Elections in the Libirachi Empire

**Elections in the Libirachi Empire** take place within a strict set of guidelines based on a semi-hierarchical system, whereby the office holder of President of the Libirachi Empire is nominated by members of the Libirachi National Congress, granting them the mandate to seek permission from the Emperor or their chosen representative to form a government, although this vote is only guidance for the Emperor and indeed they can appoint whomever they choose to the title, as happened in 2023 (although prior to the full implementation of the electoral system) and in 2033 where the Empress Fox granted Propaganda Minister Karyn Voor permission to overthrow the government of President Damien Salamander and hold new elections for the office, which Voor won a majority in.

## History

Elections within the Libirachi Empire are a decidedly unique Libirachi affair, introduced properly for the first time in 2025 following the conclusion of the Libirachi Civil War, and act as a façade of democratic election for the President of the Libirachi Empire in order to broadcast the supposed democratic credentials of the nation to the world. In order to secure a majority required to form a government (1500 out of 2980 Congress votes required to win Presidency), a presidential hopeful must secure a majority of seats for their party within the Libirachi National Congress or a coalition of cross-party members willing to vote for a candidate; the candidate with over 1500 votes automatically becomes the president, or in the case where a majority is not granted, then the two candidates with the highest count of votes then would be entered into a run-off election. President Damien Salamander was the first president to be subjected to regular presidential elections, each giving the winner a 5 year term in office, winning both the 2025 and 2030 Presidential Elections before being ousted in 2033 when COMPNOR detained and arrested vast swathes of the 2199 members of the Revolutionary party in the National Congress, replacing them with COMPNOR political agents, whilst also detaining and arresting President Salamander in the Hall of Revolution where the Congress held a conformation vote to replace Salamander with the Minister of Propaganda Karyn Voor, securing the backing of Empress Penny Fox, who actively encouraged the self-coup within the government as the divide between Salamander and Fox grew following the 2030 election, appointing Karyn Voor as a successor president on July 27, 2033. Voor would go on to win the 2035 Libirachi Presidential Election and win her first full term of office, serving as a member of COMPNOR rather than as a Revolutionary party candidate.

## Electoral Systems

The Libirachi legislative system operates on a semi federal tiered system of governance, with the nation divided into sectors, regions, and town level legislative bodies (in order of decreasing seniority), whilst the Libirachi National Congress is senior to any local body. Due to the nature of the tier system, the leader of each tier of government was able to ask the tier below them to "reconsider" its choice of delegates, causing either a reselection of existing delegates or a new election to the congress; in either case, a new congress with a distinct number would be formed unless a resolution of the congress explicitly states otherwise.

As the first act of each session of congress, a chairperson of the National Congress is elected to lead sessions of the congress, alongside an executive to oversee the operating of congress - in election years, or the instance that an incumbent president has died, resigned or been impeached, the National Congress is also responsible for the selection and appointment of the president of the Libirachi Empire, who is elected to a fixed length term; in the case of a president being elected mid-term, then they are to complete the remainder of the current term before being eligible to see election to a term of their own. The incumbent president is able to appoint their own cabinet, with members typically being members of the National Congress' executive body.

In the LNC, representatives are responsible for passing legislation for the entire nation and selecting a 100-member executive to act on their behalf, who will serve on bill drafting committees, legislation scrutiny bodies, and on the Central Military Commission. Unless impeached, arrested, or removed by a lower tier, representatives serve in renewable terms of up to five years; general elections are scheduled to occur every five years, but snap elections may also occur in the interval.

### Staggered Election System (1915 - 2042)

From 1915 to 2042, legislative elections in the Libirachi Empire took place under a structured hierarchical system of government, whereby lower tiers of government elected the tier above them in order to ultimately elect the president and their government. As the only form of direct election anywhere within the regime, Libirachi citizens elected representatives to town councils on a regular basis to serve a renewable 2 year term; elections were not standardised, nor are they held at the same time everywhere across the nation, leaving the election rules up to the local councils. From these town councils, approximately 20 members were selected to represent the town at a regional congress, typically consisting of 200-300 representatives from across the region/state who were elected to serve a renewable 3 year term in office. Regional congresses then selected approximately 100 members to serve a 4 year term on a sector congress, representing around 10-15 different regions/states in the regime. In turn, the sector congresses elected approximately 200 members to serve in the Libirachi National Congress for a 5 year term in office, with the congress being a 2980 member body made up of representatives from all 15 sectors of the nation;

### Proportional Representation (2042 onwards)

In 2042, a new system, dubbed Libirachi Proportionality, was implemented for national elections. In the case of quinquennial general elections, a single general election ballot simultaneously elects four different legislatures; town councils, regional congresses, sector congresses, and the Libirachi National Congress. In a general election, voters vote for a party rather than a representative, with each party instead having a list of candidates to fill allocated seats, and the same vote will be counted separately in different ballot pools to elect different legislatures. For town councils, all votes from a town area get counted up and seats are allocated based on simple proportionality, with a 10% threshold. For regional congresses, all votes from across the region are counted using the sum of vote shares from town council elections and seats are allocated proportionately once again to parties, who in turn must choose candidates to take up the seats from elected members of the legislative tier below them. For sector congresses, vote totals from across all regions in the sector are aggregated and seats are allocated accordingly; similarly, elected representatives have to be a member of a regional congress to take up office in the sector congress. Finally, every vote in the country is pooled into a national total and seats for the Libirachi National Congress are allocated accordingly with a 15% threshold, with 51 seats reserved for the Imperial Army Political Corps.

In the case of a snap election at any tier of legislature, voting will still only use one ballot but will just count towards seat distribution in the specific tier; members of senior branches who lose their seats in lower branch may be permitted to keep their seat in the senior branch, depending on the rules of the lower branch. In the case that the president or vice president of cabinet lose their seat in a lower legislature, they automatically remain a member of the LNC until the next national election.