2024 Tepertopian Assembly election (Pacifica)
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Legislative elections will be held in Tepertopia on 4 February 2024 to elect the members of the 53rd Tepertopian Assembly. Voters will be able to elect all 100 seats in the Tepertopian Assembly, spread between the 22 constituencies.
Background
In the 2021 Tepertopian Assembly election, The Moderates led by incumbent Assembly President Seymour Farnham won a plurality of 27 seats and thus defended the Assembly Presidency, yet lost vote share and seats. Its main competitor, the Welfare Party, picked up 21 seats, but wasn't able to gain much ground on the Moderates due to a decreased vote share itself. Widely considered to be the winners of the election in regards to raw vote swing, The Future is Ours! won 11 seats, more than doubling their seat count. The Merchants' Guild and Canon remained stable at 16 and 13 seats respectively. Minor parties DDP and The Grays defended their Assembly presences as well.
Procedure
The procedure of Assembly elections is governed by the Assembly Elections Act (Bürgerschaftswahlgesetz), with fundamentals laid down in the Tepertopian Articles of Union.
Article 44 of the Articles of Union stipulates that 90 days before the Assembly is due to be dissolved, the Protector of Tepertopia shall schedule an Assembly election, to be held between 90 and 120 days after being scheduled. The referenced dissolution of the Assembly is regulated in Article 49, requiring the Assembly to be dissolved three years after its constituting session. Since the 52nd Tepertopian Assembly constituted on 3 February 2021, the election was to be scheduled on 3 November 2023, with the possible dates for the election being February 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th, 2024. The Protector scheduled the election for 4 February.
Two weeks thereafter, candidacy registrations were opened for a period of 30 days, with candidates whose registrations were rejected by the Federal Electoral Commission then having two weeks to challenge this decision before an Administrative Court. On the 60th day following the scheduling, the candidate lists were declared final.
On election day, polling stations will be open from 8 AM to 10 PM. Voters were also able to request mail-in ballots up until 14 days before the election. Once the polls close, the ballot boxes are collected centrally in each constituency overnight, with counting beginning the following day. Preliminary results from the local electoral commissions can usually be expected by the end of the day, with certification by the Federal Electoral Commission typically happening several days after.
Electoral system
Elections to the Tepertopian Assembly use the single transferable vote (STV). The 100 Assemblypeople are elected from 22 constituencies, each having between three and ten seats up for election. Voters have the option to number any number of candidates on the ballot in descending order of their preference. Ballots are initially counted as one vote for the candidate marked most preferred. If this candidate is elected, all their votes are transferred to the next-preferred candidate who are still in the race at a reduced weight, relative to the total vote surplus to the elected candidate's name (senatorial rules method). Votes for eliminated candidates are transferred to the next-preferred candidate at their current weight.
Constituency boundaries and magnitude remained unchanged from the 2021 Tepertopian Assembly election.