2023 Bigician legislative election

Election Overview & Background
The 2023 Bigician legislative election was held on 05 May 2023. The Founders Party, having failed to secure a majority in the 2021 election, had governed for 2 and a half years in a compromising coalition with the Reform Party, being in a strong opposition with the Social Democrats and the Merid-Ciupa Concordat.

Achivoine Tailencel, 4th Duke of Driftmark had become leader of the Founders in April 2023 after previous party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Brendanus Ilona resigned due to critical health issues. Ginevra Rimgailė, a well-known minority rights activist, took the leadership of the Merid-Ciupa Concordat. Gindyr Founrath, former Prime Minister, maintained his position as Reform party leader and so did Eriana Amanor, Social Democrat Party leader, who launched the biggest campaign the realm has ever seen.

A new addition to the election cycle was the formation of alliances - a move by the governing Reformists to show a façade of strength and that they could continue to govern without the Founders. Two alliances formed, with the Reformists, Merid-Ciupa Concordats and the Green League forming a centrist Alliance. The newly founded Militant Labour would join with the other freshly new political entity Federal Proposition Party to form a Progress Coalition. The Social Democrats, now left without their Green League allies and the left-leaning members of the Concordat, opted to stand alone.

The election would give the Social Democrats a landslide victory, gaining 49 seats and securing 150 seats overall, 83 seats short of a majority. However, now that the alliances are in play, and together the Gold Alliance of Reform Party, Merid-Ciupa Concordat and Green League, secured 264 seats, which is more than enough to achieve a majority.

The Founders Party met the expectations of the polls and plunged into the abyss, their crown now in the gutter. Losing a number of 81 seats overall, the sting of defeat made Achivoine Tailencel's tenure as Founders leader very brief. He resigned a few hours after the elections results were revealed.

Despite riding the highs of the Gold Alliance victory, the Green League failed to make an impression in the Senate vote and lost 6 seats, three of which they've recovered in the Chamber vote. Although they've achieved a minor result overall, their meager seats are absolutely necessary for the Gold Alliance majority, so the cards are in their hands and Green League leader Christina Divata knows it.

The Republican Front failed to gain any seat into the Parliament this time, after their 7 seats weak opposition in the past years have angered even their most ardent supporters. The three newly founded parties - Militant Labour, Federal Proposition Party and the Democratic Forum of Solentoyans, also failed to meet the 5% threshold and did not get any seats. Gina Bubulina of the Federal Proposition Party declared that she will focus her efforts on merging with the Merid-Ciupa Concordat.

The New Democrats and Social Liberals, would both fail to match up to the old parties, however both would make gains with the New Democrats falling just under 10% at 8.62% and the Social Liberals at 5.45%. Most notable of this, was in the Beamonte constituency where vote splitting meant the Prime Minister, Gabriel De La Pena only won his seat 869 votes a huge drop from the 11,486 5 years previous. The Liberal Party would see the biggest drop in their votes, which almost halved as voters flipped to the Social Liberals or switched to the Social Democrats. This would translate into a loss of around a third of their seats. Party leader, Emilio Ciampa would promptly resign as party leader and a MP following the result.

Gindyr Founrath secured another four years as Prime Minister of Bigicia, if the coalition will be strong enough this time. The victory was seen as a huge milestone in Solentoyan history with a feeling of optimism and changing coming in the air, despite the PM staying the same. The cabinet positions were quickly divided up among the alliance members.

Electoral System
The Chamber of Representatives (Camera Reprezentantilor) has currently 330 members (after the last legislative elections), elected for a four-year term by party-list proportional representation on closed lists. The Senate (Senatul) has currently 136 members (after the last legislative elections), elected for a four-year term by party-list proportional representation on closed lists.

Bigicia has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Voting Eligibility
Individuals eligible to vote are automatically registered as voters. In order to be eligible to vote, one has to be over the age of 18 (although one of the Gold Alliance's campaign promises was to lower the voting age to 16), a full citizen of Bigicia with an address and an ID card. Citizens may be disqualified from voting if they are currently detained in prison, or for mental health issues or on the run from law enforcement.

Campaign
All major parties campaigned heavily on varying opposing views, the emphasis being on the migrant crisis of November 2022, the economical consequences of the war south of the border and the regional development of the nation. The Founders founded themselves into a political climate that evolved beyond the archaisms of the High Council, as the country's political and socioeconomically landscape changed far quicker than they were expecting. Achivoine Tailencel's embarrassing speech on 25 April left the campaign team utterly confused. Despite the general populace's newly found disdain for lord politicians, Gindyr Founrath managed to use his charm to the full and captivate the hearts of the realm once again.

Debates
Televised debates were a relatively new addition to the election cycle. The first one took place on 25 April, where Achivoine Tailencel's embarrassing speech took place. There was due to be a 2nd, however it was cancelled due to major party leaders being unable to agree on a format.

Opinion Polling & Demographic breakdowns
The polls were a new addition to the election cycle. Even during the early days of the Founders-Reform Coalition, the Founders started to slowly drift downwards. Many political analysts were left dumbfounded by Brendanus Ilona's decision to form a coalition with their arch-rivals and their predictions ultimately were proven right, that the Founders would be the sacrificial lamb when the coalition would find itself in a crisis. The Founders continued to fall and it was only exacerbated by Brendanus Ilona's resignation from politics, with the Founder party leadership being a bunch of power-hungry tunnel vision fools.

Despite being the main star of the coalition, Gindyr Founrath's reputation remained relatively unscathed, the general population attributing his failures to the Founders' stubbornness towards change. With his charisma and honeyed-words, the duke of Balmora managed to turn every crisis into a political advantage, that ultimately lead the the snap election and finally getting rid of the dead weight in the form of the Founders Party. Having the hindsight of courting the Merid-Ciupa Concordat before their astronomical rise in the polls, made the Gold Alliance to really shine in the elections, a political alliance that will function a lot more on the same page than the previous one.

The new Parliament composition
The current structure of the Parliament contains 136 seats for the Chamber of Representatives and 330 for the Senate.

! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Parties ! Votes ! % ! ± ! Seats ! ± ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Total ! 13,155,333 ! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| 100% ! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| 136
 * style="background-color:#dc241f;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Social Democrats
 * 5,053,211
 * 38.41%
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +17.48%
 * 58
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +29
 * style="background-color:#dede1b;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Reform Party
 * 3,098,811
 * 23.56%
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +0.09%
 * 36
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +4
 * style="background-color:#d2780e;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Merid-Ciupa Concordat
 * 1,843,110
 * 14.01%
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +7.02%
 * 21
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +12
 * style="background-color:#832cd4;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | The Founders
 * 1,032,918
 * 7.85%
 * style="color:red;" | -23.21%
 * 11
 * style="color:red;" | -22
 * style="background-color:#18ad34;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Green League
 * 913,210
 * 6.94%
 * style="color:red;" | -4.46%
 * 10
 * style="color:red;" | -6
 * style="background-color:#1d36b3;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Republican Front
 * 552,654
 * 4.20%
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +0.44%
 * style="color:black" | N/C
 * style="background-color:#D8BFD8;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Federal Proposition Party
 * 176,579
 * 1.34%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#6495ED;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Democratic Forum of Solentoyans
 * 175,560
 * 1.33%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#A52A2A;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Militant Labour
 * 153,421
 * 1.17%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#6495ED;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Democratic Forum of Solentoyans
 * 175,560
 * 1.33%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#A52A2A;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Militant Labour
 * 153,421
 * 1.17%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * 1.17%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * }

! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Parties ! Votes ! % ! ± ! Seats ! ± ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Total ! 13629773 ! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| 100% ! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| 330
 * style="background-color:#dc241f;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Social Democrats
 * 3,373,211
 * 24.59%
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +3.49%
 * 92
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +19
 * style="background-color:#dede1b;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Reform Party
 * 3,078,811
 * 21.71%
 * style="color:red;" | -3.08%
 * 81
 * style="color:red;" | -6
 * style="background-color:#d2780e;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Merid-Ciupa Concordat
 * 2,742,110
 * 19.99%
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +10.88%
 * 74
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +43
 * style="background-color:#832cd4;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | The Founders
 * 1,532,918
 * 11.90%
 * style="color:red;" | -18.41%
 * 44
 * style="color:red;" | -59
 * style="background-color:#18ad34;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Green League
 * 1,434,210
 * 10.45%
 * style="color:red;" | -0.07%
 * 39
 * style="color:#36a100;" | +3
 * style="background-color:#1d36b3;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Republican Front
 * 512,654
 * 3.74%
 * style="color:red;" | -1.27%
 * style="color:red" | -7
 * style="background-color:#A52A2A;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Militant Labour
 * 512,340
 * 3.73%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#D8BFD8;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Federal Proposition Party
 * 334,460
 * 2.44%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#6495ED;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Democratic Forum of Solentoyans
 * 43,434
 * 0.32%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#D8BFD8;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Federal Proposition Party
 * 334,460
 * 2.44%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="background-color:#6495ED;" |
 * style="text-align:left;" | Democratic Forum of Solentoyans
 * 43,434
 * 0.32%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * 0.32%
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * style="color:black" | NEW
 * }