2020 Kivuian presidential election
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| Turnout | 87.3% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2020 Kivuian presidential election, took place on 2 April 2020, it was the fifteenth presidental election held in Kivu. Jakob Fitkau barely surpassed the 40% of the vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff election with the incumbent president, Tom Schiffer.
Seven of the six political parties represented in Parliament nominated a candidate for President of Kivu. However, only four candidates were still in the race on Election Day, the Monarchist Party opted not to nominate a candidate for the 2020 election, despite having done so in previous years. The Labor Party and Democratic Party candidates dropped out before the debates.
Contents
Candidates
Confirmed Canidates
| Party | Candidate | Date declared | Date confirmed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Jakob Fitkau MP from Landenmeer (2012–2020) Minister of Transportation (2016–2019) |
4 August 2019 | 15 January 2020 |
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Tom Schiffer President (2015-present) Prime Minister (2000-2004) MP from Bernawald (1980-2004, 2008–2016) Minister of Enivronment (1992–1996) |
24 Novemember 2019 | 20 January 2020 |
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Michelle Blatt MP from Neuerstaat (2008-present) |
17 October 2019 | 16 January 2020 |
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Theo Vogt Chairperson of the KPvK (2011-present) |
7 January 2020 | 7 January 2020 |
Democratic Socialist Party
The ballot for the 2019 Democratic Socialist Party primaries featured three candidates:
- Jakob Fitkau: A Member of parliament (MP) from Landenmeer (2012-2020), who had been the Minister of Transportation from 2016, until he resigned to run for president in 2019.
- Clara Tiedemann: A MP from Düsuntberg (2016-2020)
- Joachim Unger: Former Minister of Defense from 2008-2012, he also had been in parliament form 2004-2012, and again from 2016 to 2020.
Fitkau won the party's presidential nomination with 42% of the votes, Tiedemann had 37%, and Unger finished in last with 21%.
Green Party
The Green Party's primaries featured two candidates, incumbent president Tom Schiffer, and former Minister of Transportation Marcus Wendl, Wendl was Schiffer's Minister of Transportation when Schiffer was Prime Minister.
Center Party
The Center Party's presidential primaries was contested by 3 candidates. Klemens Muntz, a long time MP from Unholland, had planned to enter the primary, but was forced to drop out of the race shortly before the primary because of sexual assualt allegations. The candidates that competed in the primary were Michelle Blatt, a MP from Neuerstaat, Andre Ettlinger a reglious leader from Weizheim, and Frieda Pfeffer who had been representing the central party in Parliament since 2004. Blatt narrowly won the party's nomination with 39% of the votes, Pfeffer had 38%, and Ettlinger came in last with 13%.
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party opted to not have a primary and nominate Theo Vogt, an entrepreneur from Weizheim, as it's president candidate.
Labor and Democratic Parties
The Labor Party, and the Democratic Party both had primaries and nominated presidential candidates, however, all both candidates dropped out of the race before the 1 March deadline to be eligible for the ballot.
The Labor candidate, Marco Kresinger received 63% of the vote in Labor Party's presidential primaries defeating Eugen Loosli and Egon Buchberger. Kresinger dropped out of the race on 7 Feburary 2023, after the first debate. Afterwards, the Labor Party announced that it would back Democratic Socialist Party candidate, Jakob Fitkau for president.
Felia Kayserling, the Democratic party's candidate, won the party's nomination on 14 January 2020, beating Flori Bahnsen by receiving 92% of the votes. On 21 Feburary 2020, Kasyerling dropped out of the race, the day after the party announced that it would no longer endorse her as its presidential candidate after reports emerged that she had used a racial slur at a closed-doors fundraiser earlier that month.
Opinion polls
| Presidential election polls | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size |
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Lead | ||
| Fitkau (DSP) |
Schiffer (KPvK) |
Blatt (ZvK) |
Vogt (KPvK) |
Kresinger (AvK) |
Kayserling (DPvK) |
Unsure | |||||
| Buchthafen Post | April 3rd, 2020 | 2,673 | 41.8 | 37.3 | 12.2 | 8.7 | - | - | - | 3.5 | |
| Buchthafen Post | March 27th, 2020 | 1,728 | 40.4 | 36.8 | 13.6 | 9.2 | - | - | - | 2.6 | |
| Buchthafen Post | March 20th, 2020 | 1,631 | 37.5 | 35.6 | 15.1 | 10.5 | - | - | 1.5 | 1.9 | |
| Buchthafen Post | March 13th, 2020 | 1,923 | 36.3 | 34.2 | 18.4 | 10.1 | - | - | 1.1 | 0.2 | |
| Buchthafen Post | March 6th, 2020 | 2,091 | 35.5 | 33.7 | 20.2 | 9.5 | - | - | 1.1 | 1.8 | |
| Buchthafen Post | Feb 29th, 2020 | 1,789 | 35.4 | 33.2 | 18.8 | 10.3 | - | - | 2.3 | 2.2 | |
| Buchthafen Post | Feb 22nd, 2020 | 1,778 | 32.8 | 32.7 | 19.6 | 9.6 | - | - | 5.3 | 0.1 | |
| Buchthafen Post | Feb 15th, 2020 | 1,832 | 29.4 | 32.7 | 19.9 | 8.1 | - | - | 9.9 | 3.3 | |
| Buchthafen Post | Feb 1, 2020 | 2,205 | 26.7 | 28.8 | 18.8 | 6.0 | 3.7 | 3.2 | 12.8 | 2.1 | |
| 2016 election | April 9, 2016 | N/A | 33.3 | 42.4 | 17.7 | 6.6 | - | - | - | 9.8 | |
Campaign
Debates
| 2021 Gjorkan presidential election debates | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Date | Organizer | Location | Key: P Participant A Absent N Non-invitee I Invitee W Withdrawn | ||||||
| Jakob Fitkau | Tom Schiffer | Michelle Blatt | Theo Vogt | Marco Kresinger | Felia Kayserling | |||||
| 1 | January 28, 2020 | Univeristy of Altenberg | Altenberg | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| 2 | Feburary 16, 2020 | City of Buchthafen | Buchthafen | P | P | P | P | N | N | |
| 3 | March 1, 2020 | Buchthafen Times | Buchthafen | P | P | P | P | N | N | |
| 4 | March 21, 2020 | Nordhaven | Nordhaven | P | P | P | P | N | N | |
Results
The election was held on 10 April 2020, 87.3% of Kivu's registered voters voted in the election, almost 5 million more than had voted in the 2015 presidential election.
Jakob Fitkau won the election with 40.98% of the vote, and barely surpassed the 40% of the vote minimum needed to avoid a run-off vote with incumbent president Tom Schiffer. Schiffer conceeded the following day, saying that "Our country is in good hands with Mr. Fitkau, I am honored to have lost to such a worthy opponent".
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jakob Fitkau | Democratic Socialist Party | 12,352,186 | 27.73 | |
| Tom Schiffer | Green Party | 19,982,411 | 44.85 | |
| Michelle Blatt | Center Party | 7,649,722 | 17.17 | |
| Theo Vogt | Conservative Party | 4,567,940 | 10.25 | |
| Total | 44,552,259 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 44,552,259 | 99.82 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 78,341 | 0.18 | ||
| Total votes | 44,630,600 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 53,671,890 | 83.15 | ||
