2016 Gjorkan presidential election

2016 Gjorkan Presidential Election

June 30, 2016
Turnout	49,049,752 (71.2%)
Nominee Roman Vanderburg Martin Kittle Party Forward Gjorka Gjorka United Running mate Julian Vanderburg Rosa Ryan Popular vote 23,641,980 18,835,104 Percentage 48.2% 38.4%
2016 Presidential Election Results by District
President before election Roman Vanderburg Forward Gjorka Elected President Roman Vanderburg Forward Gjorka

The 2016 Gjorkan Presidental Election was an election held in Gjorka to determine the next president of Gjorka. Incumbent President Roman Vanderburg was re-elected to serve a second term along with his running mate and brother Vice President Julian Vanderburg. It was also the first election since 1982 to feature only two candidates garnering above 5% of the vote.

Electoral System

The Constitution of Gjorka espouses the President of Gjorka is elected to a five-year term in a popular vote election. Whoever garners the most votes in the election, shall be the next President of Gjorka. By law, the election is to be held June 30 every five years to give due process for a transition of power between administrations. As well, Presidents are allowed a maximum of two five year terms.

Primaries

Forward Gjorka

Due to his status as an incumbent, Roman Vanderburg ran virtually unopposed in the primary process gnaring 93.4% of the vote. His only major challenger, perennial candidate Alan Donnelly, only granered 2.3% of the remaining vote. Following his nomination, Vanderburg once again selected his brother and incumbent Vice President Julian Vanderburg to be his running mate.

Forward Gjorka nominees
Roman Vanderburg	Julian Vanderburg
for President	for Vice President
12th President of Gjorka (2011-2021)	6th Vice President of Gjorka (2011-2021)
Campaign

Gjorka United

The primary process for Gjorka United was largely a competition between the conservative and moderate wings of the party. The moderate wing of the party eventually coalesced around Martin Kittle, an assemblyman from Gjorka City while the conservative wing united around Kurt Josias, vice president under Joseph Marnell. The campaign between the two was extremely close with both candidates trading leads back and forth in the polls. However, Kittle came out on top on primary day winning with just 2% more of the vote. Following his nomination, Kittle somewhat controversially choose Rosa Ryan to be his running mate. It was controversial mainly since she was a moderate and it was expected Kittle would choose a conservative to ease the conservative base's fears, however it was also due to her openness about her christian faith which is taboo in Gjorkan politics.

Gjorka United nominees
Martin Kittle	Rosa Ryan
for President	for Vice President
Assembly Member from Gjorka City (2001-present)	Assembly Member from Rusynia (1995-2015)
Campaign

Green Party

Green Party nominees
Jame Gary	Greg Hamerfell
for President	for Vice President
Co-founder of the Green Party	Assembly Member from Nomakoa (2011-present)
Campaign

National Social Party

National Social Party nominees
Andrew Tabor	Pádraig Coppinger
for President	for Vice President
Assembly Member from Éire (2011-present)	Assembly Member from Elkton (2011-2021)
Campaign

Freedom Party

Freedom Party nominees
Gerry Higgins	Enda Ganley
for President	for Vice President
Author of Capitalist Society and it's Future	Assembly Member from Broadford (2016-2021)
Campaign

Others

Pro-Gjorkan Initiative nominees
Ronn Berot	James Grayson
for President	for Vice President
Leader of the Pro-Gjorkan Initiative (2001-2021)	Attorney from Dundalk
Campaign

Other Nominees from Minor Parties:

Presidential candidate		Vice presidential candidate	Party
	High King Weelington	Archduke Furdinand	The Ban Orphans Party
	Milo Hackett	Taylor Hackinson	Gjorkan Royalist Party
	Bernie Tate	Cole Underwood	Societal Liberation Party

Campaign

Kittle giving a speech to supporters in Baltimore

Roman Vanderburg's campaign focused heavily on his accomplishments during his first year in office. The 2012 Universal Healthcare Act, the legalization of gay marriage, police reform among others. On the attack his campaign focused heavily on connecting Martin Kittle to the greatly unpopular former President Joseph Marnell, and on his wealthy upbringing. Despite enjoying a large margin over his opponents in the beginning. of the campaign, polling at around 58%, a stock market fall in late april caused his numbers to drop. Vanderburg accused wealthy businesses of artificially creating the fall to tank his reelection campaign. Support for the Green Party also started to rise provoking the Vanderburg campaign to shift some of its focus on the party likening them to a spoiler. The Vanderburg campaign took another significant hit after Vice President Julian Vanderburg was caught on a hot mic saying Kittle supporters were the "low-educated drag on our society". Despite these blunders, Vanderburg maintained a slight edge in polling all the way to election day. The issues Vanderburg emphasized over the course of his campaign was his accomplishments in office, $20 minimum wage wage, end of coal use, and reduction of immigration restrictions among others.

Martin Kittle's campaign began as an uphill battle, due to the popularity of Roman Vanderburg along with the lack of enthusiasm about his nomination from the conservatives in his party. Likely to help the latter issue, Kittle in middle april made a number of visits in Northern Gjorka heavily criticizing Andrew Tabor and the National Social Party as well as espousing a number of conservative positions such as sanctions on Ajakanistan and Zloveshchiy, and undoing Vanderburg's military cuts. This along with a stock market tank in late april caused Kittle's poll numbers to greatly improve and briefly overtake Vanderburg in May. However, Kittle was forced to spend significant campaign time attacking the National Social party and Freedom party as they attempted to sway typical Gjorka United voters, leading to several attacks from the Vanderburg campaign over his leadership skills particularly in failing to unite Gjorka United. The issues Kittle during his campaign was reduction of taxes, repealing parts of the Universal Healthcare Act, increasing the military budget, and increasing Gjorka's rail coverage.

The election saw a shifting of the tides in Gjorka's third parties. Despite earning 7.1% of the vote in the 2011 Gjorkan Presidential Election, Pro-Gjorkan Initiative candidate Ronn Berot opened his campaign only polling at around 5%. Following a health scare incident where he broke his leg, his numbers dropped to around only 3% where he stayed for much of the campaign. Both the National Social Party and the Freedom Party attempted to sway usual Gjorka United voters, with Andrew Tabor going after more typical right-wing parties and Gerry Higgins trying to sway the more moderate libertarians. However, due to Gjorka United's heavy focus on attacking these third parties neither were able sustain above 5% polling. The Green Party and Jame Gary did briefly become a possible contender when they peaked at 8% in mid may, however Vanderburg's popularity and the radical views espoused by Gary, namely militarization, caused them to subside back down.

Debates

2021 Gjorkan presidential election debates
No.	Date	Organizer	Location	Key:  P  Participant   A  Absent   N  Non-invitee   I  Invitee  W  Withdrawn
				Roman Vanderburg	Martin Kittle	Alexi Tabor	Jame Gary	Gerry Higgins	Ronn Berot
1	May 1, 2016	Nomakoa Shipyard Union	Nomakoa	P	P	P	P	P	P
2	May 17, 2016	Baltimore University	Baltimore	P	P	N	N	N	N
3	June 25, 2016	Gjorka Times	Gjorka City	P	P	N	N	N	N

First Debate

Tabor during the First Debate

The First Debate was held in Nomakoa in the Nomakoa City Expo and was hosted by the Nomakoa Shipyard Union. The debate featured all six candidates polling above 1%: Roman Vanderburg, Martin Kittle, Andrew Tabor, Jame Gary and Ronn Berot. While both Vanderburg and Kittle remained cordial throughout the debate, the third party candidates were all characterized as "unpresidential" by pundits after the debate. Tabor and Gary routinely interrupted other speakers while they were speaking, and went over their allotted time for answers and rebuttals. Higgins was described as looking maniacal as he refused to wear a suit, and claimed he would "never wear a suit even for a single day as President". Vanderburg and Kittle spent very little time criticizing each other instead mostly attacking the other third party candidates. In a poll conducted following the debate by the Gjorka Times, 60% felt "both Kittle and Vanderburg were good options" with only 7% feeling "three or more candidates present were good options".

Second Debate

The Second Debate hosted by Baltimore University in Baltimore sparked controversy before it was even held. The second debate traditionally features all candidates polling above 5%, and at the time only Vanderburg and Kittle were doing so. However, all three major third party candidates (Tabor, Gary and Higgins) argued they should be featured on the stage regardless as their polling varied greatly throughout the campaign and all had polled above 5% more than once. The debate itself did not spark much controversy as both candidates spent most of their time selling their own platforms rather than attack one another. However, towards the end of the debate Kittle interrupted Vanderburg while the answered a question about why he deserved to be re-elected by saying "I'll bet $100,000 dollars Universal Healthcare bombs". The phrase was vilified by the Vanderburg campaign following the speech describing him as out-of touch with the average Gjorkan,

Third Debate

The Third Debate held in the National Park and hosted by the Gjorka Times is considered the most controversial of the three debates. The debate featured all candidates polling above 15%, Vanderburg and Kittle. Supporters of Tabor and the National Social Party attempted to block the debate from happening and attempted to break into the debate area while it was occuring. The actual debate itself featured much more personal attacks thrown by both candidates at each other. Vanderburg described Kittle as a "silver spoon fed elitist" while Kittle referred to Vanderburg as "one step away from Communism". Kittle repeatedly interrupted Vanderburg during his answers, and was even nearly censured by the moderator. Following the debate, only 5% of Gjorkans polled found both candidates "Presidential" with 20% finding Kittle as the more Presidential candidate and 40% finding Vanderburg the more Presidential.

Opinion Polls

Results

Polls closed across Gjorka at 8pm GST June 30, at which point results began being released by each District. Polls indicated the election would be a solid victory for Vanderburg, which was correctly predicted. At 12pm GST, the Gjorka Times called the election for President Vanderburg being elected ultimately with 48.2% of the vote. A notable 8% decline from his 56.2% victory in 2011 Gjorkan presidential election. Kittle secured 38.4% of the vote, a notable 7% increase from Joseph Marnell in the 2011 election. No other candidate secured more than 5%, the first time in Gjorkan history since 1982. At 12pm GST, Kittle delivered a concession speech congratulating Vanderburg on his re-election. Gary and Higgins also delivered concession speeches exuding their disappointment at the results. Tabor did not deliver a concession speech.

Candidate		Running mate	Party	Votes	%
	Roman Vanderburg	Julian Vanderburg	Forward Gjorka	23,641,980	48.20
	Martin Kittle	Rosa Ryan	Gjorka United	18,835,104	38.40
	Andrew Tabor	Pádraig Coppinger	National Social Party	2,011,039	4.10
	Jame Gary	Greg Hamerfell	Green Party	1,912,940	3.90
	Gerry Higgins	Enda Ganley	Freedom Party	1,716,741	3.50
	Ronn Berot	James Grayson	Pro-Gjorkan Initiative	784,799	1.60
	Other	Other	Other	147,149	0.30
Total				49,049,752	100.00
Valid votes				49,049,752	99.92
Invalid/blank votes				37,589	0.08
Total votes				49,087,341	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				70,210,005	69.92

Vote share Roman Vanderburg   48.2% Martin Kittle   38.4% Andrew Tabor   4.1% Jame Gary   3.9% Gerry Higgins   3.5% Ronn Berot   1.6% Other   0.3%