News:Mursland

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Mursland Provincial Elections Next Week
A compressed overview of the elections and what you need to know about it.  Thursday, 4 February 2021 - 18:11 / Updated 7 February 2021 - 9:43 day ago This article is an Anglic translation from Mursian; if you want to view the original, click on the small flags in the top-toolbar to change the language.

Brixivo, Mursland - As the advertisement campaigns near their end, the people turn their heads to see what the ballots shall say. And, while the people start their slow shuffle towards the bin, we look back on a month of heated campaigning of parties both new and old.

What is this election about? Mursland is the odd ball of the democratic nations; it has, what some experts jokingly say, a minus-one chamber parliament. The unicameral parliament, called the Province-Room, is in fact the collection of all the representatives of all its substates (Duurzhavi, or province in Anglic). So, as one votes next week, he will determine both his representative in his substate, as well as his representative on national level. As a result, national parties can sometimes be split on a provincial level. This can range from the provincial party deviating from the ones in other provinces, to having multiple parties in each substate be part of the same national party, to even loose candidates campaigning for themselves. Some people even opt to be unaligned on a national level, working as an independent member of parliament.

The Province-Room is elected every four years by popular vote, the coming is from 12 to 14 February. Beside this election, there is also the election of the State President, which also happens every four years. However, it is constitutionally determined that the so-called 'state election' is held two years after the 'provincial election' (given normal circumstances); the State-president presides over the Council of Ministers, which is the executive branch of the Murslandic government. Mursland also has a king, Martin II, who handles the negotiations for assigning ministers and is the only one who can appoint these, and has to co-sign every law made by the Province-Room (with exception of constitution laws, which has a separate process). Although the king takes these functions seriously, he generally refrains from exerting his power, as he of course has to have justification to the public to reject laws and ministers.

Who are the big players? Mursian political parties can be hard to explain, so for simplicities sake we will keep mostly to the national politics. Mursland is dominated by three parties: the National Front, the Liberal Confederate Provinces, and the Managing Ourselves. The first is a nationalist and the conservative party, and current ruling party; for national politics, it aims to be pragmatic as to focus on provincial issues as well. The LCP is the liberal party of Mursland, and is the leader of the opposition; compared to the NF, it holds more control on its provincial policies, and its aim is to reform the political system. The last party is an union of various provincial parties; it is a devolutionist party and aims to pull more power to the provinces and, ultimately, turn the state back to an actual confederation. Beside these parties, there is the socialist New Red, environmentalist Live!CFM, and the republican Anti-Royale.

Different from previous elections is a split in the National Front which has spawned the Traditional and Loyal party, a rightwing nationalist party who wants to undo certain recent reforms and rides a wave of populism in the large cities of Mursland. Its leader, Tir Simeonou has said he will also run in the elections for State President, and if it were up to him he 'will dispose of [State President Iona Cattiou-Satinnacis] immediately'. Simeonou has made several insulting remarks during his campaign towards Cattiou-Satinnacis and Barxians, calling them lazy and underdeveloped. A group representing the Barxian people has attempted to sue Simeonou, but failed as he managed to defend himself on government statistics of the Barxian Protectorate. Polling agencies are unsure how large the TL party will be, with estimates ranging from 3 to 37 of the 208 seats. Whatever the result will be, it will definitely form a blow to NF, who has seen several of its candidates resign past year as a result of a scandal about health benefits.

The polls Below you can find a table of the estimated results of the three largest Mursian polling stations from past week.

In all scenarios it appears that the Liberal Confederate Provinces will come out the largest. It is likely that the National Front will decrease below 40 seats, although were the seats will go differs between polling stations; they will mostly go to new (split-off) parties, or to the left wing. Live! will likely follow its trend of growing slow but steadily. Both Managing Ourselves and New Red fluctuate heavily in whether they will grow or decline. Anti-Royale will keep its course from the past decades and stay in its minor role. It is expected that the unalligned and small party fraction will increase this election.

For now, it is still uncertain what the exact result will be with wildcard TL, so keep up to date with the Murslandic elections by subscribing to VEST, your news from Mursland in an orderly manner! Get access to all online articles for only 50 Pette per month, or get a year subscription for only 500 Pette!