Angirisian News Agencies

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2 VINTYR, 1578

Election Fallout: Senate makeup more diverse after strong showings from Orthodox Conservatives, Democrats
Upstart parties gain power as long dominant Republicans and Conservatives weaken

CATHEDRIUM - The 1578 Senate elections showed that there is much yearning for new blood amidst generations of Republican and Conservative political dominance. Though the Republican Party still managed to win the most seats in the Senate, they lost strength after three straight Senate elections of gaining seats. The final table showed Republicans on 27 seats, Conservatives on 13, Democrats on 13, Orthodox Conservatives on 11, Federalists on 5, Imperialists on 4, Independents on 3 and Communists on 1. The Republicans, Conservatives, Federalists and Independents all lost seats in this election. Republicans lost 4, Conservatives dropped a whopping 12, Federalists lost 6 and Independents lost 2.

The biggest losers on the night were undoubtedly the Conservative Party. Losing twelve seats - many of them to the Orthodox Conservatives - has greatly sapped their power and has cast doubt on the party's role as the chief opposition to the ruling Republicans. Despite this, the Conservatives still maintain a powerful organizational structure that outdoes many of the other parties and this structure led to a Imperial campaign victory in the referendum vote. So if there is a silver lining in the dark clouds of this election, it's the referendum victory. Another big loser was the Federalist Party who also took a big hit after two straight cycles of improving numbers with many of their losses coming at the hands of the upstart Democrats not to mention the loss in the referendum, which the Federalists took more hard than the Republicans had. Losing two seats in the traditional Federalist heartland of Xiansai to the Democrats served as a warning to the Federalists that things have gone south fast. It's hard to say whether or not the failure in this election may spell the doom of the Federalist Party, but for what's it worth the party still has some fight left.

Speaking of, the Democratic Party was the clear winner of the Senate election, taking 13 seats in their electoral debut. Despite the Democrats campaigning as the party of the center, they only managed to pick off their seats from Republicans and Federalists. This result in a way hurt the Democrats' pitch in the short term as a centrist party because of their lack of pickups from Conservatives or Orthodox Conservatives, but in the long run it may payoff as their broad appeals look to extend far beyond the left and center-left. Another big winner, though the numbers may not show that, was the Communist Party. For decades, Communism was labeled a "twin evil" with Fascism. This year, that stigma was challenged after a Communist managed to get elected in the Skovos province of Sorcae. If this is an indication of what may yet come, then we may only be hearing the first faint rumblings of Communism seeping into the Angirisian political atmosphere.

Even though the election ended in a hung Senate, the Republican Party still emerged as the largest party and one in very good shape to form a governing coalition. They would truthfully only need the 13 new Democrats elected this year to push a coalition to 40 and that's not including traditional allies in the Federalist Party nor if any Independents decide to enter a coalition.