February 2021 Doggerland senate elections

Doggerland will hold its first ever Senate elections in late February 2021. They are to be done in a 2 round-system, with a runoff to determine the winner if no won candidate wins a majority. Candidates are expected to give up their seat in the House of Representatives once elected to the Senate.

The first round of elections will be held on the 26th of February, 2021. The second runoff election will be held on February 28, 2021.

Timeline

 * Feb 23: The Forward Senate Alliance is proposed by Rune and Mel and agreed upon by Ayvind Bjarnason and awaits final approval by Mel.
 * Feb 23: Mel gives the go ahead to start the Forward Senate Alliance for the upcoming senate election.
 * Feb 23: The Unnamed Senate List is established.
 * Feb 23: The Anarcho-Garfieldists split off from the FSA.
 * Feb 24: The Anti-Monarchy Alliance is formed
 * Feb 24: Abolish The Senate is formed.
 * Feb 24: The Unnamed Senate List is named the Action Alliance after a vote.
 * Feb 24: Following a violent rampage and subsequent banishment, the AMA is unable to run a candidate for the senate election.
 * Feb 25: The debates for the 8th and 9th districts are held. Hosted by Enrico McPartland and Rune respectively.
 * Feb 26: First round of senate elections
 * Feb 26: The debates for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th districts are held. There are expected to be no more debates held between candidates.
 * Feb 27: The results of the first round of senate elections are announced. 4 candidates win outright without a runoff whereas the remaining 5 enter into the runoffs. 3 FSA and 1 ACA member are elected as a result.
 * Feb 27: The ULPP and LWP announce their joint endorsements for the second round.
 * Feb 27: Debates for the 8th and 5th districts are held.
 * Feb 28: Second round of senate elections
 * Feb 28: Moose releases the ballot 5 hours off schedule as he was out, the initial ballot lacks the 5th District's runoff.
 * Feb 28: Moose posts the updated ballot with the 5th District, members claim they are able to vote multiple times.
 * Mar 1: Moose posts the results for a singular race, confirming Marius Hawyee as the victor of the runoff against BearcatBen. 4 runoffs remain to be posted.

Background
The senate of Doggerland is divided into 9 districts which correspond to the real-life location one lives in.

The districts are as follows:

Preliminary polling
Moose held strawpolls following the debates, these are the results of the polls. It is important to note these polls are conducted serverwide, and thus reflect individual candidates' performances rather than a projection on who may be the victor of the election. While better performance on the debate may be an indicator of an increased swing towards a certain candidate, the pool of voters eligible to participate are not representative of the ones who will be voting in the various districts.

First Round
4 seats won outright majorities and therefore did not require a runoff. 3 seats swung to the FSA while one seat went to the ACA. The ATS list successfully made 1 runoff (Communist MP Hawyee ran on the ATS line), with the AGP making one runoff with Kamiy in the 6th district. The Communists were able to make one or two runoffs, depending on terminology. Their candidate for district 3, SillyOliColf, made it to the runoff, while in district 8, Communist MP Marius Hawyee made it to the runoff, utilizing both the Communist and ATS line, so whether they are an ATS or CommP member is debatable. The FSA endorsed the Communist Party members in their respective runoffs where there was no other candidate other than the ACA candidate.

Second Round
One seat swung towards the Communist Party in the absence of the FSA backed candidate. Hawyee was able to win 5-2 to Bearcatben because of his various endorsements, including that of the LWP-ULPP Coalition that was the FSA.

First round
The counting of the votes for first round of senate runoffs were criticized for its perceived slowness by members of several parties.

Members of the Parliament expressed their shock at Deputy Prime Minister Bradley's inability to win in the top-two primary. Several members reacted "HOW?" at the news that he was third after Communist member and deputy leader Marius Hawyee. Beady, despite his general relevance and visibility, won only a single vote in the senate election. Several members of the Legislative Assembly reacted FRAUD to the result.

Several Liberal Party members reacted poorly to the fact that the LWP decided to endorse Communist candidates in a private ballot. Expressing their respective surprise "that the LWP is still part of the forward senate coalition after the endorsement of communists over liberals," and that "the LWP has decided to endorse communist candidates at the expense of government members." These reactions were met with backlash from the LWP due to the fact that the LWP membership voted internally to endorse the candidates for their respective runoffs where the FSA was absent.

Second round
Bearcatben was shocked at his second round loss and attempted to convince Hawyee to swap with him so Hawyee could be in the house, he was turned down.