Empherias Provisional Election of 2495

The 2499 Empherias provisional election was held on 2 September 2499, to elect 600 members to the Empherian House of Parliament. The Socialists, led by Lucy King, won it's fourth consecutive victory after their victory in the 2487, 2491 and 2495 elections. This was the second worst showing of the Socialists since their return to government in 2487, but the worst of King's.

Lucy King was returned as Prime Minister, with the Socialists having 296 seats. No party won a majority of seats causing the incumbent to form a minority government. Early night results mistakenly believed that a Liberal-Nationalist coalition government could take place (with a forecast 303 seats combined) but this became less clear throughout the night. The Liberals returned 264 seats, with 52 more seats than they had won at the previous provisional election. The Nationalists returned just 25 seats, having lost nearly double that number of seats, 48, during their terrible election night. Smaller fringe parties like the Conservatives, Centrists (DECP) and Greens (GESLP) returned six, four, and two seats respectively.

The election was mostly seen as a continuation of the status quo with the incumbent party having the tiniest change in seats, alongside with no major changes in the fringe party support. The largest swing was the huge switch of support from the Nationalists (under newly elected leader Pippin Pierre) to the Liberals (who continued under the leadership of William Turner). Political experts believe this is due to William Turner's better preparedness for an election (having been in power for less than a year at the previous election); having a longer time to settle in with voters; and being marred less by the impact of his predecessor, Jack Bastion.

Following the election, Lucy King announced that this would be her last term serving as Prime Minister, hoping to hold leadership elections early in the new millennium. William Turner conceded defeat but announced that his vast gains at the election were just pulling the party one step closer to winning and that he would remain in the position of leader and fight in the next provisional election. The constitution situates that the next election is to be held 5 years after the previous at maximum (3 September 2504) but many political experts believe that an early election may be called in 2503 following the tradition of the last four elections to be held after only four years. Pippin Pierre, who had only been Nationalist party leader since 25 February 2497, announced his resignation due to the terrible defeat of his party. He is to stay in power until a leadership election takes place in March 2500.