July 3021 Wiltshire Legislative Elections

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All 91 seats in the Wiltshire National Assembly (including 1 overhang)46 seats needed for a majority

### Subsequent Prime Minister

Jake SimpsonLabour

The **July 3021 Wiltshire Legislative Elections** were held during the war against the New Corporate Republic between 30 June 3021 and 2 July 3021, becoming the first and so far only national election to ever take place during war. The elections saw open offices on every level of government, mainly due to previous election delays due to the war, including the national presidency, the Wiltshire National Assembly and local government. The elections to the National Assembly were to elect the 25th Wiltshire National Assembly.

The incumbent Liberal Conservative-led War Coalition was announced to be dissolving following the election. Prime Minister Sonya Inyo, who had led the Liberal Conservative Party to a landslide victory in the previous election, announced that she would run for the presidency and the parties concluded that the post-election government should not be a government of national unity - partially due to the decreasing threat from the NCR and victory in Lorikeet. The LibCon government was dominated by the war, with many of Sonya Inyo's personal plans for policy being overlooked in order to maintain Wiltshire's policy of Total War. Included in this were environmental reforms, education reforms and political reforms. However, prior to the start of the war, the Inyo government was able to pass landmark welfare reform - which became a controversial topic during the election. With Inyo standing aside at this election, and divisions within the LibCon Party forging based on ideological liberal/conservative lines, ideas over the implementation of Inyo's original policy agenda became controversial.

The main opposition Labour Party, in contrast, had significantly rebuilt themselves after their previous election disaster. Their leader, Jake Simpson, had completely rebranded the party as a moderate, centre-left party with a sensible agenda for government. In addition, Simpson's own credibility as a statesman was bolstered by his role as the Minister for Food in the war government. Simpson's construction of the "Dig for Victory" campaign, which secured Wiltshire's food independence, became a national program of pride and many rallied behind Labour due to Simpson's construction of it. In addition, Labour's victory in the Minevgrad local elections in February became a national showcase of how the "new, moderate Labour" policy can operate in government, with Minevgrad remaining one of the few places in the South Eastern Quadrant to be under limited wartime restrictions.

Furthermore, the complete collapse of the United Wiltshire Party led to a small shift towards the Stability Party. However, many suspected a significantly better result for Stability, citing the party's lackluster campaign as the reason why they did not perform significantly better. The party did not publish a new manifesto, instead relying on their previous, pre-war manifesto. This move garnered criticism for the party, with many calling Stability's laissez-faire economic program as one "unfit" for the wartime and post-war atmosphere.

The result of the election saw the Liberal Conservative Party lose its overall majority in the National Assembly. LibCon Leader Glenn Callaghan faced calls for his resignation. However, he remained defiant and attempted to form a minority Liberal Conservative government. This failed, however, as the Stability Party (who were traditional allies of the LibCon Party and needed for the minority government to gain power) refused to support a "weak and unstable" minority government. When Glenn Callaghan refused to form a majority coalition with Stability, Mitchell Crawley announced the creation of an "independent" coalition with the Labour Party. Jake Simpson was appointed Prime Minister, becoming the fourth Labour Prime Minister in Wiltshirian history and the second to fail to win the popular vote. Glenn Callaghan became Leader of the Opposition, with Liberal Conservatives winning their fourth consecutive election popular vote but failing to form government for the second time.

## Electoral system

Since the Third Elections Act, 3020, Wiltshire uses a system of mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation for elections to the National Assembly. Each voter gets two votes: one for a political party (the party vote) and one for a local candidate in their geographic electorate (electorate vote). Political parties which meet the threshold (2% of the party vote or one electorate seat) receive seats in the Assembly in proportion to the percentage of the party vote they receive. 50 of the 90 seats are filled by Assembly Members (AMs) elected from the electorates, with the winner in each electorate determined by the first-past-the-post method (i.e. most votes win). The remaining 40 seats are filled by candidates from each party's closed party list. If a party wins more electorates than seats allocated based on the popular vote, overhang seats are allocated which add to the total number of seats in the Assembly.

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

For the July 3021 election, six parties qualified for the national ballot;

* Liberal Conservative Party
* Liberal Party of Wiltshire
* Stability Party of Wiltshire
* United Wiltshire
* Walkerton National Party\*
* Wiltshire Labour Party

\*The Walkerton National Party, by special request, only appeared in ballots in the city of Walkerton due to the party's nature as a "special interest party".

In electorates, individual candidates require a nomination petition of 500 signatures to appear on the electorate ballot or be a nominated candidate from a qualifying national political party.

The electorate boundaries are the same as those outlined in the October 3020 Wiltshire Legislative Elections, which are scheduled to be redrawn in August 3021.

## Results

After the election, the Labour Party and the Stability Party formed a coalition government, with outside support from the Walkerton National Party.