DSPR Sweeps to Power, Winning the Presidency, 46% in the People's Assembly, and Total Control of 3/5 State Legislatures in Unprecedented LandslideThe DSPR last night came closer than any other party in recent Rutanian history to winning an outright majority in the People's Assembly, after winning 46% of the vote. In addition, the DSPR candidate Steven Vanderburg won the Presidency after a second-round contest against Michael Murdoch, the candidate from the reformed Whig Party. The DSPR also won overall majorities in the legislatures of three states, controlling over half of the seats in Kragsrov, Bozarland, and Khodor. The party also came just three seats short of the same feat in Delvar, where they are negotiating a coalition with the CRL and newly-formed Social Democratic Party (SDP). Nationally, the DSPR and CRL agreed a coalition deal containing a cabinet dominated by the DSPR and headed by their Kragusrov leader, Andrey Zyuganov. Both parties are understood to be in further talks for a revised deal bringing the SDP, which remarkably placed fifth - ahead of all three of the previous governing parties - nationally.
Political analyst Curt Higgins described the election as 'a political earthquake, shattering the usual multi-party system in Rutania and concentrating an unprecedented degree of power in the hands of a single party'. The result represents a huge blow for the previous liberal coalition, with the Liberals, UDPR, RRP reduced from 62% of the vote to a under 7%, an outcome Higgins described as 'unheard of' and 'the result of some incredibly unpopular anti-labour and regressive policies, which the DSPR have exploited to great effect. The other big story from this election is of course the re-emergence of right-wing parties, with the reformation of the Whigs and the rise of the newly-formed Nationalist Union. The centre-right liberal coalition has been squeezed very hard from both sides'.