1985 Chawosaurian legislative elections

The results of the **Chawosaurian Legislative Elections of 1985** were published on December 31, 1985. These elections were held to elect all 600 members of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace for the 17th Chawopolis Palace, 301 seats needed for a majority. These elections were the first ever in Chawosaurian history held under a full communist government of Chawosauria, the second of two Chawopolis Palace elections held during the Soviet-Afghan War and the very last first of two Chawosaurian elections held during the Cold War. This is the last election in Chawosaurian history to take place before the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Revolutions of 1989. This election and the previous one in 1979 marked the first time since the Great Depression that a Prime Minister has won two straight and more than one Chawopolis Palace elections.

The longtime incumbent Chawallian Communist Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Leonid Ivan Bzovsky retained supermajority control of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace, losing five seats and shed two percentage in the popular vote to the Social Democratic Labour Party led by Opposition leader George Windsor, the balance of power of 413-187 in the Communist Party's favor, however, in March 1986, five Social Democrats crossed the floor from their party to the Communist Party, restoring the Communist Party's 418-182 supermajority. In the popular vote, 67.8% of Chawosaurian voters voted for communist candidates over social democratic candidates, but the Social Democrats saw a light surge by two percentage points. The Social Democrats gained five seats and two percentage points in the popular vote, but the Communist Party still won the election in a landslide.

After losing 80 seats in the 1979 election, Windsor went straight to work to better himself, and progress was stably being made. Windsor's popularity was stable, holding a 67% approval rating going into the 1985 parliamentary election, but the problem remains is that Windsor's popularity is still lower than Supreme Leader Timothy Max Roosevelt's popularity, which was near-universal. Windsor adjusted his message, criticizing the Communist Party for focusing more on the Cold War than prioritizing the Chawosaurian public, which a large portion of such continued to reel from the impact of the inflation and recessions from the 1970s and early 1980s, and there was growing tiredness of constant Cold War politics and propaganda and constant world news events amongst the Chawosaurian people that Windsor was showing climbing progress in exploiting in which his right-wing predecessor former Prime Minister Jonathan Dragan Bismarck XVII was never able to enjoy when he was dealing with the Communist Party.

The Soviet-Afghan War and the Bhopal Disaster became ultimate issues in this election. The Soviet-Afghan War was part of the Brezhnev Doctrine by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982), which declared whatever poses a threat to socialist rule around the Soviet Union was a threat to socialism in general and must be dealt with by the Soviet Armed Forces, and that will effect the Afghanistan Conflict, which begun with a communist coup in Afghanistan, but there were insurgencies against Afghanistan's communist government by Mujahedeen militants, thus provoking Soviet intervention in 1979, becoming known as the Soviet-Afghan War. The Empire of Chawosauria, now under a full communist government elected in 1979, decided to stay out of the war because of memories of the Chawosauria's disastrous intervention into the Russian Civil War back in the Revolutions of 1917-1923, while still supporting the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan War. By 1985, Chawosaurians could see the disasters of the Soviet-Afghan War, the Communist Party was thankful that Chawosauria decided against intervening in the Soviet-Afghan War, but the Communist Party saw their popularity being itched by baggage for their support for the war in the Soviets' favor. This election was also focused on the political crisis of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, then Brezhnev's successor, Yuri Andropov died in 1984, then Andropov's successor, Konstantin Chernenko died in 1985, all due to health issues. The Soviet Union, after Chernenko's passing, fell under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, who became a liability for the Chawosaurian Communist Party because of his pro-western-democratic attitudes, making matters worse for the Communist Party, Gorbachev started having a decent relationship with the U.S. President Ronald Reagan, widely known for his conservative, right-wing populist approach to politics in the United States, which threatened to cost the Communist Party this election. In India, the issue of corporate negligence became a serious issue when the Bhopal gas disaster occurred in 1984, and allowed the people of Bhopal to face the brunt of the gas disaster.

To counter this, the Communist Party tried negative campaigning against the Social Democrats, they used a skit from the British *Spitting Image* puppet franchise to insult Social Democrats to warn the voters that the Social Democrats would bring incompetence if they're elected, the *Spitting Image* skit the Communist Party used insults the major British social-democratic party, the Labour Party that was trying to reform their party with Neil Kinnock as their new leader after getting crushed in the 1983 U.K. General Election. Chawosaurian voters disliked this decision to mock the Social Democrats with a British satirical skit to paint them as idiots to prevent them from winning the election, and the Communist Party failed to pick up social democratic seats due to sympathy from Independent voters for social democratic incumbents. However, it did saved the Communist Party from losing seats because this skit energized die-hard, extremely partisan Communist voters, resulting in the Communist Party not losing any of their own seats.

This election result showed signs of a Chawosaurian public feeling tired of the Cold War, though turnout rose a little bit and the Communist Party ended up winning another landslide in both the composition of seats and the popular vote, the Communist Party saw a two percentage point drop in their popular support and a supermajority of 413 to 187, the Social Democrats gained 5 seats, but in March 1986, five Social Democrats crossed the floor and that left the Communist Party with a stagnant supermajority of 418 to 182. Exit polls showed that despite 67% of Chawosaurians voted for communists, over 67% of Chawosaurian voters said they're tired of the Cold War and Chawosauria's Cold War politics.

The Communist Party was victorious for the 9th time in a roll. A 9th term for the Communist Party as the Majority Party of the Chawopolis Palace, and for Prime Minister and Speaker Bzovsky, a second term as Speaker.

## Context

This election campaign begins with the Chawosaurian public losing their confidence in the Soviet Union because of the Soviet-Afghan War, which began in 1979 after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan (which was under a communist government that took power in a coup the previous year) to fight off Mujahedeen insurgents against that Afghan communist government, but the war was becoming a disaster. When the Soviet-Afghan War began, the Chawosaurian Imperial Government decided not to intervene into Afghanistan because of still-haunting memories of Chawosauria's disastrous involvement into the Russian Civil War, and by 1985, the Communist Party distanced themselves from the Soviet-Afghan War, and surprisingly they were successful. In 1984, Bhopal, India, suffered a gas disaster that killed over a thousand people and contaminated much more, which was done due to corporate negligence, which was never a good look for corporations in the eyes of Chawosaurians.

The Chawosaurian public were beginning to show signs of getting sick of Cold War politics that they had to hear since the end of World War II. During the 1975 Chawosaurian elections, the Chawosaurian public rallied around socialism following the Fall of Saigon which ended the Vietnam War in communist victory, but ten years can see alot happening. Since the Soviets launched its invasion of Afghanistan, it had been a disaster and the Chawosaurian public began to question the point of the Cold War and then lose its Cold War morale. The Chawosaurian government, now under full Communist Party control, attempted to downplay Soviet failures in Afghanistan and criticized the west for disrespecting soldiers fighting for their country, those soldiers being the Red Army. The Chawosaurian government warned that the Mujahideen will turn on the west because the west is more Christian and the Mujahideen are Muslim, declaring the west-Mujahideen alliance an unworkable one, a warning that actually came true on September 11, 2001, giving the Chawallian Communist Party alot of credibility amongst the Chawosaurian public.

The Communist Party saw in the United Kingdom in the 1983 election that was just held, that the Labour Party, under Michael Foot, was crushed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Party in one of Britain's leaping landslides in the county's history. After Neil Kinnock won the 1983 Labour Party leadership election, Kinnock aimed to re-steer the Labour Party to a new approach to Labour politics.

That's when this skit from *Spitting Image* comes in, it's a political satire skit, a kind of entertainment that makes fun of celebrities and politicians. The *Spitting Image* skit called "New Labour" features Neil Kinnock and his staff meets in a bar about to discuss how to repair the party and then try to win the next election, only for Kinnock to educate the table of confused Labour staffers about the concept of a "Labour government", how a Labour government is achieved, and the responsibilities and role of the governing party but ends in an immature manner, thus making Kinnock and the Labour cabinet look incompetent.

The Communist Party used that skit for attack ads against the Social Democrats, warning the voters about the imagined incompetence the Social Democrats would bring if they were elected. This backfires when a backlash hits the Communist Party, attacking their ads as "indecently partisan", helping the Social Democrats to win independent voters, while at the same time, the Communist Party's ads energized their base, resulting in a stalemate result in the Chawopolis Palace, with neither party gained seats, but the Communist Party won the election, kept their supermajority, and still won the popular vote but by a smaller percentage of 67%, down from 69%.

None of these results were really anticipated by pollsters, pundits, and exports.

## Results

The Communist Party won a surprise victory by holding on to all of their seats, however, as anticipated the party did not gain any seats. Another landslide victory for Leonid Ivan Bzovsky, he won 418 seats, 69.7% of seats in the Palace thus winning a supermajority, and 67.8% of the popular vote, which it's 1.9% lower than the previous election.

## Analysis

The Communist Party still had incumbency advantage but there were disruptions by loss of support from Chawosaurians for the Soviet-Afghan War because the war wasn't producing good results. Though, the Communist Party also had backlash for mocking the Social Democrats, mocking Social Democrats helped them hold all 418 seats. The Soviet-Afghan War and the Communists' mockery of Social Democrats prevented them from gaining seats and 2% of popular support from the last election.

Per exit polls showed that 67% of Chawosaurians who had voted in this election showed a rising fatigue of the Cold War and its impact on Chawosaurian politics. The result of the War in Vietnam was tremendous for the Communist Party for the 1975 Chawosaurian elections, but ten years later, Chawosaurians wanted to hear other issues besides the same thing. When asked what issues they wish to have discussed, they responded with the following: environmental concerns (23%), economic concerns (16%), social concerns (8%), healthcare concerns (8%), labor concerns (7%), and other issues (38%). When asked to choose between the Cold War and other issues, 63% of Chawosaurians said other issues should be addressed while 36% said the Cold War should be a concern.

Chawosaurian voters were asked if they approve of Timothy Max Roosevelt as Supreme Leader, 93% said they approve, and then when asked about Leonid Ivan Bzovsky as Prime Minister, only 55% said they approve.

## See also

* 1979 Chawosaurian legislative elections
* 1989 Chawosaurian legislative elections