in the primaries. In the primaries, no candidate was able to achieve this 60% benchmark, and the rumored deal was subsequently agreed to. The official announcement of the formation of the (initially unpopular) Culudria First coalition was made on September 12, 2020, after almost a month's delay following the conclusion of the party primaries. Many UC members stated their unpopularity with the deal, with most notably Senator Benedect Rosset from Mins-Szerais, who had supposedly won the nomination from UC, stating that "Débuis had bought the election" and that "it was a shame that the party which 'knew Culudria best' chose money over experience when selecting their candidate". The fallout from the controversy continues to this day.

This was the first time in party history that United Culudria would be part of a Coalition in the Prime Minister Election.

#### ANTIFA-Culudrian Communist Party Coalition

On November 30, 2019, the ANTIFA and Culudrian Communist Parties released a joint statement that they would be running as a coalition. The primaries took place on July 30, 2020, in which Jannik Gren of Antifa emerged victorious. The next day Jannik Cohen of the CCP was announced as his running mate.

#### Fourth Way

On December 16, 2019, a coalition between the Feminist Party, the New Deal Party, and the Green Party was formed, called the Fourth Way. The intent of the coalition was stated as "an alternative to the Big Three Parties dominating Culudria under their corrupt policies". The coalition's primaries were finalized on August 21, 2020, and the nominee was announced to be Elisa Salazar of the Feminist Party. Salazar selected Marussia Bendner as her running mate.

### Parliamentary Elections

Various parties and independent candidates announced they would run for at least one seat of the Culudrian Parliament. All three of the big parties (CSDP, Vox, and UC) announced a candidate for every seat available, being the only parties to field at least one candidate for every available office in the 2020 election (although UC was part of a coalition for the Prime Minister election). In addition, this was the first year that Vox fielded a candidate for every available parliamentary seat.

## Controversy

The 2020 General election came under the scrutiny of the media and elected officials for various reasons.

### Dénes Débuis

Dénes Débuis was criticized throughout the campaign process for his questionable statements which seemed to portray him as a selfish candidate.

WIP