2455 Empherias general election

2455 Empherias general election

May 15, 2455 (2455-05-15)
All 600 seats to the House of Parliament 301 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	85.09% ( 0.09)
First party Second party   Leader Sofia Hopkins James Chester Party PSP Liberals Leader since 21 December 2447 22 March 2455 Last election 233 seats 131 seats Seats won 360 144 Seat change 167 13 Popular vote 21,189,582 58.94% 8,505,126 23.66% Swing 20.70 pp 2.15 pp
Prime Minister before election Sofia Hopkins People's Socialist Party of Empherias Elected Prime Minister Sofia Hopkins People's Socialist Party of Empherias

The 2455 Empherias general election was held on 15 May 2455 to elect 600 members to the Empherias parliament. Despite taking place less than 2 years after the previous, it saw a significant shift in the political landscape of the country. Some scholars label the Hopkins premiership as a de facto one party state due to a lot of policy decisions and ideological struggles taking place within the People's Socialist Party itself– in the People's Assembly. The actual percent changes of the liberal and combined socialist parties were both around 2 percentage points each, which was very little, but the overwhelming result of nearly 60% for the PSP was hugely significant in consolidating cultural power to the party and Sofia Hopkins as prime minister. The methods of campaigning changed, and leaders themselves and their personalities were prioritised. Furthermore, the election signalled a major strength of minority parties to shift major political party focuses, with the adoption of green policies by the PSP, and the failure to catch right-wing nationalists by the Liberals.

Lukas Knight, the Leader of the Alaxian Socialists (Labour) party, would become deputy prime minister following the previous election as determined by the electoral pact. With his main goal of achieving unification achieved, and that goal being embraced by both the PSP and the Liberals, there was no real aim for his splinter party anymore. They began to fall heavily in the polls, and Knight didn't want to sabotage the left wing's electability with any stunts or further infighting. After negotiations with Hopkins, he agreed to dissolve the Labour party on 1 June 2454 and reintegrate all Labour MPs into the PSP, remaining deputy PM.

Sofia Hopkins had unveiled her plans for government in October 2453, but would hold a new speech in July 2454 to reiterate her objectives and update the nation on their progress. In January 2454, she announced the construction of a new nuclear power plant and a renewed focus on green energies over the 2450s. Her main priority was the creation of new public transport links which gave her a lot of new votes in rural areas and city suburbs who received or were promised new links to come. Senior Labour member Sian Bowen became key to strategy and became a prominent minister.

The election was called in 2455 because of good polling, a want to reaffirm the mandate of the people after the merging of the parties, and the election of a new Liberal leader in March, and new Nationalist the previous October.

The results saw the People's Socialist Party win 360 seats– a majority of 118– a technical increase of 127 seats, but only 8 seats higher than the PSP–Lab coalition held in the previous parliament. The PSP's vote share was the highest in history so far, the first time a single political party won over 20 million votes, beating the previous record of 15 million set ten years prior by the PSP under Katelyn Roberts in 2445. The Liberals under new leader James Chester won 144 seats, their second worst result since becoming a major party in 2423– only beaten by their result in the previous election in 2453, where they won 13 seats fewer.

All other parties lost vote share, with Alliance overtaking the Greens to become the fourth largest party. This was due to the Greens losing nearly half of their vote share and seat count, presumably because the PSP had adopted a green energy agenda themselves. The Greens failed to reach a million voters. Alliance actually lost 0.3pp and 2 seats, but still celebrated the win. The Nationalists achieved their fourth highest result ever, but still dropping 0.8pp and 7 seats from the previous election.

Sofia Hopkins was re-elected prime minister to her third term.

General Election

Results

Party			Leader	Popular vote	Pc	+/–	Seats
	People's Socialist Party	PSP	Sofia Hopkins	21,189,582	58.94%	+20.70	360 / 600	127
	Liberal Party	LP	James Chester	8,505,126	23.66%	+2.15	144 / 600	13
	Nationalist Party	NAT	James Marceline	3,318,224	9.23%	–0.84	56 / 600	7
	Alliance Party	ALL	Willems Lockhart	1,158,223	3.22%	–0.29	19 / 600	2
	Green Party	GRN	Alistair C. Jones	892,185	2.48%	–2.34	15 / 600	14
	Conservative Party	CON	Agnes Watts	332,105	0.92%	–0.04	5 / 600
	Anchor Party	ANC	Gat Veleker	93,102	0.26%	–0.03	1 / 600
	Bokanist Values Party	BVP	—	42,125	0.12%	–0.01	0 / 600
Blank, invalid, and other parties below 10,000				418,295	1.16%	+0.29	n/a
Total and swing				35,948,967	100%	+11.43	—

Turnout

Type	Population	%
Population	51,547,272	100%
Eligible to vote	42,247,261	81.96%
Turnout	35,948,967	85.09%