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 20,012,298 Percentage 48.2% 40.8%

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.

65x65px 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 Marcos. 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.

65x65px 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 National Social Party nominees
Alexei 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

Campaign

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 Marcos, 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 Alexei 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.