abstract
| - An early federal general election was held in the Federation of Zardugal on Saturday December 10, 3329. All 750 seats to the 12th Congress of Zardugal were up for election, as was the Presidency and all five State governorships. The election was triggered more than two years before the originally scheduled date of January 12, 3332 due to the sudden and dramatic collapse of the Socialist Workers' Party, which had been coalition partner to the ruling New Democratic Party. This collapse left the right-wing Conservative Republican Party as the majority party in the resulting Congress, mandating early elections or a change of power. The incumbent Prime Minister led the New Democratic Party into the election with over 100 fewer seats than the Conservatives at dissolution, having won barely a quarter of the popular vote at the election that January. There were doubts as to whether less than a year in government would be enough to convince the electorate to return the NDP to power with a parliamentary majority of its own, particularly as it had been resoundingly rejected by the electorate only two years earlier and finished third in the first 3329 election. To the surprise of his critics, the New Democrats swept to power on polling day in a near-landslide win, taking over 400 seats in Congress and a strong parliamentary majority of 54. Almost 200 new NDP deputies were elected and its share of the vote almost doubled to nearly 54%. All-in-all, there was a swing of 10.6% from the CRP to the NDP across the nation - the collapse and subsequent absence of the SWP on the ballot did, however, save the Conservatives from electorate annihilation. They were able to pick up 42 new seats despite their poor performance. The Presidential election did not go so well for the Conservatives, however. Incumbent CRP President Jacob M. Wiencek, who had been re-elected by the skin of his teeth to a second consecutive (and fourth overall) term in office earlier that year, was overwhelmingly defeated by NDP candidate Karen Sosa. She took nearly 5 million more votes than Wiencek and would go on to become the longest-serving President of the modern era. The result was similarly disastrous for the Conservatives at a local level. New Democratic candidates were elected to state governorships in Sequeya and Endirahad, defeating the CRP - the only Socialist governorship, Kalvere, was notionally a Conservative region after the SWP's collapse across the nation but it also fell to the NDP. This left the NDP in power in all regions except Ingomu, a distinction it would hold until 3341. This election marked the beginning of an unprecedented (in living memory) period of 12 years of majority rule for the NDP at all levels of government in the Federation, which would continue until the party's defeat in the 3341 federal elections.
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