CCU presidential election, 2019/Old

The **CCU presidential election of 2019** will be the first quadrennial presidential election, set to be held in 2019. This follows President Elayne Harpaz's one-year term from 2010 to 2011 during the Union founding, as well as Tyron Ferrer's six-year term from 2012 to 2018. After Ferrer announced his exit from the Union, a crisis-mode had been activated, which led to a CCU blackout. However, CCU later confirmed that a new President would be found, followed by the announcement of the first ever election, in November 2018. Only nationals from the 59 member countries were permitted to enter, to serve a four-year term effective from 2019 to 2023. The Vice President would take over as the President during Election Period, with a vacant Vice President seat.

The rules of the Election allowed for two Parties and one Independent to be on the ballot. For the People and Union entered the ballots being the two most popular Parties, with Elden Dunham and Evalyn Staples respectively representing them. Elois Dang represented herself as an Independent. Other candidates from different parties or Independents were also allowed to continue their candidacy for presidency, without any support from debates or ballots. Nevertheless, they did not receive even 1% from any state, having received 0.4% at most from one state.

United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden were allowed to vote, despite having candidates. A Union campaign had been initiated in the country, in an attempt to sway voters from voting for their own candidate, using *Brexit* aftermath as an advertising mechanism. Despite the Union campaign, the For the People Party easily won with 77% votes. The campaign war, however, resulted in a record low of 3% for the Independents.

In the case that no candidates receive at least 276 electoral votes, the losing third party's electoral votes would be substituted to the runner-up voters.

For the presidential race, a "winner-take-it-all" system is followed and used, while the House uses a proportional system, counting all votes rather than just the winning Party's. The next House race would then take place in 2021, allowing Independents and other Parties to nab seats from each other.

The leading nominee, Elden Dunham, received 240 electoral votes, not enough to be projected the winner. As a result, the runner-up party in each Independent-won state was instead given their electoral votes, in order to find a majority. Dunham carried 10 additional states, whilst Staples carried 8. However, Staples' 8 were more populous, giving her 51 additional electoral votes compared to Dunham's 34. As such, Staples won the Election to become the Acting President, marking the first ever party transition in power.

Dang conceded the election during the night of it, but Dunham stated that "[he] would not give up." As Staples defied the odds to be projected the winner of the election with her extremely-narrow 1 point margin victory in Norway (preceded by her 8-point margin victory in Sweden), Dunham confirmed his intention to seek recount. He also argued that a 1-point margin victory was "in no way representative of a country's votes" and called for a run-off election. Dunham himself, however, had received 7 electoral votes from Denmark and Estonia, a result of a 1-point margin victory. However, the CCU declined this, stating that "the rules of the election were already predefined, and that only recount measures could be taken."

Following a number of recounts, attempted lawsuits, and scandals, the CCU confirmed that Evalyn Staples would become its Acting President. The Independents, who had all 116 seats in the past, lost 78 to remain with 38. Presidential Party Union, earned only 32 seats, making them a minority power and leader. For the People earned 46 seats, making them the leading party. However, with 38 seats for Independents, they could pass or deny laws from both For the People and Union, giving them veto-power, though the inability to pass original laws by themselves, the same situation with the other two parties. Dunham stated that this "would ultimately not allow any significant changes to happen, [at least] until 2021."

A miselection could be pronounced, which would allow the For the People-majority Senate to decide on the next President, including their leader, Dunham.

## Candidates

### **For the People Party**

* **Elden Dunham, British television executive for BBC (2014–), *For the People* Party Nominee**
* Mia Haskins, Irish television entertainment executive for RTÉ (2011–)
* Felisha Nadeau, French former Vice President of entertainment at France Télévisions (2013–17)

The *For the People* Party primaries was held on 10 January 2018, with three candidates from France, Ireland and United Kingdom vying to become the nominee for the Party. Dunham was endorsed by previous President Ferrer, making him a frontrunner. A nominee was required to win at least 50.0% votes in order to secure the party nomination. Frontrunner Dunham received 49.6% of votes, thanks to extensive campaigning from Haskins, as well as noteworthy write-in candidate Galloway. With no candidate having received 50% votes, Haskins stated that she would not concede. Nadeau announced her concession later that day, wishing her luck to the other opponents. A run-off was therefore confirmed to be held between Dunham and Haskins, to secure the nomination. Dunham narrowly won the run-off by a 4.8% gap, enough to be projected as the winner. Despite this, Dunham had a 28.1% vote increase compared to Haskins' 60.6%, a result of continued excessive campaigning. Overall, the run-off had a 21.3% turnout increase compared to the original primary. Haskins conceded the election on 17 January, stating that "This journey has been great, and it's been an honor to represent Ireland, RTÉ, change, in this election. A win is not just an in-paper win, but also a self honor and happiness. I therefore announce my concession to Dunham, whom I endorse as the best potential candidate as the new CCU President."

### **Union Party**

* **Evalyn Staples, Dutch Head of Entertainment executive for AVROTROS (2012–), Union Party nominee**
* Gaston Angel, German television executive for NDR (2015–)

The Union Party primary election was held on 17 January, in which Staples received 55.1% votes, 5.1% above the threshold to become the nominee. Angel therefore conceded, wishing his luck to Staples as the Union Party nominee. As only two candidates were announced as candidates, the election saw more momentum for Write-in candidates.

 Popular vote
 Evalyn Staples | 2,761
 Gaston Angel | 1,355
 Dakota Crowe (Write-in)
 Harris Bearden (Write-in)
 William Aleman (Write-in)

### **Independent**

* **Elois Dang, Swedish television executive producer, Independent nominee**
* Rosalyn Whitley, Maltese television producer

Although Independents were part of no Party, a primary was necessary to be held between the Party-less candidates, to avoid voting discrepancy for the main election. Dang won with a percentage higher than any other primaries, which was followed by Whitley's and Mercado's concessions. It marks the first time in any primaries for a Write-in candidate to surpass an officially written candidate.

 Popular vote
 Elois Dang | 1,722
 Jami Mercado (Write-in)
 Rosalyn Whitley | 761
 Gregorio Doan (Write-in)
 Sharita Kitchens (Write-in)
 Dwain Danner (Write-in)

### **Other third-party candidates**

Other parties had attempted to gain seats to be internationally recognized as candidates, but did not receive enough votes. As a result, they were only eligible to enter the presidency race as write-in candidates, twice the work as opposed to shading in a candidate. However, some extensive campaigning allowed them to receive around 5% votes in certain states, and more or less in others.

## Previous presidential leaders

**Independent**

* Elayne Harpaz (2010–2011)
* Tyron Ferrer (2012–2018)

**^1** Although Ferrer identified himself as an Independent during his term, he later identified himself as a member of the For the People Party, after it was founded.
### **Endorsements**

* Tyron Ferrer publicly endorsed fellow For the People Party member Elden Dunham during the primary, and echoed his endorsement for Dunham during the presidential race.
* Elayne Harpaz, who continued to not associate herself with any Party, stated she had long moved on from matters involving the Union, and as such, did not endorse any candidate. Reports claimed that this move put Dunham in the lead.

## Future elections

The CCU stated that in future elections they could change the default election format to 2-party race, with other Parties/Independents needing a certain amount of pre-votes to be internationally accepted in the race. However, the CCU stated that such a thing would not be decided without a vote, by the new administrating Party and President. Independents also hinted the possibility of not passing the vote, to give outsiders a chance. Meanwhile, For the People and Union did not publicly state any information.

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