Ár Ré leadership election, 4256

Jennifer Bowens faced a challenge to her leadership of Ár Ré in January of 4256, after the results of that year's general election were announced. Three backbench candidates stood against Bowens. Opinion polls showed that the race was unpredictable and Bowens faced even odds on being replaced as Leader. However, she narrowly made it past the first and second rounds of voting, even though she placed second in the latter, and eventually won in the run-off against her main opponent, Eric Styles. A total of 104,995 votes were cast.

Background
Ar Re fell into a deep decline as the party ceded a huge portion of its seats in the 4252 elections, dropping below the 100-seat mark for the first time since 4175. Angus Pollux, the then-leader of the party, resigned and triggered a leadership election which saw Jennifer Bowens comfortably win against her three opponents.

However, Bowens' style of leadership and campaigning strategies failed to meet expectations. She presented herself as a "catch-all" leader, and was on the fence over many issues. Even as public opinion and, more importantly, party membership opinion favoured a certain position much more over the other, Bowens sided with neither the majority nor the minority, and instead chose a "neutral" position. This led to a hemorrhaging of party support to fringe parties, who were more vocal on said issues.

In the 4256 elections, Ar Re's electoral troubles worsened. The party saw its worst ever electoral result, and had less than 50 seats in the General Assembly for the first time since its formation. Jennifer Bowens placed a measly sixth in the presidential election. Many backbenchers and core party supporters were infuriated at the results and saw Bowens as a weak leader.

However, in spite of her poor performance at the polls, Bowens did not resign from her position either as the Leader of the party or as the party's presidential candidate. This led to speculation that some Assembly Members were seeking to front a challenge against her leadership. Bowens' candidacy for the presidency, however, would remain unaffected, as it could only be rescinded at her discretion and not by the will of the party.

Seven days after the general election, Martha Wellington, a newly-elected AM from Dirguzia, invoked the clause in the Constitution which triggered a leadership challenge against Bowens. She required at least 20% of the sitting AMs to vote in favour of her motion, or 9 AMs. In the end, 37 members voted in favour of her motion, compared to 7 against and 2 abstentions.

Procedure
The last constitutional review was held in 4250 and came into effect in time for the 4252 leadership election. Up to only six candidates can participate in the leadership election. Candidates need not be holding public office, but have to be a member of Ar Re for at least three years, and must receive at least one "endorsement". This endorsement could come from either a sitting Ar Re member of the General Assembly, from the Regional Assemblies, by the incumbent Leader of Ar Re (if he/she is not a sitting member), or from a former President of Kirlawa who represented Ar Re. If more than six candidates apply, the six candidates with the highest number of endorsements will be selected to participate in the election.

The election uses the Alternative Vote method, in which voters rank candidates by preference. In each round of balloting, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated until two candidates remain. In the final round, the candidate receiving the higher number of votes wins the election.

Results
Jennifer Bowens won in the first round of voting, albeit by a small margin. A shift of a few percentage points could have easily seen her fail to make it to the second round.

In the second ballot, Bowens placed second behind Styles, as most preferences for Maratoza shifted to Styles. This left Wellington, who was in second place in the first ballot, as the next to be eliminated.

In the last ballot, Bowens won against Styles by a small margin.