August 2020 General Election

August 2020 General Election

← December 2019 General Election	15 Aug 2020 - 1 Sep 2020
All 200 seats in the Cosa 101 seats needed for a majority
Eligible voters		162
Turnout		90 - 55.5% ( 4.62%)
Leader	Miestrâ Schivâ	Ian Plätschisch	Eiric Börnatfiglheu
Party	FreeDem	LCC	NPW
Leader since	29 Jan 2019	10 Jul 2020	15 Sep 2019
Leader's seat	MC (FreeDem)	Senator (MM)	Senator (BE)
Last election	84	new party	15
Seats won	99	73	28
Seat change	15	73	13
Popular vote	46	34	13
Percentage	49.46%	35.56%	12.62%
Swing	7.69%	35.56%	5.03%
Outgoing Seneschal		Presumptive Seneschal
Miestrâ Schivâ FreeDems		Miestrâ Schivâ FreeDems

The August 2020 General Election was held from August 15th to September 1st 2020/XLI. All of the Cosa was up for reelection, plus regularly scheduled Senate elections in Maritiimi-Maxhestic and Benito, and a special election in Cézembre. Six referendums on amendments to the Organic Law were also proposed.

Registered parties

Party		Leader/Candidate	Beliefs
	Free Democrats of Talossa (FreeDem)	Miestrâ Schivâ	Progressivism, liberalism, republicanism
	Make Talossa Great Again (MTGA)	Ian Plätschisch	Pragmatism, moderate monarchism, reformism, conservatism
	New Peculiar Way (NPW)	Eiric Börnatfiglheu	Peculiarism, republicanism

Three parties are slated to return after a hiatus: the ZPT, a party that was most known in its 1998-2005 iteration, but will be revived for a second time by Ieremiac'h Ventrutx; MTGA, whose only member Mximo Carbonel had sat out the 53rd Cosa; and the New Peculiar Way, which held seats in 2013 but has largely been dormant since, only sporadically holding seats in Benito. One completely new party is expected to take part in the elections: the PNP, led by Eðo Grischun. Grischun served as the leader of the RUMP, most recently on an interim basis, but resigned from the party in the summer.

The RUMP did not register for the election for the first time since 2005. The party had contested 19 elections in a row, existing for virtually the entire post-Ben era. The party had been in decline for some time, and in the waning days of the 53rd Cosa it only had two MCs and a Senator, with two leaders (Grischun and Alexandreu Davinescu) leaving politics in the span of a month during the summer. Moderate Radicals Arise will also not run again; therefore, the two longest tenured MCs (Eovart Xhorxh and Erschéveþ da Schir) will both leave the Cosa.

The Free Democrats need a swing of 12 seats to win a majority; no party has managed to win one since 2013. AMP needs to gain 61 seats; no such swing has ever been achieved under EM200, the biggest positive swing being the RUMP's +43 in the 36th Cosa.

Timeline

• 15 April: before the previous election is even certified, Ieremiac'h Ventrutx announces the return of the ZPT by paying the registation fee for this election
• 21 October: voting ends on the last Clark of the 53rd Cosa
• 22 October: AMP presented its Manifesto
• 22 October: Prime Minister Miestrâ Schivâ published a farewell message touting her government's accomplishments and launching the Free Democrats's campaign
• 24 October: AMP announced Breneir Itravilatx will run for Florencia's Senate seat
• 24 October: the Chancery published the proposed election rules and announced the composition of the Electoral Commission
• 25 October: King John dissolved the Cosa and isssued the Writs for the election
• 25 October: Senator Lüc da Schir adjourned the Senate to December 15th
• 29 October: Senator Gödafrïeu Válcadác'h announced he would seek reelection to a third term as Senator for Fiovâ
• 30 October: MTGA announced it was "back on track" and would contest the election
• 1 November: the Chancery announced the Electoral Commission has certified the rules that will be used during the election
• 3 November: NPW presented its Manifesto
• 4 November: it is announced that the Free Democrats have paid the registration fee
• 4 November: the Free Democrats published their Manifesto in La S'chinteia
• 5 November: the Free Democrats presented their Cosa and Senate candidates on their own blog
• 8 November: it is announced that the new Peculiar National Party has paid the registration fee. Party leader Eðo Grischun also announced a preview of their platform
• 9 November: the Peculiar Nationalist Party presented their Manifesto
• 11 November: AMP officially registers for the election
• 11 November: AMP's Breneir Itravilatx confirmed he would run for Florencia's Senate seat
• 12 November: the RUMP's Beneditsch Ardpresteir announces difficulties in registering the party, and that he would bid for Maricopa's Senate seat
• 12 November: MTGA and PNP officially register for the election, bringing the number of parties on the ballot to 5
• 12 November: the RUMP's former leader Alexandreu Davinescu remarks in Wittenberg's shoutbox that he didn't know which party he would vote for, all but confirming that the RUMP would not take part in the election
• 13 November: the ZPT officially registers for the election, and it is announced by the Chancery that its leader Ieremiac'h Ventrutx has registered to run for reelection as Senator of Florencia
• 13 November: MTGA's Mximo Carbonel announced his party's platform on Wittenberg
• 13 November (end of day): the political party registration deadline expires, with six parties qualifying for ballot access
• 14 November (end of day): the senatorial candidate registration deadline expires, with 8 registered candidates over 4 races, but only two contested seats
• 15 November: voting begins, and voting advice website Talomat is opened to the public by Lüc da Schir
• 1 December (7:30 PM TST): the voting deadline passed
• 14 December: one day in advance of the automatic validation deadline, the Secretary of State announced the Electoral Commission had voted to certify the results, officially ending the electoral period

Results

Party		Votes	Share
	Free Democrats of Talossa	33	41.77%
	Awakening and Magnifying Passion	18	22.79%
	Peculiar Nationalist Party	10	12.66%
	ZPT	10	12.66%
	NPW	6	7.59%
	MTGA	2	2.53%
Present/Invalid votes: 11

Preliminary results posted on the voting deadline day showed very low turnout, just a year after turnout almost reached 70% and more than 120 votes were cast. This was the first time after Reunision that less than 100 votes were cast - the October 2011 General Election saw only 79 ballots tallied.

The Free Democrats retained a plurality while losing some seats, while AMP gained a similar amount but still did not enjoy a significant upturn in its fortunes, actually losing a vote due to the lower turnout. The newest party, Eovart Grischun's Peculiar Nationalists, won a tied third place along with the ZPT.

The ultimate outcome of the election was a coalition between the three highest ranked parties - Free Democrats, AMP and PNP.

Senatorial races

Half of the Senate was up for reelection: three regularly scheduled races for full terms in Florencia, Fiovă and Maricopa, and a special election in Cézembre, where freshman Senator Thor Deyaert lost his seat by failing to vote.

Had the merger between Fiovâ and Florencia been successful, Iarneria (the name of the merged province) would have been expected to elect its first Senator, while the election for the seat of Maritiimi-Maxhestic would have also been up for election, to respect the Organic provision that three seats should be up for a full term at each General Election.

Cézembre (special)

Cézembre elected a senator for the sixth time in the last seven general elections. Of the five Senators that held the seat since mid-2015, only Ian Anglatzara served more than six Clarks, and none actually served for a whole term:

• Txosuè Rôibeardescù, elected in 2015 upon Glüc da Dhi's retirement, lost his seat in the coattails of a corruption scandal;
• Anglatzara only served the two-Cosa remainder of his term;
• the following two-Cosa term was split between a returned da Dhi, who resigned his seat to accept an appointment as Secretary of State, and Alexandreu Soleiglhfred, who declined to seek reelection in the wake of the collapse of the MRPT;
• and Thor Deyaert lost his seat by failing to vote.

The last senator to complete a term was Glüc da Dhi, who served two whole terms and one extra Cosa between 2011 and 2015.

The seat was one of two expected to be competitive, should multiple candidates from different parties be on the ballot, but the only candidate on the ballot ended up being Interior Minister Amada Merþedes of the Free Democrats, who would however be ineligible to vote before March 29th 2020 due to being a citizen for less than a year. Merþedes has been elected at the second round of IRV elimination, with 50% of first preferences.

Cézembre Senate Special Election
	Amada Merþedes	6	7
	Litz Cjantscheir (write-in)	2	2
	Ián da Bitoûr (write-in)	2	2
	Martì Vataldestreça (write-in)	1	1/0*
	Txosuè Rôibeardescù (write-in)	1	0/1*
FreeDem GAIN from IND

*: Merþedes wins in the second round irrespective of which candidate between Vataldestreça or Rôibeardescù is eliminated.

Florencia

Ieremiac'h Ventrutx, the incumbent, was elected in a special election to complete the remainder of Ma la Mha's term. He will run for reelection; in his special election campaign, he was elected as a write-in candidate (no other name actually appeared on the ballot, in a first for Talossa since Reunision). Ventrutx is also running with his own party, the ZPT, which he brought back after a hiatus of ten years.

AMP has announced that Breneir Itravilatx, a former Foreign Minister and Senator for Maritiimi-Maxhestic between 2010 and 2011, would contest the seat. The Free Democrats will instead support Açafat del Vala for the seat, while also endorsing Itravilatx as a second IRV preference. Del Val notably led the Free Democrats's efforts in the Nimlet concerning the Fiova-Florencia merger in the summer of 2019.

MTGA leader Mximo Carbonel will also contest the seat. He had previously ran in two elections and received write-in votes in two others. Carbonel had expressed his desire to move to his geographically correct province (Atatürk) during the previous term; changing provinces would cast his eligibility to hold the seat into doubt, although the Organic Law only forbids people to be elected or appointed to the seat of a different province.

Should the seat be won by either Carbonel or Ventrutx, both leaders of a one-man party, they would have to forfeit their party's seats in the Cosa, as they are the only candidate on the party list. In the case of Ventrutx, who is both the favourite to retain the Senate seat and likely to win a substantial number of Cosa seats due to the RUMP deregistering, this would potentially have the effect of lowering the threshold for an outright majority in the Cosa, should the ZPT leave their seats vacant.

Florencia Senate Election
	Açafat del Val	1 (2)	2	2
	Mximo Carbonel	1 (1)	1	1 (1)
	Ieremiac'h Ventrutx	1 (0)(1)	1 (0)	-
	Breneir Itravilatx	1 (0)(0)	-	-
FreeDem GAIN from RUMP

Final results show Açafat del Val winning the race after a four-way tie in first preference votes. If confirmed, this would be the first time the Florencian Senate seat is won by a non-monarchist since the very first incumbent, Danihel Laurieir, in 1997. Del Val has not served either in Cabinet or in the Ziu before.

Fiova

The incumbent is Gödafrïeu Válcadác'h, currently the third longest tenured Senator, who had served as Lord President (Mençei) of the Senate in 2018 and is well known as the long-time Royal Archivist of Talossa. He has announced his intention to run for reelection.

No challenger has declared their intention to run. The last contested election in Fiovă was in December 2013, when the NPW's Dieter Vercáriâ took on the ZRT's Miestrâ Schivâ.

Fiovă Senate Election
	Gödafrïeu Válcadác'h	9
	Miestrâ Schivâ (write-in)	1
	Carlüs Xheraltescù (write-in)	1
	Tamoran Montagnhard d'Açeradeireu (write-in)	1
FreeDem HOLD

Final results show Válcadác'h handily winning reelection with an overall majority of 75% of first preferences, a decrease of 10%.

Maricopa

The incumbent is Sir Cresti Siervicül, the lone senator to be affiliated with the RUMP. Siervicül has completed his first term in the Senate, which he joined in late 2017, initially as an appointee and then winning a special election to complete the rest of the term.

The seat is one of two expected to be competitive, should multiple candidates from different parties be on the ballot. Maricopa was the first province where IRV was applied to a Senate race.

The Free Democrats have announced that Foreign Minister Txoteu Davinescu, formerly of AMP, will contest the seat for a second time; he was the MRPT's candidate in 2017, where he received the second-most first votes (29%), but lost out in the final IRV round to Beneditsch Ardpresteir. Ardpresteir himself later announced he would run for the seat, setting up a rematch with Davinescu.

Maricopa Senate Election
	Beneditsch Ardpresteir	6	7
	Txoteu Davinescu	3	3
	Cresti Siervicül (write-in)	1 (0)(1)	1
	Munditenens Tresplet (write-in)	1 (0)(0)(0)(1)	1
	Alejo Fernández (write-in)	1 (0)(0)(0)(0)	-
RUMP HOLD

Final results show Ardpresteir winning at the second elimination round, with 50% of first preference votes, a 7% decrease for the RUMP from the latest contested election. FreeDem challenger Txoteu Davinescu only mustered 25% of the first preference vote, a 3% decrease compared to his previous attempt at the seat.

This was the second attempt at a Senate majority for a party that failed in Maricopa, with the FreeDems stopping short of a clean sweep of Senate races, although they will still be the lone plurality party in the Senate for the first time in their history. Additionally, depending on Ardpresteir's affiliation, this might mean that the RUMP will continue being represented in the Ziu despite not being a registered party anymore.

Referendum

The Still Into This Amendment was confirmed by a large majority of 78% to 22%, and is expected to come into effect as soon as the end of January 2020.