June 3020 Wiltshire Legislative Elections

← February 3020 ― June 3020 ― October 3020→

All 60 seats in the Wiltshire National Assembly31 seats needed for a majority

The **June 3020 Wiltshire General Election** was held on 19 June 3020 to elect the 60 members of the 23rd Wiltshire National Assembly. It was the second general election since Wiltshire's independence from the New Corporate Republic and the second to use a directly proportional representation system. In addition, this election saw the highest voter registration and turnout figures in Wiltshirian history, with 1.3 million people casting a ballot.

The result was a hung assembly in which no party can command an overall majority in the National Assembly. The Liberal Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Audrick Hill won the largest number of votes and seats, but still fell 10 short of the 31 needed to win a majority. The following government formation negotiations started on June 20 between the Labour Party, which more than doubled their number of seats, and the Socialist Party which retained their 17 seats. On June 21, Mark Edwin, the Leader of the Labour Party, became Prime Minister of Wiltshire to form a coalition government.

Following the election, Tony Beck announced his resignation as Socialist Leader, kicking off the 3020 Socialist Party Leadership Election. The following day, Audrick Hill announced his resignation as Prime Minister and as Liberal Conservative Leader, starting the 3020 Liberal Conservative Leadership Election.

## Background

The election was called by Prime Minister Hill on 3 May to be the second legislative election following Wiltshire's independence from the New Corporate Republic. The election had have the largest voter base in Wiltshirian history thanks to voting rights being extended to the citizens of East Newton and the expansion towards the coast, growing the electorate to 1.5 million people.

Prior to the election, there was fears of an outbreak of the VIPR virus, with high concentrations of the disease in Washington E.R., however, coming into April - with the lockdown efforts of Mayor Alberto Siliotti, the outbreak was contained and Washington was able to take part in the election and even held their previously delayed mayoral election.

The election was the second to use direct proportional representation, meaning whatever percentage of the vote a party had achieved, translated to the percentage of the seats in the Wiltshire National Assembly.

### **Beck's heart attack and Socialist leadership contest**

In early May, Socialist Party Leader, Tony Beck, suffered from a mild heart attack. Given his age, 89 years old, Beck faced a challenge to his leadership of the Socialist Party going into the election. However, after a notably inspiring appearance just before the vote, the Socialist Party Assembly Members voted confidence in Beck's Leadership. Shortly after, the Prime Minister announced the date of the election.

Many attribute this to the LibCon poll boost after Beck's heart attack. This is believed to have been a big hinderance to Beck's campaign and following the result, Tony Beck announced his resignation as Socialist Leader.

### **Criteria for ballot access**

In order to appear on the national ballot, a political party needs to meet any two of the following criteria;

* Reach 10,000 signatures on a ballot petition
* Reach 3,000 individual donors
* Currently hold seats in the National Assembly

#### **Controversy**

In May 3020, it was announced that only 5 parties met the criteria for ballot access for the election, notably excluding the Conservative Party. This was the first election since January 3010 that Wiltshirians weren't able to vote for the Conservative Party.

This is as a result of the Conservatives failing to reach two of the three criteria. They did meet one of them; hold seats in the National Assembly. However, they did not reach 3,000 individual donors and they did not reach 10,000 signatures on a ballot petition. According to the official report, the Conservative Party received 7,502 signatures and 455 individual donors, well short of the 3,000 needed.

#### **Successful parties**

* Liberal Conservative Party
* Socialist Party
* Labour Party
* KRV
* Progress Party

## Parties and Leaders

### **Liberal Conservative Party**

The Liberal Conservatives entered government following the February 3020 election under the leadership of Prime Minister Audrick Hill. Hill, who had led a previous government in 3019, split from the Conservative Party and joined with the Liberal Party after the Conservative Party decided to stand a candidate, James Brown, against incumbent President Gaius Selan in the 3020 Presidential Election. The Liberal Conservative party is a centre-right, economically conservative and socially liberal party. In the election, the Liberal Conservative Government lost its majority and so entered opposition for the first time.

### **Socialist Party**

The only one of the two major original political parties to be continuing, the Socialist Party, led by party elder Tony Beck. The Socialists have been an opposition party since their last government under Frank Eddington collapsed in 3019. While the party recovered from their major collapse in 3019, they still were unable to make the gains necessary to form a government. The Socialist Party is a left-wing, democratic-socialist party.

### **Labour Party**

The Labour Party, formed in 3019, is a centre-left worker's rights party currently led by Prime Minister Mark Edwin. Despite being the third largest party in the election, Labour formed a government in 3020 due to the gridlock of the 3020 Wiltshire government formation negotiations. The party had previously been in government under Rita Smith and later Henry Campbell-Trenneman in 3019.

### **KRV**

The KRV or Corporate Party is an advocacy party for closer relations and eventual membership of the New Corporate Republic. Besides their flagship policy of NCR membership, the KRV is an aggressively pro-corporate party which is in favour of abolishing the income tax and subjugating the Tauran population. The KRV is the most outwardly anti-tarkinist party in the country. The party is led by longtime political candidate and activist Arlen Nordstrom.

### **Progress**

Currently the smallest party to make it to the nation ballot, Progress is a right-wing libertarian party that is anti-national government and economically conservative. Their massively in favour of lassie-faire policies and social and economic darwinism. Progress is led by activist Ralph Lynne.

## Opinion polls

The opinion polls conducted since the last election to 8/06/3020.

### **Exit Poll**

Once polls closed on election night, the broadcasters published their exit poll. This final poll of the election was based on data collected after people had already voted. The exit poll is, traditionally, a strong indicator as to the results of the general election before actual results come in. The exit poll this time was slightly inaccurate, predicting a higher Liberal Conservative vote than was seen in the results of the election.

The exit poll, according to political analysts, predicted that Audrick Hill would be in a position to continue as Prime Minister. However, this did not end up being the case. The Liberal Conservatives won two seats less than was predicted in the exit poll and Audrick Hill was replaced by Mark Edwin's Labour/Socialist coalition.

## Results

As declared by the Election Authority on Saturday 20 June 3020, the results are;

\*Conservative Party was not on national ballot.

### **Notable newly elected members;**

* Sonya Inyo [Liberal Conservative]
* Brian Turner [Liberal Conservative]
* Arlen Nordstrom [KRV]