Amanda Hall ResignsOctober, 4431 - Fort William, Orange
Article from the Luthori Daily Register Amanda Hall talking to journalists as she announces her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party.After a crushing defeat for the Conservative Party in the last two elections, Conservative leader Amanda Hall has decided to step down as leader of the party after more than twenty years in the position. After the election, she said that she was surprised with the results, though she was happy that Luthori has chosen to reject the values of the Social Democrats and the economic plans of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. In the August election, the Conservatives lost more than half of their seat share, moving from 69 to 26 seats in the Diet, losing many top party members in an election that saw three new parties pick up seats, increasing the number of parties with seats in the Diet to ten. After this election, Hall had planned to resign as her party’s lead figure, though the emergency snap election required here to serve an additional year as leader. This election also saw a disastrous result for the Conservatives, dropping to 25 seats.
With her resignation, Hall has stated that she hopes the Conservative Party will continue its legacy of promoting personal freedom and individual responsibility, and she plead with the party to select a new leader that will encompass the values all Luthori conservatives hold dear. The person that will protect these values yet is unclear, as a handful of party members have announced their intention to run in the leadership election, which begins next year. As candidate declaration closed yesterday, we do know that there will be five individuals contesting for leader of the Conservatives. Those who are include Finance Critic and Chief Party Whip Henry Khan, businessperson and known libertarian Jack Thompson, Luthori diplomat and NGO executive Katie Newton, engineer Mason Lu, and criminal lawyer Vanessa Porter. With only a month away before the first round of leadership elections, candidates are campaigning to attain the votes of the roughly 150,000 Conservative Party members across Luthori.
Currently, the race between the candidates has been hard to poll and seems to be a tossup. This is because the Conservatives elect their leaders by first-past-the-post. Each archduchy is split into electoral zones based on the amount of Conservative Party members in the area. Thus, Geharon has 35 zones, Utagia has 8, Tinako has 23, Orange has 23, and Yodukan has 11. For a candidate to win the leadership election, they must carry at least half of the electoral zones.
With regards to the candidates, ideological separation seems to be a somewhat foreign element of the campaign, as the various political parties currently in Luthori have eroded factionalism within parliamentary groups and party executives. With this fact taken into consideration, Conservative leadership candidates still encompass different principles on certain policy issues. For instance, candidates Henry Khan and Jack Thompson seem to be more libertarian than the others, while Mason Lu and Katie Newton have focused their campaign on partisanship by working with all parties in the Diet to ensure sensible and efficient government. Despite these differences, it is clear that all Conservative leadership candidates want to roll back government spending, decrease taxes, and ease government restrictions on all realms of society.
Marissa Keys - LDR Political Correspondent