Into the Unknown - Fictional Election Series (Master Thread)

[Kamala]

[Author's Note: So I was inspired by Lumine's Iron Lady series, but I felt that it would be fun to do with a fictional nation. I didn't want to be constrained by reality all that much. I whipped up a basic map in like 10 minutes, so if anyone wants to collaborate and make a flag, city names, better map, whatever, I would be honored.

I'll be using photos of real-life politicians to represent fictional ones - there's no correlation in their political beliefs or histories.]

Into the Unknown: The Story of Lamarna
August 19th, 1977

Chairwoman of the Transitional Government Nellie Hedrock announces her retirement


(Basic) Map of Lamarna

[From Encyclop?dia Brittanica] Lamarna is a island nation in the North Pacific, consisting of a chain of  17 major islands and thousands of minor islands. Originally settled by Polynesians in tenth century CE, the islands were colonized by Germany and Great Britain in the nineteenth century. After WWI, Great Britain administered the entire chain. During WWII, the islands were under Japanese occupation, but were liberated by the Americans in 1943. After World War II, the islands were granted independence, and in a referendum, chose to become a republic and leave the Commonwealth. Elections were held in 1946, but British Navy admiral Harrison Blakelee installed himself as President in a coup. For the next nearly 30 years, Blakelee ruled the islands, modernizing the economy but severely clamping down on political and civil rights, especially aggressive towards the native Mālno population. Blakelee maintained a policy of nonalignment in the Cold War.

In 1974, mass protests around the country, led by Lamarna National University professor Nellie Hedrock, labor representative Edwin Cunningham, Mālno chieftain Tanno Lalle?, and farmer leader Joseph Illydwin, overthrew Blakelee in a (relatively) bloodless coup. By January 30th, 1975, all elements of the Blakelee government were purged and the Transitional Government was established, with Hedrock at the helm.

The Lamarna archipelago is approximately in size of the South Island of New Zealand, and can be split into two areas: the North Islands and the South Islands. The North Islands are more densely populated, more industrial, and contain the capital of Alberton [the yellow dot]. The South Islands are more agricultural and contain a larger population of native Mālno.  [end of excerpt.]

Blue dots represent towns with population greater than 75,000. Overall, the islands contain a population of three million, approximately five hundred thousand of whom are full or majority Mālno, and a further three hundred thousand of minority Mālno descent. The islands are approximately 1100 miles west-northwest of the Hawaiian islands.


In her address on August 19th, Chairwoman Hedrock announced that the Transitional Government has finished its work and free elections are to be held in December of the same year. These are the first free elections to be held in thirty years.

Hedrock, a well-respected government and political science professor, also announced she would not be seeking any political office after the end of her service on the Transitional Government. She stated she would be returning to teach at Lamarna National University.

The Transnational Government wrote the new constitution, in which a proportional, single-chambered parliamentary democracy would be established, with a figurehead President to grant party leaders mandates to form governments and perform other ceremonial tasks. Chieftain Tanno was elected as the first President in a nationwide referendum. He will serve a five year term, limitlessly renewable.

The government would be formed from the 129-member Legislative Council. Parliamentary elections will be held every four years, and a party needs to pass the threshold of 3% to win seats.

Chairmen of the Transnational Government
Nellie Hedrock (Independent) 1975-1977

Presidents of Lamarna
1. Tanno Lalle? 1976-1988*
2. Andrew Bellson 1988-1990 (acting)
3. Yanne Hepburn 1988-

Prime Ministers of Lamarna
1. Clement Burdiss (Labor-Progressive Coalition) 1977-1981
2. Penny Praxbee (Progressive-Justice-Liberal Coalition) 1981-1985
3. Andrew Bellson (Liberal-Progressive-Social Democrat Coalition) 1985-1987
    (Liberal-Progressive-People's Coalition with Social Democrat confidence) 1987-1991
    

* died in office

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Very interesting, I love world building~

Are most citizens ethnically German, British, Mālno? What languages are official/spoken?

[Kamala]

Very interesting, I love world building~

Are most citizens ethnically German, British, Mālno? What languages are official/spoken?

Most citizens are descendants of British colonists, and most of the German-descended people were forced into changing their last names and restricted from speaking German during the Blakelee regime.

English is the official language, and Mālno was recognized as a national language during the Transitional Government.

I'd say it's about

~17% Mālno
~7% Anglo-Mālno
~3% German-Mālno
~55% British
~18% German

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I am interested in designing a flag for you.

[Kamala]

I am interested in designing a flag for you.

You can PM me. Or maybe.. there could be a national referendum like New Zealand!

Tim (and anyone else interested), you can either message me or just post your flags on this master thread.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I am interested in designing a flag for you.

You can PM me. Or maybe.. there could be a national referendum like New Zealand!

Tim (and anyone else interested), you can either message me or just post your flags on this master thread.

I have two flag designs already.
How many do you need?

[Kamala]

I am interested in designing a flag for you.

You can PM me. Or maybe.. there could be a national referendum like New Zealand!

Tim (and anyone else interested), you can either message me or just post your flags on this master thread.

I have two flag designs already.
How many do you need?

I think 2 is good.  If others want to submit they can as well, so don't feel pressured to do any more. You're already doing me a huge favor by doing this.

[America Needs R'hllor]

This looks really good, well done!

[Kamala]

This looks really good, well done!

Thank you!


So here's a little opportunity for people to make an impact on the game: naming cities! First come, first serve - just please make sure the name is at least semi-realistic and not sophomoric. Select a city and go wild.



1. 88,000. Old coal mining town, with a decent amount of metal and heavy industry. - Karlsburg
2. 78,000. Relatively new town, with a strong tourist industry.  - Keln's Harbor
3. 93,000. Oldest city in Lamarna, former capital, with minor industrial development. Iron mining town. Home of a university. -Brennanhaven
4. 83,000. Fishing town, minor port,  - Neukiel
5. 97,000. Home of the nationalized arms industry. - Blacksburg
6. 79,000. Fishing town. - Hamilton
7. 80,000. Largest Mālno-majority city. Fishing-industry based, home of a university. - Mana'eā
8. 104,000. City with a small port, entrepôt for vineyards on the island. Cultural capital, home of a university. - Artlenton
9. 75,000. Major meatpacking and cannery industry. Located centrally near most farms and ranches. - Marswick
10. 120,000. Large port town, major shipbuilding center. Home of a university. - Arcadia
11. 165,000. Working-class suburb, with a large amount of steel industry. Major transit center. - Morganville
12. 95,000. Bourgeois suburb, former home of Blakelee's presidential palace complex. Commuter suburbs.  - Sunderland

[Cactus Jack]

Because I have to acknowledge my ego occasionally, I would like to propose the name Morganville in honor of my surname and all of my Scottish family and ancestors.

Also, as a political fiction groupie, I love this timeline already. Excellent work, Comrade.

[Kamala]

Because I have to acknowledge my ego occasionally, I would like to propose the name Morganville in honor of my surname and all of my Scottish family and ancestors.

Also, as a political fiction groupie, I love this timeline already. Excellent work, Comrade.

Thank you!

Which of the cities would you like to be named Morganville? (a fine name, may I add)

[Cactus Jack]

Because I have to acknowledge my ego occasionally, I would like to propose the name Morganville in honor of my surname and all of my Scottish family and ancestors.

Also, as a political fiction groupie, I love this timeline already. Excellent work, Comrade.

Thank you!

Which of the cities would you like to be named Morganville? (a fine name, may I add)

Let's go with #11, with its blue-collar steelworkers.

[White Trash]

How about Marswick for #9? A good English name.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

1. Vicarstown
2. Prosperity Harbor
3. Brennanhaven
4. New Kiel
5. Port Elizabeth
6. Hamilton
7. Caine City
8. Artlenton
10. Heinzburg
12. Sunderland

[MAINEiac4434]

1. Karlsburg
2. Freeport
3. Portland
4. New Hanover
5. Schwarzburg
6. Manchester
7. Mana’ea
8. Driesville
9. Rotstadt
10. Milner
12. Spellman

[Kamala]

Maineaic and Tim, pick your favorite one. No need to exhaust yourselves with an entire list!

[Kamala]

1977 Parliamentary Elections:


Labor declares victory in first democratic elections in Lamarna

Labor - 31.2% (41 Seats)
Progressive - 26.0% (34 Seats)
Civic Platform - 18.1% (24 Seats)
Justice - 10.6% (14 Seats)
Union - 7.4% (9 Seats)
Ta' Lāmla - 5.3% (7 Seats)
Perspective - 1.6% (0 Seats)

Despite not having engaged in elections for three decades, both party leaders and the Lamarnan people proved to have strong democratic tendencies. The election was marked by genuine amity between all parties, despite ideological differences, and high turnout, with nearly 95% of registered voters showing up at the polls, approximately 88% of the voting-age population.

Some parties had strong success; others fell short of their goals. Ta' Lāmla was slightly above the threshold, despite party leader Jacob Onamlee hoping for a stronger performance among the Mālno - with an absolute ceiling of 25-27%. Their performance of 5.3% meant Ta' Lāmla received only a third of full Mālno citizens, and approximately a fifth of voters with Mālno heritage. Onamlee remains leader, but the party is prepared to make some changes to better appeal to their base.

Perspective's Camille Kennedy proved to be a poor campaigner, with the party having no obvious voter base. Perspective failed to make the threshold, and while Kennedy will remain on as leader, the party's future was on the precipice. Party activists secretly believed that Kennedy's gaffes during the debate, stating that she would not hesitate to go to war with the United States if the USSR did, hurt the party's chances and perhaps doomed it forever.

Union performed rather weakly - of course, in the North Islands they expected only minimal support - but many of the South Islands' farmers, Union's intended base, ended up supporting Labor and Justice over Union. South Islands urbanites, from cities such as Marswick, even ended up supporting the Progressive Party - an embarrassment to Ned Lincoln.

After a spirited campaign by all parties, President Tanno granted Clement Burdiss the mandate to form a government. Labor needed 24 additional seats to form a government, and had several options to do so.

After consideration, Burdiss told Labor Party leaders that he would much prefer a two-party coalition over a three- or four-party alliance. This left him two choices: a strong majority with Progressive or a 1-seat majority with the Civic Platform.

Ultimately, on Christmas Eve, two weeks after the election, Burdiss announced his intention to work with the Progressive Party; Penny Praxbee would serve as Foreign Minister, and reaffirmed that she hopes the new government will help all citizens of Lamarna - from the steelworker approaching retirement to the young Mālno girl excited to go to school.

The Burdiss spent Christmas at their home in Morganville, before moving to 33 Ka'-ā-mala Lane in Alberton before the new year.

[GoTfan]

For number 10, I would like to propose Arcadia

[MAINEiac4434]

Maineaic and Tim, pick your favorite one. No need to exhaust yourselves with an entire list!

Mana’ea.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Kamala, I wasn't by any means exhausted by the process of compiling that list. On the contrary, it was a very fun experience.

[Kamala]

1980 Elections


Progressive Party Leader Penny Praxbee celebrates the passage of the Abortion Law

Yes - 56.3%
No - 43.7%

Schooling Referendum

Yes - 78.1%
No - 21.9%

With the landslide reelection of President Tanno Lalleé, Lamarnan politics gained a significant element of stability. Without term limits, and with his popularity, the incumbent President seems poised to keep his seat for as long as he wants. Stamer announced he will run in the 1985 Election, while Briand has congratulated the President and did not announce any further plans.

While social liberals across the country were elated with the passage of the Abortion Law referendum, the Labor backbench were unhappy with Burdiss. They only agreed to a referendum as a concession to the Progressives, but did not want it to pass. Burdiss remained silent about the issue during the campaign, but Labor backbench wanted him to rally against it. Considering the rather close result, Labor voters and MPs were growing increasingly discontent with Burdiss's indifference.

The Mālno schooling referendum passed easily, and Ta' Lāmla leader Jacob Onamlee called it a great victory at a speech in Mana'eā.

[Kamala]

The 1st Burdiss Government
1977-1981

As the first democratically elected government in Lamarna's independent history, Burdiss's Labor party came into office with high hopes, but little experience. With a broad agenda and dozens of political offices to fill, Burdiss had to get to work right away.

Although the economy was growing strongly, at a rate of 6.4%, during the first two quarters of 1978, by Christmas Day, economic growth slowed down to a much more anemic rate, dropping down to 2.1% by the New Year. 1979 and 1980 did not prove to be much better, and economic growth didn't not break 3% for two years.

This had forced Labor's hand - part of the reason for the economic slowdown had been high labor costs caused by the unions' refusal to negotiate with companies - and led to a slight liberalization of labor laws, weakening the unions' strength. Burdiss tried to pass it off as a Progressive-led initiative, but still received significant flack from his own party and union bosses.

Efforts to pass welfare reform and increases were complicated by intraparty squabbles and intragovernment resistance. Progressive refused to support welfare measures that were only granted to a "head of household" as opposed to individuals, but many Labor members refused to go as far as instituting a universal basic income. No major reforms were passed - housing and food credits were increased, but only to meet inflation.

And then, of course, the referenda mishaps. While Mālno schooling was a central plank of Labor and was passed wholeheartedly, the abortion referendum, which many Labor MPs opposed, passed rather narrowly. The backbench was disgruntled with Burdiss's lack of opposition to both the passage of holding the referendum and the voting itself.

In foreign affairs, the government was not marked by any serious errors or mistakes, thanks to the capable Progressive leader Penny Praxbee commanding the administration's foreign policy. Despite Praxbee's personal support for the United States over the USSR, Burdiss ensured that Lamarna developed cordial relations with both powers. At the Havana Summit of 1979, Burdiss, Praxbee, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, President Soehatro and other Non-Aligned Movement leaders met and discussed several vital issues regarding nuclear weapons (and testing) and sustainable development practices. This was the first appearance of a democratic Lamarna at the Non-Aligned summit; the nation had not attended the conference at Colombo three years prior.

Going into 1981, the economy had begun to enter a recession. Labor had few domestic achievements to tout, and was more proud of its foreign policy. Despite lacking major achievements, Burdiss was still personally popular with the people of Lamarna, thanks to his folksy charm and charisma, and the fact that his administration was squeaky-clean of any scandal or even hint of corruption.

[DavidB.]

Compliments again. Very good series.

What I'm sort of missing is a pre-election positioning of parties towards each other. I would like to see an indication of which parties would prefer cooperation with which other parties. Would make it easier to make a choice. Are Labour going to cooperate with the Progressives or do they prefer to govern with the more populist or centrist parties? And how about the Liberals?

[Kamala]

Compliments again. Very good series.

What I'm sort of missing is a pre-election positioning of parties towards each other. I would like to see an indication of which parties would prefer cooperation with which other parties. Would make it easier to make a choice. Are Labour going to cooperate with the Progressives or do they prefer to govern with the more populist or centrist parties? And how about the Liberals?

Most parties are still rather amicable with one another, so there aren't a lot of "we won't work with party x" going on, other than obvious policy differences (foreign policy being rather irreconcilable, so pro-US parties will likely not work with pro-USSR parties.)

Labor seems to be rather hesitant working with Progressive again, and most other parties don't want to work with Labor either (Liberals being an obvious example.)

[Kamala]

1981 Parliamentary Elections


Despite losing seats, Progressive emerges as the largest party

Progressive - 19.9% (-6.1%), 26 MPs (-8)
Labor - 18.4% (-12.8%), 24 MPs (-17)
Justice - 18.1% (+7.5%), 23 MPs (+9)
Ta' Lāmla - 16.8% (+11.3%), 22 MPs (+15)
Liberal - 15.5% (-2.6%), 20 MPs (-4)
People's - 6.1% (+6.1%), 8 MPs (+8)
Union - 5.1% (-2.3%), 6 MPs (-3)


Remember I use the results of the poll and a random number generator between -3% and 3% to give it some variety. So results don't exactly mirror the votes.

As the campaign went on, the economy failed to improve, effectively sealing Labor's fate in losing a large amount of seats. Clement Burdiss announced his resignation as Labor leader that evening, citing that losing 40% of the caucus was unacceptable.

Penny Praxbee, despite her party losing a not-insignificant number of seats, celebrated - her party was the largest, and thus she would the first shot to form a government. Pundits cited Praxbee's popularity as Foreign Minister and successes on the Abortion Law referendum as motivating a large amount of Progressive voters to the polls.

Justice, Ta' Lāmla, and the People's Party were the big winners; Kim Miller's feisty quips against the government propelled Justice to nearly double their vote share; in fact, on Election Day evening, Miller claimed he had a stronger cause to the mandate than Praxbee. Although Ta' Lāmla's attempt to appeal to non-Mālno was an important reason for their success, tripling their vote share, Jacob Onamlee's direct appeals to Mālno leaders led the party to win nearly 3/4 of the Mālno vote. Finally, the People's Party managed to break out, taking a decent chunk of votes from many parties.

Andrew Bellson claimed that the Liberals' performance was "respectable," and offered no other comment.

It was mathematically impossible to have a two-party coalition, so the negotiation period became more difficult than 4 years prior. Interim Labor leadership categorically refused to enter into a coalition as a junior partner, claiming it needed "to recover" in opposition.

Newspapers, such as the Morganville City Post, predicted that there were only a few possibilities for coalitions:

Labor + Justice + Ta' Lāmla = 69 seats
Progressive + Justice + Ta' Lāmla=71 seats
Progressive + Justice + Liberal=69 seats

Ultimately, Praxbee, Miller, and Bellson formed a government, with Miller being appointed Interior Minister and Bellson the Chancellor.

As a tearful Burdiss left 33 Ka'-ā-mala Lane, a joyful Praxbee moved in, ready to lead as Lamarna's first female and second Prime Minister.