2035 Morranian Presidential Election

The **2030 Morranian Presidential Election** was held on Wednesday January 3, 2035 and was the second quinquennial presidential election under the Republic of Morra. The election was held concurrently with the 2035 Morranian National Assembly Election. Voting took place using a first past the post voting system and an electoral college, before the certification of results by the National Assembly of Morra on January 10, 2035, with incumbent president Sunil Bakshi and vice president Eris Assecla being re-elected and inaugurated to a second term on January 20, 2035.

During President Sunil Bakshi's first two terms in office, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led government introduced a series of wide ranging political reforms which had transformed the state from a one-party dictatorship into a quasi-democratic state, whilst rapidly undoing laissez faire economic reforms which had been implemented prior to the 2027 Global Banking Crisis. Despite these reforms, Morra remained an authoritarian regime, with very little genuine opposition to the regime permitted. State owned media, as well as outlets owned by allies of President Bakshi, presented heavily biased reporting, whilst opposition groups were rarely granted more than two minutes of airtime per day to campaign, as opposed to thirty minutes granted to the VVD campaign; in spite of significant challenges to campaigning, opposition leader Marianne Thieme and the Party of the Labourers (PvdA) led "United Opposition" bloc began to use unorthodox campaign methods, aided by allies within government controlled media outlets.

With political parties required to register for the presidential election by September 14, 2034, two major political campaigns were able to secure places on the ballot paper; the VVD alliance of pro-government parties, and the PvdA alliance of left-wing opposition parties which competed under the banner of the "United Opposition" . At the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy annual conference, President Sunil Bakshi and Vice President Eris Assecla were re-nominated for the presidency and vice presidency by their party on June 18, 2034. On July 24, 2034, the United Opposition alliance nominated PvdA leader Marianne Thieme and DENK leader Geert Wilders as their presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively.

Much of the campaign took place against the backdrop of the ongoing Derigo disease outbreak in the Republic of Morra, which had rapidly spread after it's first appearance in September 2032. It would later be revealed in 2037 that the government had manufactured the disease as a form of population control, as well as a way to profit from the sale of vaccines - this revelation culminated in the Derigo Disease Debate in June 2037, and the eventual assassination of President Bakshi in February 2039. During the campaign, leaked recordings of Vice President Eris Assecla mocking those dying of Derigo for not purchasing vaccines were made public by the British *Daily Telegraph* newspaper, spreading rapidly over social media during the election campaign; in spite of this, Assecla remained on the VVD's ticket through the election.

Following election day on January 3, 2035, official results were announced on January 5, 2035 by the independent Morranian Electoral Commission, with the VVD securing a majority of states and thus the presidency, whilst the United Opposition alliance won 12 out of the 26 states, coming second in the election. Following the election of a new National Assembly, Peter Illich was re-elected as Speaker of the National Assembly on January 10, 2035 during the new legislature's first session; on January 11, 2035, Speaker Illich presented the results of the presidential election to the National Assembly, who voted to certify the results 289-11. On January 20, 2035, Sunil Bakshi and Eris Assecla were inaugurated as president and vice president respectively.