Batavian Empire general election, 2051

The 2051 general legislative election of the Batavian Empire took place on Monday 18 June 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 dismisal 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 enjoy 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 replace it 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 multi-member constituencies, varying for sole seats for Falklands, Labrador, Dutch-Atlantic and Bermuda and 48 seats for Nigeria.

Despite the critics. the Electoral Reform Act was passed by the House with full support from the governing parties, except 15 renegades from the USLD and about half of the SDP. The NRU abstained in the vote, leaving the ANF the only party that fully voted against. As a consequence, the amendment received the required supermajority and was later adopted by the Senate with 88-26 and signed into law by the Emperor.