2005 Shea Chamber of Deputies Election

312 seats - 157 for a majority

the 2005 Shea Chamber of Deputies Election took place on the 1st of October 2005 in Shea. First Minister, Patrick Conrad remarked the success of the 2002 chamber election as a reason to vote for the party which led to many voters questioning his campaigning strategy. Conrad was blamed as a "terrible campaigner" even during a high in the lefts popularity and the election was supposed to see an only slightly decreased seat count for the left but instead led to a massive drop in seats and a left coalition being thrown out of the window.

During the term, the coalition made much less significant acts compared to the previous government and many right-wingers and swing voters were unsure about Conrad's stability and thus made him unpopular and his government rebel against him. Leader of New Left, Ronald Haggen, blamed Conrad for not being socialist enough and the leader of Democratic Labour, James Wrot blamed Conrad for not being moderate enough. Hayden Barrey called the government a "massive catastrophe" and called for swing voters to "really think about the election."

The results of the election were very similar to that of the 1999 Chamber Election and were considered a "step back" for the left by Hayden Barrey. New Left won 23 seats, Alternative won 93 seats, Democratic Labour won 35 seats, Movement won 33 seats, United Liberal won 23 seats, Conservative Populist won 89 seats, and National won 18 seats. Alternative, Democratic Labour, and Movement would form a government on the 20th of October 2005 with 161 seats and a +4 majority government.

## Background

In the early 2000s the country saw economic growth with financial aid from Sheaman which was largely hated by the right-wing parties but nevertheless, accepted. By 2004 the economy had began to slow down and was soon seeing little to no growth with inflation beginning to rise around the same time. By summer 2005 the GDP began to fall and the current government was blamed for the rise. This led to Patrick Conrad to call for an agreement to be signed with Sheaman that would allow the Shean Republic to join the Sheaman Economic Union (SHECUN) and in March 2005 they joined SHECUN. Conrad expected the move to boost the popularity of the government but instead only annoyed nationalists and patriots.

During the term the government pass about four significant acts that included: the Child Benefits Act, Shea News Corporation Act, Right of Assembly Act, and the Natural Resources Act. These acts were considered majorly left-wing and the nationalization of natural resources was an unpopular decision leading to further problems with the government.

## Campaigning

### Left Campaign

New Left pushed for similar policies of he last election such as: their nationalization project which was called "incomplete" by a journalist, pushing for and expanded welfare system, introducing a workplace democracy act to further the rights of the workers in a business, and push for sustaining human rights. Alternative believed that this election should focus on a more socialist set of policies which included: increasing immigration for refugees and asylum seekers, allowing people to enter the country without any sort of education, raising the inheritance tax, funding green energy programs, and banning online gambling. Democratic Labour took a very different stance as instead of going more left-wing like Alternative and New Left, the party agreed to preserve its status as centre-left and a social democratic party. They wanted to expand welfare, increase spending, decrease military spending, introduce an elected President, fund a wildlife and nature preservation committee, legalize same-sex unions, allow LGBTQ+ people to serve in the military openly, allow same-sex adoption, relax drug laws, and allow some privatization of natural resources and utilities.

### Moderate Campaign

Movement decided that it wanted to push for a more liberal/progressive agenda in the 2005 Chamber Election which led to a minor division in the party among "moderate progressives" and "strong progressives" which led to campaigning being difficult for the party. Inevitability the party was unable to push its full manifesto out during campaigning but some key policies were: making Shea a federation, legalizing same-sex unions for gay people. improving gay rights, relaxing drug laws, removing the death penalty, relaxing restrictions on prostitution, and restrict abortions after the 22nd week.

### Right Campaign

United Liberal focused on pushing back on the "socialist agenda" and proposed a major denationalization of natural resources and energy as well as removing the national bank. They wanted to introduce a ban on abortions after the 20th week, ban prostitution, increase nuclear energy funding, decreasing the inheritance tax, decreasing income tax, and introducing tougher punishment for drug crimes. Conservative Populist wanted to restrict immigration to low-skilled workers and arts students, decreasing immigration for other groups, tightening border security, increasing military funding, introducing a mandatory 6-month military service, cracking down on drugs, denationalizing most of the economy, and legalizing handguns. The National campaign centered on banning immigration for at least 5 years, criminalizing same-sex activities, legalizing firearms, banning prostitution, removing the inheritance tax, banning abortions entirely, denationalizing the economy, and removing some welfare programs.

## Aftermath

The election was expected to be better and the results were disappointing for the left with leader of Democratic Labour, James Wrot, calling it a "complete failure and the end of the left's power." Eventually Alternative, Democratic Labour, and Movement agreed to form a coalition that would have 161 seats which would be a +4 majority government. The coalition agreed upon a set of policies including; from Alternative they agreed upon these policies: increasing immigration for asylum seekers and refugees, allowing people to enter the country without any sort of education, raising the inheritance tax, funding green energy programs, banning online gambling. From Democratic Labour they agreed on these policies: expanding welfare, decreasing military spending, and fund a wildlife and nature preservation committee. From Movement they agreed on these policies: removing the death penalty, and relaxing restrictions on prostitution.

The coalition formed the government on the 20th of October 2005 and many of their campaign promises and agreed upon coalition policies never came into effect or were even discussed in the chamber. Nevertheless, Patrick Conrad remained First Minister and Maya Loukios would remain Second Minister but they would both resign in 2006 leading to Evan Ilian becoming First Minister and Scott Menalouse becoming Second Minister.