Achkaerin News - 2020 Election Day Coverage

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Achkaerin Decides 2020

Welcome to coverage of the Achkaerinese Senate elections for 2020, the polls opened at eight in the morning and will close at ten tonight, for those joining us for the first time we'll very quickly explain the arithmetic of the Senate.

Cyan: Unity Party - 188 Seats (Major govt partner)
Purple: Patriot Party - 74 seats (Minority govt partner)
Red: Endeavor Party - 150 seats (Lead Opposition Party)
Yellow: Liberal Party - 70 seats
Dark Blue: Progressive Party - 7 seats (including Speaker)
Maroon: Workers Alliance Party - 3 seats
Green: Green Party - 6 seats
Light Brown: Republican Party - 1 seat
Dark Brown: Puritan Party - 1 seat

At the start of play on election day the current Unity-Patriot Party coalition holds 262 out of 500 seats giving them a twelve seat majority in the Senate as a party requires, due to the convention of the speaker being a non voter, 250 seats for a majority. We'll bring you updates throughout the day and then from 10pm the exit poll and results as we get them.

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Vice Consul first party leader to vote

Vice Consul Rhian Kennedy, leader of the Patriot Party and current serving Senator for the Crystalline Valley constituency, has become the first of the nine party leaders to cast their vote in this years election. Ms Kennedy took the seat in the 2015 election with a majority of 6000 votes over her nearest challenger from the Endeavour party, she is expected to hold the seat comfortably and return to the Senate, of course what she'll want to know is how many Senators from her party will she be taking with her and will they still be part of the government.

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Electoral Commission Chair answering voters questions

Charlie Wells, the chair of the Achkaerin Electoral Commission - the body responsible for overseeing elections and referenda in Achkaerin is spending the day answering the public's questions. The highlight so far has been a question from a citizen in Dovah about how those stationed abroad in embassies or serving aboard in the armed forces vote. to which Mr Wells answered:

"It's a combination of a lot of hard work and effort. We send out ballot papers to each of Achkaerin's embassies in advance of polling day with a member of the Commission's staff, each ballot paper is assigned to a specific person stationed there. The embassy personnel cast their votes and then we fly the ballot boxes back to Achkaerin where we divide the ballot papers according to constituency and inform the respective counts of the numbers. The same process applies to members of the Armed Forces stationed abroad so for example this year we've put all the Aelmoor counts on notice to expect plenty of communication from us because of the number of Aelmoor Watch personnel deployed to Clysperis. Where it gets more complicated is when we come to naval vessels at sea in those situations each ship is alerted in advance of polling day to make for a port, they make port and the process is followed for the ship, the vessels ballot papers are then flown back with those of the nearest Achkaerinese embassy. The slight wrinkle this year is that the INS Sharingan is out on long distance patrol so what we've had to do there is fly an official out to them with the ballot box and papers and actually do the poll at sea, it's not something we've done before but I understand it's gone well."

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The Longest Day?

Consul Michael Williams has quite the track record, having led the government since 2013 following the resignation of his predecessor on health grounds the Consul has helped lead Achkaerin to its current position in the world, and now he's facing what amounts to a referendum on his leadership as he seeks re-election in what most politicians describe as "the longest day" his main challenge in the campaign has been communicating how Achkaerin will move forward in a world that has changed a lot in five years. But now it's polling day and having cast his vote all he can do is wait and see what the verdict of the voters is.

What we can however confirm is that of the four members of the Williams family currently in governmental office the daughter Roslyn will still be in her job tomorrow as her role of Royal Liaison Officer is appointed by the Crown.

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Royals Vote

Valtheim Plateau is the second smallest constituency in the country but its a very interesting one, its boundaries include the Marble Palace, Liberty Hall, House of Nobles and the Supreme Court. It's the constituency in which the Royal Family and their household votes and they've just been spotted coming out of the polling station. Currently Valtheim Plateau is held by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Richard Chambers of the Patriot Party and the party are confident of holding the seat.

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The Race to Declare First

There's no prize for it but there's always a friendly competition for the bragging rights over which constituency can declare first, five years ago it went to Djana-Ville north in what famously became known as 'puncture gate' when in Angel's Rise - the constituency that typically declares first one of the vehicles carrying a ballot box broke down. This time around Angel Rise want their title back, Djana-Ville want to keep it and there are a couple of others in the shape of Elsion West and Valtheim Plateau sniffing around this.

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Voting into Last Few minutes

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As the voting period enters its final seconds all eyes are turning towards the exit poll that will be revealed just after ten o'clock tonight, we'll then bring you the headlines on election night as they happen. Senators and candidates are making their way to their counts and now the suspense builds as we await the first indications from the public of what the result may look like.

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The Results


Matthew Nielsen

Good evening and welcome to our coverage of the Achkaerinese Senate election results I'm Matthew Nielsen. Voting closed at ten o'clock and now we're about to reveal the exit poll, taken from across the nations polling stations it is our first indicator of where the night might be going and what the future government of the nation may look like. So without any further ado the exit poll for the 2020 Senate election is as follows:

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First Result Declared

With the exit poll still ringing in everyone's ears we have our first result from the constituency of Mossflower South. The seat has been held by Eileen Murphy of the Endeavour Party, was it an expected hold? Yes so we're in line with the exit poll. And speaking of the exit poll there's been a mixed reaction to it however if it turns out to be true then it would be a remarkable achievement for the two parties that have been in government over the last five years to not only defend their seats but take more.

One indication that viewers might want to keep an eye on is the difference in majority sizes between this year and five years ago, in Mossflower South Senator Murphy has gone from a 12,000 vote majority to a 9,000 vote majority so maybe there's a trend there in the endeavour party's fortunes for the night.

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Could the Unthinkable Happen?

It's still relatively early on in the results of this election but the rumour mill has already started and one particular rumour has caught a lot of imagination - the leader of the Endeavour Party, and leader of the opposition Senator Harrison Carmichael, a man who's been in the Senate and represented the Waterfront and Vale constituency of Dovah for twenty years, might have lost his seat. This is just an unconfirmed rumour but there's a suggestion that Jade Nightingale of the Patriot Party, the youngest candidate in this years election at seventeen may have taken it, and if that's the case then it would surely confirm the collapse of the Endeavour vote along the lines of what we're seeing in the trends. It would also mark a moment of history because in the whole history of Achkaerinese elections no party leader has ever lost their seat. Mr Carmichael presently sits on an 8000 vote majority, normally this would be considered unassailable but there's a lot of positivity about the Patriot Party and we wait to see what will happen there.