Luthando Kuran

Luthando Kuran is a Sheaman politician, currently serving as the Prime Minister of Sheaman since 2022 as well as previously being President between 1999 - 2007, and Deputy Prime Minister between 1992 - 1999. He was born on the 12th of June 1970 to Kofi Kuran and Kainda Kuran and grew up somewhere in the south of British North Sheaman. He would join SGLR in 1990 and in 1992 he contested the seat of North East Kennikch & Rattertum East and won the seat with a slim majority. He caught the attention of Lethabo Doema who was similar in age to Kuran and had a lot of passion so he appointed Kuran as Deputy Prime Minister in 1992. He would serve as Deputy PM until 1999 when he decide to run for President of Sheaman and won with a 59% majority. He would serve as President until 2007 when he decided to not run for reelection, leaving SGLR, joining P&D and attempted to become an MP for Gitesby East. He would win the constituency in 2007 but was ousted from his seat in 2012 due to the massive C&U majority but got reelected in 2017 and currently serves as MP for Gitesby West. He became Prime Minister in 2022 after being elected leader of P&D in 2016 and currently serves as Prime Minister of Sheaman. His government was ousted from power after a no confidence vote in April 2023 and hes resigned as leader of the Progressive & Democrats Party in early May with his government remaining until the next government can decided on a cabinet.

## Early Life: 1970 - 1992

Luthando Kuran was born to Kofi Kuran and Kainda Kuran on the 13th of June 1970 in North Shriel in Shackleton's hospital. He grew up without much care from his father frequently spending the duration of childhood with his Uncle in Martoen which led to his distaste to his parents in his later life. He would attend a Maxifolian Primary School called St. Micheal's between 1975 and 1980 until attending another Maxifolian middle school called St. Junions until he was 13. When he turned 13 his parents would investigated for child neglect and were found guilty of child neglect with Luthando Kuran being court ordered to stay with his uncle. Kuran would attend a secular school called Eartson Middle School for a year after which he attended Earston Secondary School which he'd attend until he turned 18 in 1988. After leaving school he would attend college and study law for four years and whilst studying he would join BIL in 1990 and stand for a Councillor but failed to win his seat. He would graduate in summer 1992 and instead of going into the field of law he completely changed his career choice and decided to contest a seat in the 1992 Parliamentary Election. The reason he did so was because he was currently a BIL member and that Lethabo Doema was specifically trying to get younger people elected as MPs instead of older ones.

## Early Parliamentary Career: 1992 - 1999

### Deputy Prime Minister & MP for North East Kennikch & Rattertum East: 1992 - 1999

Luthando Kuran would be elected as MP for North East Kennikch & Rattertum East on the 26th of August 1992, entering parliament for the first time on the 1st of September 1992. Right after he was elected for his constituency he would be invited by Lethabo Doema to attend a meeting as he wanted Kuran to join his cabinet. To Kuran's surprise he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Doema who congratulated Kuran on his win and becoming MP for his constituency. After being appointed Deputy Prime Minister as well being elected as MP he would make a speech in the chamber of representatives about the landslide majority that BIL had won and that he promised to lead the nation as Doema's "right-hand man.." His speech was mocked by some in the chamber with P&D MP, Robbie Twen saying, "Your speech, Mr. Kuran is nothing more but showing that you intend to undermine our Prime Minister and instead want his position more than ever. You show greed and little help for the government with your intention to build up power and widespread popularity, you will not last long and i hope the Prime Minister recognizes that." Twen was instead contended by most BIL MPs and some of P&D with Parliamentary Speaker Oliver Phillips demanding that Twen takes back his claims, which he did.

Kuran would experience popularity among moderates alike and would be a major influence for AIDS/HIV opening up the AIDS Foundation of Sheaman in 1993 which still runs today with its intentions to support people, help people, and prevent people from getting AIDS/HIV. His support for AIDS patients widely contributed to his popularity and was ranked the 2nd most influential person of Sheaman in 1993.

Kuran supported the SGLR Alliance for the 1995 Parliamentary and would run as A BIL MP for the same constituency leading to another massive majority for the party. After the results of the 1995 Parliamentary Election SGLR would be formed and Kuran would continue as deputy prime minister. During the late 90s Kuran would involve himself in a very progressive bill called the Abortion bill which he would present to parliament in 1997 which would then be passed in autumn that year and signed into law by President Mikey Sefelfreid on the 20th of November 1997. The Abortion Act 1997 allowed people under the age of 16 to get an abortion without the consent or knowledge of the parents but restricting the abortion after 20 weeks which has since been amended in 2013 to 15 weeks with the acknowledgment from parents and then in 2020 to 22 weeks without the acknowledgement from parents. The act relieved a lot of support and praise from teenage women and young people in general leading to more support for SGLR as well as for Kuran.

Kuran would compete in the 1999 Parliamentary Election and once again win his constituency of North East Kennikch & Rattertum East but expressed his disconnected to remain an MP. When the 1999 Presidential Election came around in summer it would lead to Kuran taking the decision to resign as MP and contest the election as the SGLR candidate for President. The reason for his decision was the announcement made by President Mikey in May 1999 where he stated that he would bot contest President for the 1999 Presidential Election. Kuran would win the Presidential Election with 53% in the first round being sworn in as President on the 1st of September 1999.

## President: 1999 - 2007

During Kuran's presidency he would take a foot out of mainstream politics to focus on his more ceremonial position as President and to focus on the AIDS Foundation of Sheaman. He would be reelected in 2002 as well after being selected by his party once again. He would then win the 2005 Presidential Election with but with a 2nd round this time as he did not receive an outright majority.

A problem came when he was not picked for the 2007 Presidential Election as the SGLR candidate and was instead booted out as the presidential candidate for SGLR. This greatly upset Kuran who had retained a strong relationship with Doema throughout the 90s and early 2000s and instead of deciding to not contest the election he decided to stand as an independent candidate. This was not what Doema expected from Kuran but still pushed on with the election and believed that the election would decisively lead to Doema's election as president. Instead, Doema received 42% of votes and Kuran received 26% of votes, this led to a 2nd round where Doema received 54% of votes and Kuran received 46% of votes. Although Kuran lost the election he did note that he was surprised and thankful for his close loss and the amount of support that the public gave him. Doema was also surprised with the results but decided to press on and would become president on the 14th of August 2007, although he would resign 2 years later and later apologize to Kuran for not allowing his presidency to continue.

## Return to Parliament: 2007 - 2022

### MP for Gitesby East: 2007 - 2012

After his loss in the 2007 Presidential Election Kuran would return to his parliamentary career by contesting the seat of Gitesby East in the 2007 Parliamentary Election as an independent candidate. Kuran was not expected to win the seat due to contesting as an independent and was pressured to join a political party such as S&L or P&D but he did not. He ended up winning the seat as an independent candidate, the first independent candidate in Sheaman's history to win their constituency. His success was widely celebrated and completely unexpected leading to a lot of praise from independent-campaigning organizations in Sheaman. His victory as the first elected independent candidate in Sheaman did not go unnoticed by many politicians such as: Robbie Twen, Mikey Sefelfreid, David Boeman, Alden Tom, Varne McCraig, and Emma Hendrix who all either congratulated him on his win or respected his achievement.

Kuran started his 2nd time in parliament with the Marijuana Agriculture Act 2008 that legalized the growth of marijuana in Sheaman as long as you have a license and grow it outside of an urban area; only allowing growing marijuana in the countryside/rural areas. When the act was a bill it was quite controversial with middle-aged and old people and C&U was against the passing of the bill but on the other hand it was accepted by SGLR, SOCS, P&D, and S&L which allowed for the bill to be passed and become an act. C&U campaigned heavily against the bill with Alden Tom arguing that it would lead to masses of farms turning into "weed fields" and that the countryside would stink of the smell of marijuana. This led to the bill being amended to only allow marijuana to grown in certain rural places and to allow local council to control if it can be grown and if so, where. The bill was passed in February 2008 and was signed by the President in March 2008.

Kuran would stand as an independent candidate once again in the 2008 Parliamentary Election and to most people's surprise he managed to win his constituency once again with a slightly higher majority this time. His victory was celebrated by moderates alike and Kuran would face the 2009 Parliamentary Election and the 2010 Parliamentary Election as an independent winning all of those election but after barely winning his constituency in 2010 he contemplated on joining P&D. Eventually after having month longs meetings with P&D members, MPs and its leader Robbie Twen he would finally decided to join P&D in January 2011 ending his time as an independent politician and MP as well as ending his time as the only independent elected MP. He would contest his seat once again in 2012 but because of the hightened popularity of C&U in the early to mid 2010s he failed to win his seat and lost by a couple of points to Sandra Eaestar.

### Out of Parliament: 2012 - 2014

After losing his constituency he would remain a part of P&D but would once again refocus his priorities on the AIDS Foundation of Sheaman and worked with closely with the government and other healthcare oriented organizations to attempt to cure AIDS or establish an even better life for AIDS/HIV patients. The government secured a small funding for the research from taxpayer's money as well as donations and help from other organizations. The funding led to breakthroughs in late 2012 to mid 2013 and it seemed promising that a cure for AIDS was to happen but research came to a halt throughout the end of the year and they didn't make any more progress. This led to their funding to "go to waste" as Wojchiech Govindaram described it and they ended their research to cure AIDS but did release any of the findings they made to the public for use.

### Reelection as MP and Party Leadership Election 2014 - 2022

In the 2014 Parliamentary Election Kuran would once again decided to be a candidate, this time for Gitesby West as a P&D candidate. He won the constituency with a pretty clear majority and was congratulated by Robbie Twen who was "happy to see Kuran return to parliament."