June 2021 Doggerland presidential election

The June 2021 Doggerland presidential election was held on June 25 2021 to determine the next President of Doggerland.

Incumbent President Rune Tien-Liong won reelection with a larger majority of 10 votes as opposed to their majority of 1 vote last election. Percentage wise, they led Joris Jansen by 12%, an increase from the 1.2% last election. The field was broadened with a total of 5 candidates running, and the race was labelled as being hopefully one of the last "left vs. right" matchups within the server.

Background
Incumbent Rune Tien-Liong won the May 2021 Doggerland presidential election by a close margin and is eligible for re-election. In order to qualify a run for president, candidates must submit 15 signatures from a minimum of 4 parties. 5 maximum signatures from within the candidate's own party and 3 external parties. Once a sheet is completed, candidates can submit it to the moderation team to have their qualification verified and their name be included on the ballot. Incumbents don't need to present signatures. Reform Doggerland Alliance nominee for president in May, Baveland Moss has declined running again after narrowly loosing the previous election.

Avery was chosen as Rune's running mate after YMR joined Free and Equal, putting her position as Vice President outside of the Party Alliance, the two parties voted between eachother to see which should continue as the next Vice Presidential candidate. The results are as follows:

Issues that were important during the second election included the amount of parties in the national assembly, the role of the President, the extent their powers would entail, growing partisan tensions within the National Assembly, as well as the issue of northern independence. Contrary to the previous election the powers of the presidency was fully outlined in the Executive Powers Bill, and so there was lesser division regarding idealogical alignment leading to the interpretation of the presidency becoming the larger part of discussion.

The first debate was held on June 18, 2021. It featured three candidates, Rune, MapDude, and PrisonMike (standing in for Mel). It was primarily a debate with questions from the audience thrown into the mix. The second debate was held on June 22, 2021. It featured four candidates, the same three as the previous one, as well as Dragomir (standing in for BlueViper). Hawyee and Ivo declined the invitation due to scheduling, and Barge was unaware a debate was being held.

Barge withdrew on June 24, 2021, citing concerns over vote splitting with MapDude. This caused MapDude to surge in polls definitively taking over Rune and Mel as the frontrunner in polls.

Mel

 * Civic Union (CU)
 * Liberal Party (LP)
 * Volt+Pirates (V+P)
 * Evangelical Reform Alliance (ERA)
 * The Pope

Hawyee

 * Independent Democracy Party (IDP)
 * Agrarian Social Union/Doggerland Farmer's Society (ASU/DFS)
 * Colt+Cowboys (C+C)
 * Frontier Liberty (FL)

MapDude

 * Reform Party (REF)
 * Free and Equal (F&E)
 * Libertarian Party (LBT) (As of June 24, 2021)
 * Bent Jansma
 * Colt+Cowboys (C+C)
 * Frontier Liberty (FL)

Rune

 * Doggerland Left (DL)
 * Labor Workers' Party (LWP)
 * Humanist Center (HC)
 * Former Prime Minister Kevin Trevor

No endorsement

 * Communist Party (DCP)
 * Rainbow Party (RBP)

Rune

 * Action Alliance (ACA) (As of June 26, 2021)
 * Doggerland Left (DL)
 * Labor Workers' Party (LWP)
 * Humanist Center (HC)
 * Agrarian Social Union/Doggerland Farmer's Society (ASU/DFS) (As of June 26, 2021)
 * Former Prime Minister Kevin Trevor
 * Independent Democracy Party (IDP) (As of June 26, 2021)
 * Rainbow Party (RBP) (As of June 29, 2021)

MapDude

 * Reform Party (REF)
 * Free and Equal (F&E)
 * Libertarian Party (LBT) (As of June 24, 2021)
 * Bent Jansma
 * Self Reliance (SR)
 * Colt+Cowboys (C+C)
 * Frontier Liberty (FL)

No Endorsement

 * Communist Party (DCP)
 * Civic Union (CU)
 * Liberal Party (LP)
 * Evangelical Reform Alliance (ERA)
 * Volt Doggerland (VD)

Results
As there was no outright winner the election resulted in a runoff of the two candidates who received the most votes which was Rune Tien-Liong and Joris Jansen. Tien-Liong had defied polling gaining the most votes. In the runoff Tien-Liong handily won with 56.1% expanding their majority. It can be inferred that due to Tien-Liong being a supporter of using presidential powers with moderate involvement in political affairs was a more popular message compared to Joris Jansen's hands off approach.