Campaign 2014: 50th Congress election primer

For newbies to Patria or first-time visitors to this blog, the following is a brief summary of what you need to know about Patria's upcoming federal election.

Election Day: April 19, 2014 (Third Saturday in April; Patriot’s Day long weekend)

Inauguration Day: June 30, 2014

What’s at stake: 333 seats in Patria’s 50^th Congress (L Con. Pat.), elections for Precinct legislatures and local city, county or demi-precinct councils in some of Patria’s 13 Precincts and the Federal District of Castoropolis (FDC). There is also an upper house in Patria, like the US and Canadian Senate or UK House of Lords, but its members are selected by the Precinct legislatures, not by direct popular vote.

How members of Congress are elected: European or Israeli-style proportional representation. Lists of candidates are prepared by each party and seats are awarded in proportion to the percentage of votes received in each precinct. An idea whose time has come in Canada but will likely never happen.

Congressional apportionment per precinct:

Caesarea – 61 seats

FDC – 38

Nova Columbia – 36

Lazuria – 27

Centralia – 25

Aeolia – 24

Arboria – 21

Antioch – 19

Ambrosia – 17

Canardiere – 16

Mauretania – 15

Pottsylvania – 13

Haldimania – 12

Fredonia – 9

Term of office: Four year term ending June 30, 2018.

Method of vote counting: paper ballots counted by hand. No hanging chads. This ain’t Florida 2000!

Follow on Twitter @Patria1818 and @Patriavotes2014. (the latter account created solely for the purpose of electioneering and political ads from all parties) Hashtag: #PatriaVotes2014

For some basic background information on Patria’s many and varied political parties, please visit the links below. Note that some of this information will require updating since the 2010 election.

Amrita Party “Embracing Patria”, Amma as House leader in Congress. Generally liberal-progressive. 

SRM (Spiritual Regeneration/Swadeshi RamrajyaMovement) “Bring the jobs home” Small-c conservative Hindu nationalist, economic protectionist.

Chakra Party “no gurus, just right” yoga/new age liberal.

National Union “where a man belongs”, macho, populist law and order.

Jungle Party “Have a take, don’t suck”, inspired by Jim Rome.

Parties from the macro-world Parties that actually exist in "real" or macro-nations, e.g. Green Party, Libertarian Party, Social Democrats.

Minor parties: fringe groups and nutbars (Chastity Party, Family Values Party, Lilith Party, Freedom Party, etc.) that get in thanks to no votes being wasted under proportional representation. There are several parties that hold only a single seat in Congress.

It is likely that at least one new party will come into existence during the 2014 campaign, either in the “fringe/nutbar” category above or coming out of nowhere to win more than one or two seats.