Batavian Empire general election, 2051

The 2051 general legislative election of the Batavian Empire took place on Monday 18 February 2051, the election date was confirmed by the Joint Election Committee (JEC) after the Emperor announced the dissolution of the previous House of Consuls that was elected in September 2050, just a few months earlier. It was the first election that was held by utilising multi-member constituencies, as the usage of proportional voting according to the Hamilton method was abolished. Under the fixed-term election, the election had not been due to 2055.

After coalition talks after the 2050 election had failed, the Speaker of the House encouraged the Emperor to call for an early election, effectively dissolving the unworkable parliament that was elected in 2050. Before the election, a grand-coalition was formed under the leadership of former Speaker Pro Tempore of the Senate, Lotte Grister, to push for necessary constitutional reform to make Batavian politics efficient again, focused on electoral- and justice reform. The grand coalition comprised 9 parties from all sides of the political spectrum, and enjoyed confidence & supply from a few more.

The elections resulted in a big win for the Loyalist Party, that took back control for the first time since the dismissal of Jonathan Montgomery in 2047. The low voter turnout, 12,5% less than the previous election, was the main contributor to the Loyalist electoral success. The Social-Democratic Party was the big loser of the election, as they were decimated and fell from 103 to 51 seats, allegedly being punished for their incapability of forming a coalition after their election win of a few months earlier.

Opinion polls had already shown that the SDP and USLD would be the big losers of the election, as they would also supposedly be hurt the most by the new electoral reform act. The USLD managed to regroup however, and enjoyed a small increase of 6 seats, but being nowhere close to their 113 seats before 2050. The Christian Democrats also managed to compensate their 30 seat loss of 2050, by gaining 28 seats. The NRU was a surprising winner, as they won their biggest share of seats since 2042. The African National Front got a similar share of the vote compared to a few months earlier, but lost 21 seats due to the electoral reform act (which they had firmly opposed). Big losers among the smaller parties were the Communist Worker Party, losing half of their seats and the Popular Party, also losing about three-quarters of their seats. The Independent Jewish Group managed to retain their 2 seats.

The grand coalition lost some confidence & supply partners and the CWP as a partner, but saw their seats increase, leading Prime-Minister Grister to her assumption she could finish her work. Due to this, the Speaker of the House announced after the elections that formation of a new coalition and the investiture vote of the new Prime-Minister would be postponed until July, to give the grand coalition government a chance to finish their judiciary reform. The Emperor declared in the Senate that he concurred with the decision of the Speaker of the House and assured the Senate he still had confidence in Prime-Minister Grister as the leader of his grand coalition government, stressing the important work she had done.

Aftermath of the 2050 election
The general election of September 2050, that took place due to an early dissolution of the House after the USLD-LP-CD-GPP election lost her majority after renegades, who were unhappy with Prime-Minister Kuyper's policy changes, were kicked out of the USLD caucus. The internal division led to a decimation of the Union of Social and Liberal Democrats that only managed to hold on to 55 of their 113 seats. The SDP profited of this loss by becoming the largest party with 103 seats, but the real profiter was the Coffin and his ANF, that saw an increase of about 60 seats. The SDP was unable to make a coalition with the Loyalist Party and allies, but simultaneously, the Loyalists did not have a majority with allied parties and lacked support in the Senate, where the turncoats had received a majority, to form a minority government. After two months of negotiating the country became increasingly unstable, as the demissionary cabinet was not able to find working majorities for their policy in the House anymore. Despite the ANF proposing a coalition government with the NRU, CWP and PP with confidence & supply from the SDP, the Speaker of the House, José Peter, decided to call upon the Emperor for a dissolution of the House, only months after its election, as he saw the chance of succeeding small. The House Speaker and the Emperor then called upon Lotte Grister, who had served for more than a decade as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Senate to form a grand coalition government, with ministers and state-secretaries from all parties to propose constitution reform to make the Batavian government more effective. Eventually, a government of only 9 of the 14 parties was formed, with the ANF and NRU refusing to cooperate with, as they called it 'a ridiculous scam to hand over control again to the Loyalists' and the SDP, IJG and RPP only offering confidence & supply, but not responsible ministers, on the basis that they would wait and see what this new grand coalition structure would have to offer. Lotte Grister was elected and appointed Prime-Minister on November 11, 2050

2051 Electoral Reform Act
Justice Secretary Woudenhart got the task to, in cooperation with Consuls and Senators, draft and propose a constitutional amendment for electoral reform. The main task was to implement a voting method that would result in an effective House and government, as it was clear the proportional representation according to the Hamilton method made the county's government not as effective as it should be and the formation process too difficult. The Emperor announced in Question's Time in the Senate that he would not support a first-past-the-post plurality system, leaving his possible veto on the table. A plan from to implement a first-past-the-post majoritarian system for the current Consulate or a 1000-seat Consulate received drawback from Senators, on the grounds that Senators and Consuls should have a different election method.

Minister Woudenhart and Prime-Minister Grister continually stated that they wanted an electoral reform act that could count on the support of all governing parties and supply partners and presented the Electoral Reform Act of 2051 to the House 7th of January. The 2051 Electoral Reform Act included: The plan was received positively by parties and media, due to the promotion of regional equality the introduction of constituencies would bring to the House of Consuls. The ANF opposed the system on the basis that the departments of Nigeria, Lower-Egypt, Sudan and Goldcoast were entitled to many more seats than allocated and were discriminated in favour of smaller departments. The Leader of the Opposition, Consul Samual Coffin, as well as the Senator for Goldcoast, accused Prime-Minister Grister of a form of new election gerrymandering for a positive outcome for loyal parties.
 * The repeal of the open-list proportional representation according to the Hamilton method as outlined in the Batavian Constitution and replacement by the d'Hondt method.
 * The introduction of 115 multi-member constituencies: one for each department and one for the Imperial City of Amsterdam.
 * An equal distribution of seats across departments with the use of 111 multi-member constituencies and 4 sole-member constituencies, the latter elected via a first-past-the-post plurality.

Despite the critics. the Electoral Reform Act was passed by the House with full support from the governing parties, except from 5 renegades of the USLD and 39 consuls of the grand coalition's main supply partner, the SDP. The NRU abstained in the vote, leaving the ANF and PrPI the only parties fully voting against. As a consequence, the amendment received the required supermajority of more than 334 votes and was later adopted by the Senate with 88-26 and signed into law by the Emperor.

Campaign
Although the election date was known quiet early after the last election, due to the failure to make a coalition, most parties only started their campaign after the adoption of the Electoral Reform Act. As the 2051 election was the first general election to be held in multi-member constituencies, parties spend much more time in certain departments, leaving others totally unvisited. The Social-Democratic Party mostly chose to campaign in the bigger cities, formally launching their campaign in Khartum in the Department of Sudan. The focus of the SDP was clearly on the African departments, hoping to take seats away from the African National Front, especially due to the high poverty rates in those departments. In European departments the SDP seemed to have lost their momentum, receiving a lot of drawback after their failed coalition talks a few months before.

The Loyalist Party elected the Senator from West-Aragon, Mr. Sánchez as their party leader, after Deputy Prime-Minister Sam Bogart announced his resignation with an overwhelming majority in Luxembourg. The Loyalist Party mostly focused on European departments as they were expected to largely benefit from the new multi-member constituency system. The campaigns of the Christian Democrats, Right-Wing Conservatives and Roman Moderate Order followed largely the same pattern, laying a heavy focus on the constituency based voting.

The ANF only campaigned in African departments, and mostly in the Department of Nigeria (containing a big prize of 48 seats), whilst the NRU has a similar strategy, investing most of their campaign money in departments in the Middle-East and North-Africa. Other smaller parties mostly kept focusing on the country as a whole, not sure where to start their constituency-aimed campaigns. For some parties, including the RLOF and RPP, this approach changed as the election approached. The IJG invested 97% of their entire budget in the Department of Israel, trying to sway in a second or possible third seat in the House of Consuls, something that hadn't yet happened so far.

Results
''*The NDP was temporarily suspended from the joint coalition of the GPP after its leader refused to comment on the legitimacy of the Batavian presence in North-American Departments. It was too late to remove the NDP's candidates in Labrador, Nefoundland and Nova Scotia. None of these candidates were elected however.''

Postponement of the investiture
After the decisive victory of the Loyalist Party under the campaign of Sánchez, it was clear that once again, a Loyalist government would be formed. However, in consultation with the incumbent Speaker of the House and the Emperor, the investiture of the Prime-Minister was postponed until July 2051, to allow the grand coalition and Prime-Minister Grister to finish the legal reform of the Empire. This move sparked heavy criticism from the opposition, stating the Loyalist Party was scared to take responsibility after their win. Subsequently, the Communist Worker Party withdrew from the government and its minister and state-secretary resigned, whereas the Reformatory Protestant Party terminated their confidence & supply agreement. The Popular Party, although under pressure to withdraw decided to keep serving in the government, after the post of the resigned CWP minister was offered to them. A few days later, the Social Democratic Party, having lost half of their seats, which had been the main confidence & supply partner of the grand coalition declared their desire to terminate their agreement, stating it had received the message of the electorate loud and clear. Despite the withdrawal of these parties however, Prime-Minister Grister's Grand Coalition government could still rely on a comfortable supermajority of 344 seats (previously 367 seats). Leader of the Opposition, Coffin, accordingly announced not to call for a motion of no-confidence, stating the chance of succeeding nihil.

Passage of the 2051 Legal Reform Act in the House
The Legal Reform Act was put forward to the House of Consuls in April 2051 by Justice Minister Tim Woezik (USLD). The Legal Reform Act was supposed to give more parliamentary control in the appointment of High Court justices, limiting the role of the Council of States-General. High Court Justices would, according to the Constitutional Amendment be nominated by the Emperor on advice of the Justice Minister (used to be Prime-Minister) and agreed on by an absolute majority in the House of Consuls and an absolute majority in the Senate and then confirmed by the States General (which used to be the other way around). The Assembly of Departments (with all the deputies) would from now on be excluded from the process.

It was especially the exclusion of the Assembly of Departments that led to fierce opposition from the African National Front and the New Republican Union, both pledging to vote against the amendment in the plenary debates during the end of April. 2 May the Constitutional Amendment of the 2051 Legal Reform Act was passed in House by 342 to 158.

Passage of the bi-annual budget
Prime-Minister Grister announced that a bi-annual budget would be proposed in the place of the usual annual one, in order to stress the fact that she was leading a caretaker government. The composition of the bi-annual was hard, due to the vastly different economic views within the Grand Coalition, and as such, most appropriation stayed the same as before and only minor alterations were made. Unsurprisingly, the budget passed in the House with 344 votes to 156 and in the Senate with 98 to 14 (re-iterating the Lower House dominance on budgetary affairs). The Empire gave his assent to the budget, praising the stability of the Grand Coalition.

Passage of the 2051 Legal Reform Act in the Senate
The Senate hurdle was much harder fo the Legal Reform Act than the House had been. Drawback on scrapping the role for the Assembly of Departments in the House led to votes on a number of amendments to try and re-instate or reformulate the role of devolved assemblies into the judiciary. Prime-Minister Lotte Grister joined Justice Minister Woezik in the defence of the Constitutional Amendment, but the government also required the Emperor to veto an amendment on an 'advisory role of the Assembly of Departments' on justice nominations, which would otherwise have passed, using as justification for the veto the infringement of executive and imperial power by devolved assemblies, which would set a dangerous principle. The Reform Act past in the Senate with a slim supermajority of 77 votes in favour and 36 votes against.

The Constitutional Amendment of the 2051 Legal Reform Act was signed into law by the Emperor on the 1 June 2051, paving the way for the investiture of a new Prime-Minister, given that Prime-Minister Grister announced her intention to resign the moment the House had invested a new Informator Consulati, preferably as soon as possible to "honour the decision of the Batavian electorate properly".

Investiture and Confidence Votes
The investiture date was set for the 5th of July. The Leader of the House and President of the Loyalist Party, Consul Carlos Sánchez and the (acting) Leader of the Opposition, Consul Samual Coffin were nominated for the investiture. The Speaker of the House scheduled the investiture attempt of Sánchez first in the morning and, if inconclusive, the investiture attempt of the Leader of the Opposition would follow later in the afternoon.

Investiture
The investiture of Carlos Sánchez was successful, given that he was able to command a 260-seat majority in the House of Consuls. As such, he was elected Informator Consulati  (Prime-Minister-Elect), invested with the task to inform the Emperor of the desire of the Consulate. He was sworn in as Prime-Minister by the Emperor later that afternoon. Given the successful investiture of Carlos Sánchez, the investiture attempt of the Leader of the Opposition, Samual Coffin, was accordingly cancelled by the Speaker.

Leridagate and resignation of Prime-Minister Sánchez
In November 2051, Prime-Minister Sánchez, just a few months into his term and still in his 'honeymoon period' had to deal with the handover of the city of Lerida from the Neo Roman Empire to the Batavian Empire. Whilst the (unusual) handover of Roman-Italian territory to the Batavian Empire was claimed to happen due to the difficulty Italy had with administering the border city without natural borders and wanted to end the continuous smuggle across the Roman-Batavian border in Aragon, media managed to report in December that Prime-Minister Sánchez had had dealings with the Mayor of East-Lleida and had sorted the issue in a personal family interest, receiving Italian funds through masked accounts. The scandal was widely known as the 'Leridagate'.

The Leridagate became even more scandalous when there was uncertainty over the fact whether a spy network had been set up in the now Batavian part of the city, hosting hundreds of Roman-Italian spies that would spread into the Empire unnoticed, reporting back to the Italians. This led to extreme tensions between Amsterdam and Rome and reinforced the idea that the Prime-Minister had not only enriched his family, but also jeopardised the security of the Empire. Civil unrest erupted across the Empire and with Italian forces in state of preparedness at the borders, the Emperor declared a state of emergency. Prime-Minister Sánchez, who was under immense pressure, decided to temporarily step down as active Prime-Minister until further notice and Deputy Prime-Minister Wessel Castlehill took charge. With the House of Consuls not sitting, due to the State of Emergency, a vote of no-confidence to force Prime-Minister Sánchez or the entire government out of office could not take place, despite calls from Leader of the Opposition.

Because the government wished to delay regional elections and Senate cycle elections until the State of Emergency would be lifted, the House of Consuls and the Senate were granted special leave to sit by the crown to discuss the necessary legislation for this delay after all. Unsurprisingly, the Speaker of the House granted leave to the Leader of the Opposition to file a motion of no confidence against the entire cabinet and a motion from the Leader of the Social Democratic Party as well, stating no confidence in the Prime-Minister. Neither of the motions passed, although the motion of no-confidence against the Prime-Minister was defeated by just 245-242.

In the days that followed however, Prime-Minister Sánchez was invited to Penryn Castle, the Emperor's secondary residence, and announced the 5th of March that he would resign the office of Prime-Minister effective immediately, with Wessel Castlehill acting as caretaker Prime-Minister until a new Prime-Minister was invested. This announcement coincided with a lengthening of the State of Emergency for another three months, although this would only be one month in reality.

Opinion polling for the next general election
All opinion polling in the Batavian Empire is conducted by IBBU/Ipsos polling.

Possible coalitions
Current : LP, CD, RMO, RWC & RLOF; Loyal-Centrist Plus : LP, USLD, CD, GPP; Afro-Socialist : SSFF, SDP, RPP; Afro-Socialist Plus : SSFF, SDP, RPP, GPP