Ruthenish State Elections, December 2021

[Wimaland]

Ruthenish State Elections 2021
Jowelenaz Ruthenrikaiz en 2021

Eligible voters: 38.9 million
Date: 12-16 December, 2021

Candidates and Parties

FqW- Peasant's and Workers' Party
(Eurogroup Affiliation: PEL)
The Peasants and Workers' Party is the largest communist party in Ruthund and has historical continuity with the party that established the first socialist commune in Ruthund back during the Fyridok Restoration. The party was banned throughout the 20th century and operated underground until 2009, when the party's legality was restored. Though officially endorsing the idea of revolutionary socialism, the party has recently shifted its focus on gaining seats in the Thuidwethon.

The party is a soft-Eurosceptic party and aligns itself most closely with Czech-Slavia and the UNSR. They wish to establish alliances with other socialist countries and abolish the Stewardship. They are also in favor of revoking Ruthund's traditional neutrality policy.

On domestic policy, the party advocates for a gradual 12-year plan to transition Ruthund to a centrally planned economy, with farmer cooperatives in agriculture and other non industrial areas of the economy. They support the establishment of a universal healthcare system administered and provided for by the state. On the question of federalisation, they support the status quo on devolution.

The party receives the most support in a few pockets of rural areas, especially in Borothiz where communist support has historically been relatively high compared to other regions of Ruthund.

FRO- The Peasants
The Peasants is a political party mainly located in the Bunaland and Zdunekur. They are primarily a one-issue party that supports federalization of Ruthund and protecting the rights of their local governments. Generally speaking, members of this group are economically center of left and socially conservative. Some elements of the party are populist and see urban dwellers as elites that have exploited the resources of rural areas for their own benefit.

On the issue of the Stewardship, the party supports the status quo. The party is against revoking the Neutrality clause in Ruthenish Basic Law.

NJL- "The Restoration"
The Restoration is one of the three current major parties in Ruthund. They believe in restoring the Fyridok to the throne with their political powers and for Ruthund, limit democracy to local elections, and stengthen the power of the restored royal court. It also traditionally supports the former policy of isolationism enforced throughout the 20th century. However, the party has since shifted toward reconciling their conservatism within the European Union.

NJL initially opposed the recognition of the UNSR under the pretense that it was too early to recognize the fledging state, and that it risked the ire of its neighbors compromising its neutrality. However, the party currently supports normal relations with the UNSR under the grounds that it has shown moderated behavior and there is no longer any reason to withdraw Ruthund's recognition of the UNSR. In general, the party supports strong trade relations with Ruthund's regional neighbors but discourages trade outside the region.

NJL on domestic is socially and economically conservative in the contexts of Ruthenish society. They oppose breaking up former companies that previously enjoyed the benefits of guild privileges and is in favor of a corporatist model for Ruthund.

Much of the party's support comes from the rural areas across Ruthund and parts of Hukonian provinces, though their support in North Hukon and Lesser Hukon has waned over the last 15 years.

JNu- "There is a New Tree"
Jan Nubaima or "There is a New Tree" is a centrist to center-left leaning political party that is in favor of liberalizing the country using the current institutions of the Ruthenish state. They are the current ruling party in a caretaker coaliton with the Social Progressive Party. The party is lead by the Steward and political twitch streamer, Lord Zgeirtan.

On foreign policy Jan Nubaima is opposed to revoking the Neutrality Clause found in the Basic Law of Ruthund and prefer only to persue trading relations with other countries. Jan Nubaima aspires Ruthund to gain influence politically by being a neutral ground and a mediating power in disputes.

They are in favor of busting corporations that previous enjoyed benefits of guild privileges during the Old Regime, though their campaign promises over the past decade seems to have been empty. Views on social issues are mixed and vary on the faction. Views can range from progressive socially to conservative. On the issue of the Stewardship, they current support the status quo. Many political commentators remark that Jan Nubaima has become the face of the current Ruthenish inner establishment.

Most of Jan Nubaima's votes come from the cities, however they are competitive in many rural areas as well.

WJF- Social Progressive Party
Social Progressive Party is a new party that came from a merger of the New Republican Party and the Mutual Worker's Party and is now the second largest party in the Thuidwethon. The party advocates from democratic socialism, but through a gradual long term program towards decentralized planning and expanding democracy in the workplace. They oppose the use of revolution as mean to get towards socialism and tend to look at other revolutionary socialist governments generally as authoritarian and a perversion of socialism.

The WJF supports status quo relations with UNSR while being critical of the violent nature of the establishment of the UNSR. They party also general more favorable towards the EU than the other parties, however still remain critical of several aspects of the European Union. The party reamains divided on whether the neutrality clause in Ruthenish basic law should be revoked.

The party is the most socially liberal out of all the parties fully supporting the secularization of the country and the expansion of rights to minorities, including bringing a new more open immigration policy. They are the most in favor of busting corporations that are too big to fail and are in support in a general expansion of the Public Dole, including Universal Healthcare-- though the party has not yet specified their plans on this yet.

The party gets the vast majority of their support from the cities, particularly the Port Cities including Rangentazavon. The WJF also has a large presence in the capital of Kazmurbirhaz as well.

JRF- "The Green World"
The Green World is a party that uses Zdardrin theology to inform their perspective on Green Politics.

EZ- "The Next Age"
The next age is a party that centers around the issue of getting youth involved into politics and increasing the age diversity in the government. They are about as socially progressive as the WJF.

[Wimaland]

The Electoral System Explained

Every three years, Ruthund has an election that will determine the composition of the new Thuidwethon. The Thuidwethon, officially known as the Realm’s Estates Assembled (Ruthenish: Londloutoz Joqimlika Rikaiz), is an ancient institution that served as an advisory council to the King and often had some of the most influential members of the royal court before the Stewardship. Each class or estate was guaranteed equal representation and later on, limited democracy manifested in the form of the estates democratically electing members of the Thuidwethon. However, since the reforms of the 1990’s, the estates are de facto abolished and now manifest in the form of the nine provinces and the City and Kazmurbirha. Each estate receives either delegations of 3, 6, 9, or 12 depending on their population in comparison to the rest of the provinces. The delegation size of each estate or province will be listed below:

North Hukon: 12 seats
Population: 12.0 million
Lukandal: 12
9.2 million
Hedmeward: 9
6.9 million
Borothiz: 9
6.5 million
Kazmurbirha: 9
6.4 million
Hendmeward: 6
5.2 million
Southmark: 6
4.6 million
Lesser Hukon: 6
4.0 million
Zdunekur: 3
2.3 million
Bunaland: 3
1.1 million

Total Seats: 75 seats

Each province nominates their candidates through Single Transferable Vote using the Droop method for determining final victors. Each delegation is selected in one lot, as a result the entire province will be electing the same members to the Thuidwethon. I suggest watching this video if you are not familiar with Single Transferable Vote:

(Politics in the Animal Kingdom: Single Transferable Vote by CGP Grey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI

Each province also nominates a Prince-Regent to serve as a member of the State Council, the ruling executive body of Ruthund. Among the 10 prince-regents, 8 of them will become Prince-Councillors the equivalent of ministers in other countries, 1 of them will usually become Steward of the Mekilfyraz throne, and the final one will be the High Lawspeaker, the chairman of the Council of Lawspeakers. Since the beginning of the Stewardship it is conventional for the leader of the largest party to be elected Steward by the Thuidwethon, however there is no legal guarantee that this happens everytime.

Under normal circumstances, the Thuidwethon will usually appoint positions to each Prince-Regent. However if the Thuidwethon cannot come to a consensus on which positions to assign, then Prince-Regents will have their positions randomly assigned, which is observed by the Thuidon. Afterwhich, Councillors will rotate their positions every 4 months until such an agreement can be reached in the Thuidwethon.

(Note: Each election within the Provinces are considered separate thus the plural term "elections". I also neglected to mention there is one exception to the Councillors being nominated by the provinces: the European Councillor. The European Councillor is the only nation-wide and winner take-all election in Ruthund. It is won by instant-runoff voting.)

[Wimaland]

Brenelduz and Luzrogaz, the co-leaders of the party, will be going out this week on their first week of campaign now with their new platform, sources say. This came shortly after Brenelduz announced her new party’s platform after the first party conference in Niqobrid. Here’s some of the key details:

1. The formation of the Guild Trust Office, which will be tasked specifically with breaking up large corporations that formerly enjoyed guild privileges during the Old Regime.
2. The establishment of a Universal Healthcare system funded by an expanded Public Dole. It also calls for the establishment of the Health Service Office to administer healthcare. New carbon taxes as well as increased capital gains taxes will be used to fund the program.
3. The writing of a new Basic Law that will include many political reforms (most notably the introduction of initiatives and referendums), including the revoking of the Neutrality Status for Ruthund.
4. Establishing Zdardrin as the ‘national religion’, demoting it from the official state religion.
5. Status quo on EU Federalization and the Great Armament
6. The building of closer relations with other EU members and increased Ruthenish participation in EU politics.
7. The passing of a set of laws mandating worker representation on corporate boards, encouragement of the growth of cooperatives, and the phasing out of traditional business models in favor of work cooperative models by 2035.
8. The exploration and experimentation of decentrally planned economies and AI planning.
9. Increased research funding into fusion energy. Reaffirm the commitment of carbon neutrality by 2055 by establishing this goal as law.
10. The relaxation of naturalization laws, allowing a standardized process for the naturalization of foreign born residents.

The Social Progressives, being a new party, had tense talks during the party conference as the two former parties battled out which policies from their former parties would receive priority. However one thing remained clear throughout the conference, the Social Progressives had every intention to govern and were willing to moderate their own policies to broaden their appeal.

[Wimaland]

Pre-debate polling shows Social Progressives is projected to make big gains

With the national debates soon taking place for each of the party leaders, polling shows that the left-wing Social Progressive Party is in a firm position to form a government later this month. Though a strong performance for the Social Progressives, this result comes as disappointing to some that hoped the WJF to win an absolute majority within the Thuidwethon. Their campaign has been largely successful however, from promising to break up the guild corporations, further democratizing Ruthund, and modernizing Ruthund's welfare system.

This is especially bad news however for Jan Nubaima, the ruling party in a caretaker coalition with the Social Progressives. Their sharp decline is largely believed to be due to the party collapse between the more left-leaning factions of the party, who were Pro-Eurofederalist and the more centre-right sections of the party who preferred to distance themselves from the European Union. the current Steward Lord Zgeirtan has appeared to sided more consistently with the centrist factions of the party since the failed neutrality motion earlier this year, thereby alienating many liberals within the party. Some of which, have chosen to support the Social Progressives in hopes that the new party will be more amicable to European integration. Others are supporting the Green Party (JRF) in a renewed effort for the next government to prioritize climate change.

NJL also hoped to gain support this election from their hard anti-EU stances, though toning down their calls to leave the European Union. In fact, NJL's campaign has been almost solely dedicated to European Union issues in relation to Ruthund's sovereignty, a shift from the previous priority of restoring the Monarchy or at least increasing the power of the Steward. However NJL's support has seemed to stagnate within urban areas and has not recovered to its level of support before the 2018 elections, where it suffered major losses to Jan Nubaima.