Kimlien

[hopesfor2]

National elections held, political landscape sees unprecedented shifts

15th January 5454

Nationwide presidental and parliamentary elections were held yesterday in Kimlien, seeing unprecedented shifts as the dominance of the Democratic, Socialist and Union Party came to be challenged by rise of populist and "extremist" parties on the scene. The elections saw a surprisingly high turnout of 89.5%, prompting political analysts to interpret the results and high turnout as voters protesting the mainstream political parties which they percieved to disenfranchise them. Various political parties contested with divided results. The winner of the race was the right-wing populist National Party, which campaigned on the so-called "culture war" calling for socially conservative policies and describing the progressivism of the other political parties as "wokeness", also calling for liberal economic policies and a more assertive diplomatic stance. The second-largest party came to be the left-wing populist People's Movement (formerly Popular Front), which sought to attract voters through identity politics calling for socially more progressive policies and also calling for socioeconomic equality and protections for organized labor. The social liberal Democratic Party came to be the third in the race, the social-democratic Socialist Party fourth, the liberal conservative Union Party fifth, the centrist Centre Alliance sixth, and the monarchist Royalist Party last, representing a diversification of the political landscape. The presidental race came to be won by the Democratic Party candidate Diệu Trần who capitalized on the support of other establishment parties to win.

The results published were:

Legislative

Popular vote
24.8% National Party
23.9% People's Movement
16.6% Democratic Party
14.4% Socialist Party
12.9% Union Party
5.7% Centre Alliance
3.7% Royalist Party

Seats
112 National Party
108 People's Movement
70 Democratic Party
65 Socialist Party
54 Union Party
25 Centre Alliance
16 Royalist Party

Presidental

First round
35.5% Lành Đỗ (National Party)
33.1% Diệu Trần (Democratic Party, endorsed by Socialist Party and Union Party)
31.4% Hiếu Vũ (People's Movement)

Second round
59.8% Diệu Trần (Democratic Party, endorsed by Socialist Party and Union Party)
40.2% Hiếu Vũ (National Party)

The parliamentary diagram (parties listed according to their ranks, starting from National Party and ending with Royalist Party):


As the results create uncertainity and panic and the regional and local elections are upcoming in a few months, it remains to see if the political landscape sees protracted turmoil or is able to stabilize again after a relatively short period of time.

[hopesfor2]

Coalition negotiations fail and position of Prime Minister vacated

20th June 5454

The elections held this year saw populist parties gaining a significant percentage of seats and popular votes though they lost the presidency, leading to a political crisis characterized by failure of coalition negotiations and the position of the Prime Minister going vacant due to the lack of a functioning governing majority in the National Assembly, with the President assuming prime ministerial powers on an interim basis in order to prevent dysfunction of the executive branch of the government, which created controversy as the National Party and People's Movement condemn this move as an attempt at "strongman rule by the rotten establishment" while the Democratic Party, Union Party and Socialist Party support it as a measure to prevent further political destabilization and ensure that the government was running smoothly and wouldn't collapse. The vacancy of the Prime Minister has occured for the first time since the current semi-presidental republican system was established in 5417, leading to many considering it as an unusual occurence.

As the established political parties had their popular support collapsed, this paved the way for rise of extremist parties in which the newly established parties such as Communist Party of Kimlien, a far-left party following communism, and the Kimlienese Rally, a far-right and quasi-fascist party, predicted to win a substantial percentage of seats in the next national elections planned to be held in 5459. The local elections are planned to be held later this year which will serve as a sort of poll to measure the support of political parties and will also determine the next composition of the Senate, which approves bureucratic and judicial appointments, with all prominent political parties starting to vigorously campaign for these elections as they see it as an oppoturnity to entrench or boost their support and to enlarge their caucus in the Senate, with the elections also giving the Communist Party of Kimlien and the Kimlienese Rally an oppoturnity to test if they can take votes from the National Party and People's Movement, which are parties considered to be relatively moderate compared to the Kimlienese Rally and Communist Party of Kimlien.

[hopesfor2]

Funds given to local governments and private sector to improve infrastructure

23th August 5454

The infrastructure in Kimlien has been for long insufficient and neglected by both the national and local authorities, and in order to improve infrastructure the National Assembly has approved the funds to local governments and the private sector proposed by the President, in which those funds will be given to renovate the roads, railways, and highways, particularly in rural areas which the municipalities lacked enough resources and the national government neglected though also focusing on important urban centres such as the capital Đông Kinh and the largest city Nam Thành.

The government plans to improve infrastructure are in order to increase economic capacity and pave the way for economic growth and higher income for citizens, and the legislative approval for the plans have been passed with a large majority as most of large parties approved of it despite the ongoing political turmoil resulting in the vacancy of the Prime Minister. Economic growth would also pave the way for increased quality of life and socio-economic development which are important for a country. The plans focus on first improving roads, then railways and highways.

Despite the ongoing political turmoil which has plunged Kimlien into a crisis which resulted in the vacancy of the Prime Minister and lack of a functioning government majority prompting the President to assume prime ministerial powers in order to prevent the collapse of the executive branch of the government and further escalation of the crisis, economic development remains a goal for the nation. Local governments, especially municipalities but also provinces, and the private sector are set to work together to renovate the infrastructure, and this move will pave the way for further development if it is successful.

[hopesfor2]

Infrastructure plan yields significant success

8th January 5456

The plan by the national government to fund the local governments and the private sector to work together to improve infrastructure has yielded significant success; the infrastructure, especially in rural regions which lacked enough development for ages but also metropolitan cities which had their infrastructure inadequate to support the huge transportation networks that the cities have, are now considered to be developed enough to supply public transportation and economic investment. Modernized roads, railways and highways allow for better quality public transportation especially for urban centres and easier economic investments from and to regions especially for rural regions, not only boosting quality of life but also expanding the economic capacity of the country which would be one of the most important steps towards socio-economic development.

Despite economic successes, political instability continues as there is not a functioning governing majority in the National Assembly and the position of the Prime Minister has been vacant for 3 years at this point, and the polls for national elections exacerbate panic as the far-left Communist Party of Kimlien and the far-right Kimlienese Rally are each predicted to gain significant percentages of votes if the elections were to be held today, highest estimates predict that the votes of two parties combined could reach up to 25% which would mean that those parties could garner votes from the right-wing populist National Party and the left-wing populist People's Movement could exacerbate the already existing political turmoil, and election of the President from any of those parties could further add to the crisis, the local elections this year will probably be a close contest and can potentially serve as a sort of poll for the next national elections. Either way, the government plan to improve infrastructure yielded significant success, and future investments to other issues such as internet and industry are on the table.

[hopesfor2]

Local elections see political shifts amidst turmoil

20th January 5456

The highly anticipated local elections have been held seeing many surprising shifts amidst political turmoil and crisis and the elections saw rise of various populist and extremist parties and the continuation of the decline of popular support for the previous establishment parties.

The results of the elections were:

Municipalities

6 National Party (dark blue)
5 People's Movement (magenta)
4 Democratic Party (greenish yellow)
3 Kimlienese Rally (brown)
3 Union Party (light blue)
2 Communist Party (dark red)
1 Centre Alliance (orange-ish yellow)
1 Socialist Party (red)

Provinces

2 National Party
2 People's Movement
1 Democratic Party
1 Socialist Party
1 Union Party

The elections represented a further shift from the previous political establishment that existed from the democratic transition until last national elections, and as appointments to the Senate by the provincial assemblies are due to be done the change of the composition of the Senate are going to be seen as the composition of the provincial assemblies drastically changed. The elections also saw the far-left Communist Party of Kimlien and the far-right Kimlienese Rally, the two extremist parties in the political scene, to win some of the municipalities. As further political shifts occur with these local elections, Kimlien stands at a crossroads, and the future public sentiments will determine the fate of the country.

[hopesfor2]

New Senate members appointed after negotiations

2th July 5456

After months of negotiations, concessions and agreements between different political parties, as they are appointed by provincial assemblies though not by majority but rather supermajority, the new Senate has been now appointed seeing the populist parties establishing significant caucuses in it while the extremist parties only have a few senators minimizing their influence, moderate parties still remain influential within the Senate while their number of senators showed a decline compared to the previous sessions. The new Senate which will remain in office for at least five years and at most six years and after the dissolution of the particular Senate session it would be replaced with new appointments, is composed as following:

29 People's Movement (magenta)
28 National Party (dark blue)
25 Socialist Party (red)
25 Democratic Party (greenish yellow)
22 Union Party (light blue)
6 Kimlienese Rally (brown)
3 Communist Party (dark red)
2 Royalist Party (purple)

The left-wing populist People's Movement emerged as the largest with 29 senators, and it was followed by the right-wing populist National Party with 28 senators, and then the social democratic Socialist Party with 25, the conservative Union Party with 22, the quasi-fascist Kimlienese Rally with 6, the communist Communist Party with 3, and the monarchist Royalist Party with 2 senators. The new Senate will remain in office at least for five years and at most for six years, and its relatively divided composition will probably add to the already existing political turmoil in Kimlien.

[hopesfor2]

ISPs receive subsidies in efforts to improve internet

21th July 5456

The plan by the national government to fund the local governments and the private sector to improve roads, railways and highways has yielded significant success with the public transportation networks improving and the economic investments from and to different regions becoming easier. Though, internet in Kimlien rather had remained underdeveloped for a long time, with low internet speeds, lack of coverage in especially rural regions but also in many suburban regions and even in metropolitan cities, and insufficient bandwith to support the networks that the country has. In effort to improve this situation, the government started to subsidise the ISPs in the country, with the focus being the improvement of the internet infrastructure in general to improve speeds, increase nationwide internet penetration and widen coverage to include areas that had been out of the coverage area for decades. The policy on internet provision has been set as private ISPs providing internet but the government regulating the fees they charge for the services, to both avoid inefficiencies caused by central planning and to prevent potential excesses from the private sector.

Many citizens had been waiting for the government to take action to improve internet infrastructure for many decades, and such action has come now as the government set new policies to improve various aspects of the internet infrastructure such as speed and coverage. Despite the political turmoil caused by the last national and local elections which saw the rise of populist parties and as a consequence of that the lack of the full functioning of government in which the post of Prime Minister is still vacant and there is technically no governing coalition and President exercises prime ministerial powers due to the vacancy of the post, socio-economic development remains to be one of most important goals in Kimlien that is pursued even in times of political crisis, and if these government plans succeed the country could see its internet infrastructure improving which would address one of the long-standing grievances of the population.

[hopesfor2]

Subsidies to ISPs result as expected

15th July 5457

The new policy on internet provision and the subsidies given to the ISPs in efforts to improve internet infrastructure have yielded expected results with both the coverage area and the speed improving. The coverage in overall improved by rougly 3 times with many regions previously out of range now starting to receive internet service though there is still room for improvement as many rural regions still remain out of range and most of improvement has been in the urban centres of metropolitan cities, and the average speed also have been increasing from 25 megabites per second to 65 megabites per second, or approxrimately 8 megabytes per second, though this is rather an average value and there are variations depending on the region, signal strength, devices being used to access internet and other factors. Ping also have improved with it dropping from average of 160-180 miliseconds to around 30-40, allowing for quicker communication accross the country. Phone services also significantly improved as a product of improved coverage and upgraded base stations with the quality in voice during phone calls as well as a decrease in latency in both phone calls and internet traffic also reduction of the possibility of calls being dropped.

New developments have addressed one of the long-standing problems in the daily lives of citizens which was the lack of quality internet connection and phone services caused by slow internet speeds, dropping phone calls, lack of coverage in many areas and many other problems related to the networks. Though, there is still room for further investment and development, as different regions still have their different problems, with rural and suburban areas experiencing problems in coverage as many of those regions are still out of range or are in the edge of the range of the networks causing instability and poor quality of the connections in there, and the metropolitan centres having their base stations and internet networks overwhelmed by a large and ever-growing amount of internet users. Anyways, the development in the internet infrastructure and phone services represent a significant success for the ongoing socio-economic development in the country, and now plans to invest in the energy production are on the table to further development.

[hopesfor2]

New agriculture program supporting farmers to start

20th January 5458

Recent socio-economic plans such as funds given to local governments and private sectors by the national government to renovate the infrastructure and subsidization of ISPs to improve the internet have all yielded significant success and development, and paved the way for further plans to continue development. The new socio-economic plan of the government is an agriculture program supporting farmers in order to foster rural development, boost food supply and pave the way for future plans for economic prosperity and development. This plan includes subsidies and incentives to farmers to incentivize agriculture and production.

The new plan was approved in the National Assembly with a vote of 201/189 with 60 abstaining from the vote, some MPs expressed concerns over potential budget deficit that could be created by the plan, and some said that the plan was too small to make any effect at all, though the plan ultimately passed. It was also approved in the Senate, with a vote of 61/57 with 22 senators abstaining, and many senators expressed similar concerns to that expressed by the MPs. Anyways, if the plan yields success it will see significant development in the rural regions, a boost in food supply and potential economic growth.

[hopesfor2]

National elections see rise of far-right

15th January 5459

Presidental and parliamentary elections were held in Kimlien seeing the rise of the far-right with the vote shares for the right-wing populist National Party increasing, the far-right Kimlienese Rally surpassing many parties and entering to the National Assembly, the left-wing populist People's Movement became the second-largest and the far-left Communist Party entered to the National Assembly. The liberal Democratic Party, the conservative Union Party and the social democratic Socialist Party saw their vote shares further declining and the Royalist Party hardly won any seats with it almost losing its representation in the lower house. The presidental elections saw the right-wing populist candidate Hoàng Trí winning in an upset victory over the center-left Lê Viên in a highly polarized second round race, leading to increased panic over potential for a radical right government and concerns over potential democratic backsliding under such a government with several groups calling for a "grand coalition" against the far-right to stop the way of them to power while others say that grand coalitions wouldn't be very effective in cases like this.

The results are:

Legislative

Popular vote
29.9% National Party (dark blue)
19.3% People's Movement (magenta)
12.2% Democratic Party (greenish yellow)
11.3% Socialist Party (red)
10.4% Union Party (light blue)
9.7% Kimlienese Rally (brown)
6.5% Communist Party (dark red)
0.7% Royalist Party (purple)

Seats
135 National Party
87 People's Movement
55 Democratic Party
51 Socialist Party
47 Union Party
43 Kimlienese Rally
29 Communist Party
3 Royalist Party

Presidental

First round
27.5% Hoàng Trí (National Party)
25.4% Lê Viên (Socialist Party, endorsed by Democratic Party)
17.7% Đỗ Dũng (People's Movement)
12.5% Văn Hùng (Union Party)
8.7% Bùi Hiếu (Kimlienese Rally)
5.5% Mai Lành (Communist Party)
2.7% Châu Võ (Royalist Party)

Second round
51.6% Hoàng Trí (National Party, endorsed by Kimlienese Rally)
48.4% Lê Viên (Socialist Party, endorsed by Democratic Party, Communist Party, People's Movement)

Union Party and Royalist Party didn't endorse any candidates in the second round.

The diagram of the new National Assembly:



The rise of the far-right in the elections signals a significant and potentially tumultuous shift in the political landscape and the dysfunction of the executive branch will probably be exacerbated as all of the other parties even including the center-right Union Party which its ideology is closer to those parties compared to others, ruled out collaboration with the National Party or the Kimlienese Rally, citing concerns over potential implications for democracy posed by a radicalization of the governing coalition. As the elections see significant shifts Kimlien stands at a crossroads, and the assuming of the presidency by the National Party will probably have a destabilizing effect on the national politics as it could see clashes between the executive and the legislature, and potentially even between the houses of the legislature, the local elections planned to be held in 5461 will be very significant as it could potentially serve as a sort of poll for the next national elections planned to be held in 5464.