2015 Libirachi National Congress Election

The **2015 Libirachi National Congress Election** was held on April 16, 2015 across the Libirachi Empire to elect congress-people to the 24th National Congress. Following the cancellation of the planned 2015 Libirachi Presidential Election, elections to the 24th National Congress continued as intended, with several smaller parties gaining seats as part of a drive to include smaller parties in the democratisation programme taking place under the lead of President Nathan Jackson.

In April 2010, the pro-democracy leader Nathan Jackson won an electoral upset at the 2010 Libirachi Presidential Election to become president of the Republic of Libirachi. During the first five years of his tenure, Jackson succeeded in calling snap legislative elections to place loyal representatives in place in the Libirachi National Congress and began making constitutional changes to ensure regular elections for both president and congress. However, there was considerable opposition to the move towards democracy from within the Libirachi Imperial Army, which had enjoyed its position of power and privilege within the previous 158 years of autocratic rule in the Republic of Libirachi. Subsequently, the armed forces under the leadership of Supreme Commander Kanan Garel became increasingly belligerent against further moves for reform and repeatedly used it's political power within the National Congress to push back against the programme, uniting members within the Revolutionary Party to join the armed forces in blocking the 2015 presidential elections. Though not politically powerful enough to depose president Nathan Jackson, the armed forces instead leveraged it's military capability to pressure the president to postpone the elections, with members of his own cabinet joining the military in protesting the democratisation methods; following intense pressure from all sides of the political spectrum, President Nathan Jackson announced on March 29th, 2015 that the planned elections for the year had been postponed indefinitely for "national stability", and that the National Congress elections would still be going ahead as planned.

Between January 1, 2015 and April 1, 2015, every province held elections across each tier of local government, which each tier electing members to the level above themselves. On April 16, 2015, all of the fifteen sector congresses nominated approximately 200 representatives to multi-member constituencies to serve 5 year terms in the national level Libirachi National Congress. Out of the 2980 seats, 581 were reserved for military officials, giving them a significant position of influence within the legislature. In the aftermath of the elections, the governing Revolutionary party saw the loss of 100 seats to parties within the "National Front" of non-government parties which supported the Jackson administration, with the newly rebranded Socialist party gaining 42 seats to become the fourth largest party in congress. Whilst the Imperial Army made no gains in seat share, Supreme Commander Kanan Garel's political influence was greatly expanded due to his role in forcing President Jackson to abandon parts of his democratic reform platform.

With no major opposition, Wang Yang was re-elected to a 5 year term as chairman of the Libirachi National Congress. As one of the first acts of the newly elected twenty fourth National Congress, the chamber voted to approve a major government reshuffle as President Nathan Jackson sought to reassert his authority. Following key successes in driving down animosities with Bovido Has following the death of Michael Ezra in 2018, Jackson attempted to place congress in control of the armed forces as part of a package of internal reforms and successfully passed the Patriot Act (2019) to begin the process of bringing the armed forces under government control. In response, the Libirachi Imperial Army under the leadership of Kanan Garel conducted a coup d'état against President Nathan Jackson in September 2019, executing the president and forcing Chairman Wang into exile. Following the coup, the 24th National Congress was formally adjourned on September 26, 2019; however, the 25th National Congress was called by president Laura Fox on November 1, 2019 to pass the Assent Bill (2019), with the congress comprised of members of the 24th National Congress who had not been removed from office during the coup. Following the Coronation of Fox I on November 11th, the 25th Congress formally ended, and all existing members carried their term of office into the 26th Congress, which held elections on April 16, 2020 to elect new members to the existing congress in session.