Collaborative World Presidents 2

[Platypus]

Take two: elections are now every three years, and following the first election in 1920, there are three important qualifications: No President can serve more than two terms; no candidates from the same region as the current President are eligible, and the Vice-President must be from a different continent to the President. The regions are: North America and the Caribbean; South and Central America; Sub-Saharan Africa; North Africa and the Middle East; Western and Central Europe; Eastern Europe and Central Asia; South and Southeast Asia; Northeast Asia; Australia and Oceania; and Antarctica.

Approximate map; regions are separated by the red lines, blue lines show which two regions are joined together to form 'continents':



The World Presidency starts in 1920, with the full elections to take place in 1923.

Current Officeholders:
1920: Arthur Balfour GBR/Louis Barthou FRA

Existing Parties at 1923:
Democratic Conservative Coalition
Union of Socialist Democrats
International Christian Union
Liberal Alliance
Non-Colonial Association
Independent Nations Association
United Comrades in Communist Progression
Moslem League
Association for the Advancement of Humanity

The election of 1923 is a difficult and exciting contest, with the first President of the World, Arthur Balfour of Great Britain, agreeing not to run and ensuring that the first elected President will not be Western European. The nine largest parties each backed a candidate, agreeing that to run for President a candidate must have at least 20% support in the world Parliament, an otherwise rather unimportant body located on the International Island of Peace and functionary Capital of the world, Jersey, to got to the ballot, and that he must choose his Vice-President from those candidates that were nominated but unsuccessful.

The candidates in 1923 were:

*Hipolito Yrigoyen of Argentina, representing the Independent Nations Association and supported by the Non-Colonial Association and the Union of Socialist Democrats.

*William Massey of New Zealand, representing the Democratic Conservative Coalition and supported by the International Christian Union.

*Woodrow Wilson of the United States, representing the Liberal Alliance and supported by the Association for the Advancement of Humanity.

Other applicants, from the UCCP and Moslem League failed to meet the 20% requirements for candidature.

Wilson was widely seen as the favourite, but ill-health and a strong desire to turn away from the past war lessened his vote enough for Yrigoyen of Argentina to be elected, and due to the continent rule he had no choice but to select Massey as his Vice-President. It would not a happy term for those who wanted more centralised power.

Former Officeholders:
1920: Arthur Balfour GBR/Louis Barthou FRA

Current Officeholders:
Hipolito Yrigoyen, ARG and William Massey, NZL

[Platypus]

The 1926 Election is a rather heated affair, with four candidates qualifying for the vote:

*Hipolito Yrigoyen of Argentina, representing the Independent Nations Association,and supported by the Non-Colonial Association and the Union of Socialist Democrats.

*Alexei Rykov of the Soviet Union, representing the United Comrades in Communist Progression.

*William Massey of New Zealand, representing the Democratic Conservative Coalition, and supported by the Association for the Advancement of Humanity.

*Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg of Finland, representing the Liberal Alliance and the International Christian Union[/i].

The Moslem League declined to support any candidate and did not field their own.

Rykov had just barely scraped enough support in Jersey to be nominated, and was not a significant threat to win the Presidency, but did steal some votes from Yrigoyen, who had been moderately unpopular as President, basically ignoring the institutions of the Collaborative Government other than his own position. Massey was his biggest critic and found significant support in Europe, but lost narrowly to the Liberal Finnish President, who offered Massey an extension on his term as Vice-President, which was accepted. (Note: In this timeline, he never got ill in New Zealand so he didn't die until, let's say...1932).

Former Officeholders:
1920: Arthur Balfour GBR/Louis Barthou FRA
1923: Hipolito Yrigoyen ARG/William Massey NZL

Current Officeholders:
1926: Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg FIN/William Massey NZL

[Platypus]

Stahlberg is a much more active President than Yrigoyen, but fails to be truly popular. The election is held narrowly before the depression hits, and the mood throughout the west is decidedly rosy. The rest of the world is starting to get a bit more heated, though, particularly in the far east.

Three candidates qualified vote the vote, with Maxim Litvinov of the USSR narrowly missing the cutoff, but only ran because the UCCP didn't support any of the alternatives. He would have been ineligible to stand anyway, due to being from the same continent as the serving President.

*Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg of Finland, representing the Liberal Alliance and the International Christian Union.

*William Lyon MacKenzie King of Canada, representing the Union of Socialist Democrats and the Association for the Advancement of Humanity.

*Jose Maria Orellana of Guatemala, representing the Independent Nations Association and the Non-Colonial Association, and offered lukewarm support by the Moslem League in solidarity with the NCA.

The Democratic Conservative Union was ununited, with two candidates getting support for the nomination. Massey missed the cutoff by a small margin, and Calvin Coolidge of the USA failed to garner much support within the party room, but did get enough to deny the previously highly sucessful party a candidate.

The vote was reasonably tight between Mackenzie King and Stahlberg, but a promise from King to serve only one term and push for a non-European candidate from the left won him support in Asia. The European nations split strongly in favour of Stahlberg, and Orellana gain support in much of Latin America, but Mackenzie King scraped over the line with the support of the British empire, the east, and a last minute vote surge from the USSR and USA.

He was compelled by the rules to offer the Vice-Presidency to Stahlberg, who refused, causing a minor constitutional crisis. The constitution was amended to allow the VP to be picked from any of those who had been nominated, even if they had failed to meet the cutoff to head to the election, and King selected Litvinov.

Former Officeholders:
1920: Arthur Balfour, GBR/Louis Barthou, FRA
1923: Hipolito Yrigoyen, ARG/William Massey, NZL
1926: Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg, FIN/William Massey, NZL

Current Officeholders:
1929: William Lyon MacKenzie King, CAN/Maxim Litvinov, SOV

[Platypus]

Now we're up to 1932, surely an interesting year for people to sink their teeth in to, especially because Europeans are eligble, and MacKenzie King won't be running...or will he?