October 3020 Wiltshire Legislative Elections

The next Wiltshire general election is scheduled to be held on Friday 18 December 3020, in accordance with the Second Elections Act of 3020 to elect the 24th Wiltshire National Assembly.

Incumbent Prime Minister Mark Edwin

Should the general election be held on the scheduled date and not before, this will be the first election to be held following the natural conclusion of a term of the National Assembly.

Background

The result of the last general election and the current situation in the National Assembly is given below:

Political Party	Elected Members	Current Members
Socialist Party	17	17
Labour Party	15	15
Government (total)	32	32
Liberal Conservative Party	21	21
KRV (Corporate Party)	4	4
Progress Party	3	3
Total	60
Government majority	4

Government formation

Following the last general election, the second largest party and the third largest party (the Socialist Party and the Labour Party) formed a coalition government under Prime Minister Mark Edwin. The coalition government prevented the largest party, the Liberal Conservatives, from forming a government.

Leadership elections

As a result of the last election, Prime Minister Audrick Hill resigned as Leader of the Liberal Conservatives. To succeed him, Sonya Inyo was elected to become the new Leader and take up the position of Leader of the Opposition.

In addition, Tony Beck resigned as Socialist Leader and a leadership election is currently ongoing to choose his successor.

Electoral system

Provided the law isn't amended, the next general election will be conducted under the proportional representation system outlined in the Second Elections Act, 3020. Every 1/60 of the popular vote achieved by a party results in the winning of a seat, with remaining seats being assigned via the highest remainder. Should an individual candidate in a particular local authority win 1/200 of the popular vote, they automatically jump the party list and get elected in their own right. The only person to achieve this in the last general election was Prime Minister Audrick Hill, who received 6,522 votes in Washington E.R.

In order to appear on the national ballot, a political party needs to meet any two of the following criteria;

• Reach 10,000 signatures on a ballot petition
• Reach 3,000 individual donors
• Currently hold seats in the National Assembly

Currently, no parties have reached this threshold as no nomination petitions have been sent out. This usually occurs in the two months before the election. Before the last election, the first political party wasn't nominated until 6 weeks before polling day.

Date of the election

The Second Elections Act, 3020 sets out the last possible date for a general election to be held:

"The responsibility to dissolve the National Assembly, while in the hands of the President, must take place, at the latest, on the third Friday of the sixth month following the first sitting of the current National Assembly."

This means that the last possible date for the general election is Friday 18 December, 3020. This would be the first ever December election in Wiltshirian history. However, in the event of a no confidence vote in the Assembly, or other situations in which the government deems necessary for an early dissolution, the election could take place earlier than this.

Speculation

There is speculation that the government will call for the election to take place earlier than 18 December 3020 due to that date's proximity to Christmas Day. This has also been linked to the date of the 3021 Wiltshire Presidential Election, which will take place in January 3021. Some speculate that the government will seek to amend the law to allow for the election to take place one month later, to coincide with the Presidential Election. Progress AM Sid Velum stated "it wouldn't be reasonable to ask Wiltshirians to vote twice in two months".

The government has not commented on the speculation.