Ár Ré presidential primary, 4273

Ár Ré held a presidential primary in 4273. The primary was automatically triggered when the incumbent presidential candidate, Jennifer Bowens, withdrew her candidacy for the Presidency. The election was uncontested by Michael Arthur-Doyle, the leader of the Party. After the close of nominations, he was declared, by acclamation at the party convention, to be the presidential candidate for the party.

Background
Ár Ré EDIT SHARE Ár Ré Party of Kirlawa Ár Ré 4085 Party Leader Maurice Tylenol Founded 4085 Dissolved Active Headquarters Telon, Nuchtmark Nation Kirlawa Student Wing Free Students of Kirlawa Youth Wing Free Youth of Kirlawa Ideology Kilani interests Libertarianism Classical liberalism Populism International Affiliation Official Color 0000FF Political Position Centrist Seats in General Assembly 217 / 717 Seats in Provincial Assemblies 472 / 2,000 Website Politics of Kirlawa Political parties of Kirlawa Elections of Kirlawa

Ár Ré - Party of Kirlawa, simply known as Ár Ré or Our Time in Luthori, is a Kilani interests, libertarian, and populist political party in Kirlawa represented at the General Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies. It was formed in 4085 from the merger of the Saoirse and the Nuchtmark Conservative Party, both subunits of the Conservative Party of Kirlawa.

Although the party officially represents Kilani interests, this is merely limited to the superficial "Kilanisation" of Kirlawa. It shares most of its ideals with the CPK, in that it is economically liberal and socially liberal. Ár Ré believes in fiscal conservatism and an aggressive militarist platform. It seeks to withdraw Kirlawa from legislatively-binding treaties, as does the CPK.

Contents[hide] History Background and Formation First Government (4095 - 4100) Minor Opposition and Electoral Alliances (4100 - 4179) Return to Presidency (4179 - ) Leadership Leader Cabinet Presidential candidacy Organisation Executive Internal Electoral Committee Constitution Conference Positions Economic policy Social policy Foreign policy Defence Political reforms Electoral results General Assembly Presidential Regional History Edit Background and Formation Edit In January 4075, the Nationalist faction of the Conservative Party of Kirlawa formed Saoirse, or Freedom in Luthori, which aimed to represent Kilani interests within the Party. At the time, the Conservatives were mainly divided between libertarian, moderate and traditionalist factions. Saoirse was a loose coalition of the three groups which believed in Kilani interests and a more aggressive militarist policy.

At the time, discontent within the Party grew. The General Executive Committee became increasingly overbearing, as it dictated party policy and actions against the wishes of the parliamentary party and membership. The failure to prevent three simultaneous treaties from passing the General Assembly heightened disillusionment, while conflicts between the different party factions began to tear the party.

Many members of the Conservative Party of Kirlawa resigned from their posts in Cabinet and/or left the Party altogether. In April 4076, Paisley McIntyre, the former Spokesperson for Science and Technology who was involved in a row with then-leader Alexander Magnum III, joined Saoirse. This was followed by several Provincial Representatives in January 4077, who soon left the Party in succession. In August 4078, several Cabinet members resigned from their positions - this continued until 4083. Alexander Magnum III himself resigned in 4081, after being deselected for that year's Presidential elections, the first an incumbent President from the Conservatives had done so.

In 4084, the Nuchtmark Conservative Party, a regional autonomous wing of the Conservative Party of Kirlawa in Nuchtmark, held a plebiscite on whether to disassociate itself from the national party. The plebiscite passed 71% to 29%. The NCP thus became a regional, unaffiliated political party that year. Talks were held between Saoirse and the NCP on whether to form a broad electoral alliance to compete in the elections of 4085.

Eventually, in 4085, the Nuchtmark Conservative Party and Saoirse agreed to merge to form Ár Ré, a new national political party. Hordes of CPK members left the party and joined Ár Ré, prompting an emergency party conference to be held in June of that year. The party membership voted 87% to 13% in favour of joining Ár Ré - Party of Kirlawa, and subsequently, the Conservative Party of Kirlawa was subsumed into Ár Ré that month.

Marathon elections were called to elect a new Leader of Ár Ré. Subsequently, Alexander Magnum III, the previous and last leader of the CPK, was elected in the final round of the vote.

For the party's first elections in 4085, Ár Ré decided to focus on two provinces: Nuchtmark and Uwakah. These were the strongest-performing provinces for Ár Ré's predecessor, the Conservative Party of Kirlawa. In the September 4085 elections, Ár Ré performed remarkably well in those two provinces, but came in less than 5% of the popular vote for all other provinces. Alexander Magnum III was also not elected to the post of the Presidency, and did not qualify past the first round.

The party's fortunes improved with the 4089 elections when it rose to 192 seats, and came in first in both Nuchtmark and Uwakah. Ár Ré became the second largest party represented in the General Assembly. Benedict Cambridge, the party's candidate for the Presidency that year, won the second round of elections and became the first elected President from Ár Ré. In the 4092 elections, the Party came in first in the popular vote, the first time it has done so, and Gisela Guinness won the presidential elections in both the first and second rounds. The party also came in first for the first time in Dirguzia.

First Government (4095 - 4100)Edit See also: Magnum III ministry

In the January 4095 elections, the party won four provinces, including Merkan for the first time, achieving a total of 255 seats, a majority of 81 over the next party. With this majority, Ár Ré formed a working coalition with the Alternative for Kirlawa, and was able to withdraw from several treaties, including those prohibiting production of GM crops, nuclear energy production and intellectual property rights. Alexander Magnum III's popularity skyrocketed as a result.

As a result of the formation of a coalition, the party's Cabinet was reshuffled such that posts in government would be filled by more prominent politicians of the party. The recent deaths of a number of politicians also left posts vacant as a result.

During the Magnum III ministry, the Government managed to lower the maximum tax band to 50%, and withdraw from eight legislatively binding treaties. This made Magnum popular among the party membership for managing to achieve what his predecessors under the Conservative Party of Kirlawa could not.

However, the Ministry was short-lived, as in the July 4098 elections, the coalition lost its working majority and were replaced in 4100 by an opposition coalition. Magnum III conceded defeat. In the subsequent January 4101 elections, the party suffered further losses, and Magnum III resigned from his post as Leader of Ár Ré. A leadership election was called, which was won by Rebecca Shimmerman, the party's presidential candidate at the time.

Minor Opposition and Electoral Alliances (4100 - 4179)Edit Although Rebecca Shimmerman managed to improve the party's fortunes in the 4105 elections, amidst an increasingly competitive political climate and loss of visibility of Ár Ré, the party's performance in the General Assembly elections fell progressively. By the 4116 elections, the party had dipped below 100 seats in the General Assembly for the first time since 4085. Shimmerman resigned as Leader of Ár Ré, and she died a year later.

Tauren Ó Marcaigh won the leadership election and succeeded Shimmerman to become the party's next leader. However, her strong pro-Kilani stance alienated many Luthori voters, and the party achieved its worst electoral result to date in the 4120 elections, with only 7% of the vote captured in the General Assembly elections and placing dead last in the presidential elections. A leadership challenge was fronted against Maracigh by a stalking horse candidate, for which she won, albeit with a noticeable loss of support from party members.

In response to this, Marcaigh sought to move away from her aggressive pro-Kilani stance, adopting a more moderate centrist position for the party. This won back much support in the traditional strongholds of Merkan and Nuchtmark, as well as the ever-important swing province of Uwakah. In the 4123 elections, the party saw a 10% jump in the polls, gaining 80 seats to form the third largest party in the General Assembly with 131 seats in total.

Marcaigh's popularity within the party soared, but owing to "irreconcilable differences between her stance and that of the Party's", she resigned in 4124, triggering the party's third leadership election in a decade. Minato Monata won the leadership election against April McConaughey and became the next Leader of the Party. Marcaigh continued as the party's presidential candidate in the 4126 elections.

In 4132, Monata died while still in her capacity as Leader, the first leader of Ár Ré to do so. A leadership election and presidential primary were called - April McConaughey won both elections convincingly.

All three leaders were presidential candidates but failed to make it to be elected as President. Between them, only one has made it to the second round of a presidential election - Rebecca Shimmerman in the July 4098 presidential election. However, she had yet to ascend to the post of Leader at the time.

After the successful election of McConaughey to the post of party Leader, a cabinet reshuffle was ordered - this was the first major reshuffle since the Magnum III era. Most cabinet positions had previously been left vacant as their holders had passed away.

In the July 4140 elections, McConaughey helped the party achieve a plurality in the General Assembly for the first time since 4098 - during the Magnum III ministry. However, the party's fortunes soon unravelled. The party shed seats continually since that election, reaching a trough in 4158 when the party gained only 63 seats - a first since 4119. McConaughey resigned as Party Leader soon after the result was called. In the ensuing leadership election, Maurice Tylenol won the vote against Ember Powell.

Maruice Tylenol's premiership was marked by the saturation of the political arena in Kirlawa. Ar Re fell to 60 seats in the 4168 elections, the lowest number since 4119. Tylenol made the executive decision to relinquish her presidential candidacy for the remainder of her tenure, and formed an electoral alliance with the Kirlawa Independence Party and Centre Party - Ionad Páirtí. The alliance was approved by the party membership in a referendum.

Despite this, however, the electoral alliance went nowhere and after endorsing its electoral partners in the 4172 and 4175 presidential elections, Ar Re opted not to compete at all in the 4179 presidential election, marking the first time the party has ever done so. This decision was again supported by the party membership in a referendum. Although the party had achieved more than 100 seats in an election for the first time since 4154, Maurice Tylenol resigned and triggered a leadership election in which Powell, her opponent in the previous leadership election, won comfortably.

Return to Presidency (4179 - ) Edit Ember Powell gradually began to turn the party around. She became the party's presidential contender in 4182, marking the return of Ar Re in presidential politics. Her lucky break came in the election of January 4193, when she gained a narrow lead in the presidential election to make it to the second round, which she won comfortably. She became the first President of Kirlawa from Ar Re in almost 100 years.

Although it was usual practice in the previous century for presidential contenders to win one election and subsequently withdraw their candidacy, Powell broke with tradition and contested the July 4196 presidential election, in which she increased her margin of victory over the third-placed contender in the first round, and won the presidential election with a slightly smaller majority. She became the first President of Kirlawa from Ar Re to serve two consecutive terms.

Despite her success, the party began to slip in the polls and by the 4200 election, Powell failed to enter the second round and the party lost 33 seats. When the party lost a further 33 seats, Powell was fatally diminished in her seat of power. In 4206, Powell faced a vote of no confidence from within her party. Although she won the first round, she was unable to secure a majority and had to proceed to a second round. She eventually resigned as Leader, triggering a leadership election. Cherry O'Malley, the then Spokesperson for Internal Affairs, won the election comfortably.

O'Malley was unable to stop the party losing further seats in the 4207 election, but she managed to turn that around in the 4210 election by gaining 43 seats. She consistently improved her party's performance (with the exception of 4221 election), and was elected as President of Kirlawa in the July 4217 election. She would contest the Presidential election again in the subsequent two elections, becoming the first President from Ar Re to have served three terms.

However, her biggest success came with the January 4228 election, when Ar Re won 199 seats, becoming the largest party in the General Assembly for the first time since 4140. It was the best electoral result for Ar Re since July 4098, and the first time that a presidential contender from Ar Re, Cherry O'Malley, achieved pole position in the first round since 4095. Although Ar Re was unable to enter government, the party's performance gave O'Malley heavy momentum and made her popular within inner circles.

Nonetheless, electoral success did not last for long. In the first round of the very next presidential election, Cherry O'Malley dropped from first to third position, therefore ending her four-term tenure as President, the longest in Ar Re to date. Her party lost 61 seats in the election. She resigned soon after, but remained the party's presidential candidate in the 4235 election, which she won. The subsequent leadership election was a straight fight between Angus Pollux and Jennifer Bowens, which Pollux won.

Although Pollux lost his first presidential election in 4238, in the subsequent two presidential elections in 4242 and 4245, Pollux won the second round and became President of Kirlawa. The party also increased its share of the vote (and number of seats) for all elections when Pollux was in power till 4249.

In the 4252 elections, Ar Re lost nearly half of its seats in the General Assembly. Angus Pollux also failed to make it to the second round of the presidential election. Due to the party's poor performance, Pollux resigned, triggering a leadership election which saw Jennifer Bowens win against Michael Arthur-Doyle. Her first election as Leader saw Ar Re fall to 46 seats, its worst ever result and the first time it had achieved less than 50 seats in the Assembly. Jennifer Bowens faced a leadership challenge from the backbenches, but she narrowly won the vote.

Upon re-election as Leader, Bowens promised to heavily advertise the party's agenda and switch strategies completely. Whereas in the 4256 elections, she adopted vague policy positions meant to appeal to the broad masses, she definitely set out Ar Re's stall in the 4259 elections, emphasizing its core principles of progressiveness and free markets. The 4259 elections saw the largest ever increase in vote share since 4089. In the presidential election, Bowens was just narrowly eliminated from the second round of voting by two percentage points and four percentage points from the second and first placed candidates respectively. Ar Re nearly won a plurality of seats in Uwakah, a bellwether state, just one short of the first-placed party in the region.

In the next election, the party came in first only in the province of Uwakah, narrowly losing its traditional stronghold of Nuchtmark by a few percentage points. This marks the first time that Ar Re has won a province without winning Nuchtmark as well. This trend of Ar Re placing first in Uwakah elections under Bowens would continue until the 4270 elections. Although the party only saw a small decline in its vote share, Bowens announced her resignation and withdrawal of her presidential candidacy, triggering a new election which saw deputy leader Michael Arthur-Doyle win easily.

Procedure
The next constitutional review was scheduled for 4275, two years after the presidential primary took place.

Sole candidacy
Nominations for the primary were open on January 1, 4273. Arthur-Doyle declared his candidacy on January 5.

There were other potential presidential candidates, but none