February 2021 Doggerland legislative elections

The February 2021 Doggerland legislative elections is planned to be held on February 21, 2021. It was originally planned to be held on February 28, 2021, then it was moved to February 20, 2021, before being moved again to February 21, 2021. Currently, 8 parties contested and won seats in the election.

This was the first election in Doggerland's history under the revised 75 seat parliament, which was a reduction from the initial 150 seats. As a result, all parties lost seats with the exception for the Greens who had a singular member of parliament and therefore gained seats.

Background
On January 29, 2021, Kevin Trevor won the first legislative election and became Prime Minister. He resigned on February 16, 2021, making Deputy Prime Minister Mel acting Prime Minister for two days before a new ULPP leader, Bjarnason, was elected and became Prime Minister. As a result of this and other sudden resignations, parliament moved the election to February 20. This was postponed to February 21 to allow all parties to organize themselves due to the election being quickly moved to such a close date. In particular, this change allowed the ULPP to establish a new leader and deputy leader, for the new Democratic Progressive Party to get organized, and for the Justice Party to properly merge with the Labor Worker's Party.

Timeline

 * Feb. 21: Polls open at 18:30 CET
 * Feb. 22: Polls close at 18:30 CET, Final results announced at 19:46 CET
 * Feb. 23-24: The Enochian misconduct trials occurred
 * Feb. 24: A Prime Minister is expected to be chosen via closed ballot vote and sworn in

Polling and preliminary results
The voting was opened at 6:30 CET (5:30 UTC) on February 21, 2021.

Results
The Liberal Party won a decisive victory, pulling much of the center-left vote from the ULPP and the LWP. The ULPP fell to third after a tumultuous couple of days before the election, while the LWP pulled ahead to second place.

The Communist Party remained in fourth and the IDP pulled ahead of the Libertarian Party in votes despite only fielding one candidate on the party list (you know who he is). Civic was narrowly in contention with the IDP for 5th place but ultimately pulled ahead despite unfavorable early results putting the CU as second last with the Greens.

Aftermath
The initial results as the votes came in had the ULPP as first by a very narrow margin, but after the 250 vote update the Liberal Party had gained the upper hand. This marked the end of Ayvind Bjarnason's brief stint as Prime Minister. The Liberals subsequently won the most seats after placing second in the first election and formed a coalition with center-left and center-right support after a right-wing coalition fell through.

Despite this there had been no Prime Minister chosen from the ruling coalition, and talks have not been concluded on the matter. Currently the position remains vacant and it is uncertain what will happen moving forward.

Early on February 25th, Sam, a member of the ULPP, and Doge, a member of the Communist Party, defected and formed the Anarcho-Garfieldist Party.

Voter Fraud Allegations
On February 23, 2021, it was discovered that Green Party irregularities may have been caused by their leader, Enochian, committing voter fraud. It was suspected that he was aiding in the processing of votes from a currently unknown foreign source and may have been conspiring with Javaandpython until his death. During this investigation, new allegations of identity fraud surfaced. This prompted a Supreme Court case that was held later that day. On February 24, 2021, Enochian was found not guilty of voter fraud, due to having used a loophole that made his actions not technically illegal. He was found guilty of identity fraud and general misconduct. The Supreme Court demanded a public apology and asked the National Assembly to decide on a fair punishment, defined as "at minimum [he will] be censured and at maximum be expelled from the assembly for the remainder of the term."

Reactions
Reactions were mixed throughout the Dogger parliament. Many negative reactions were directed at the unexpected exclusion of the ULPP from the main government, while others were upset over the Labor Worker's Party forming a coalition with mostly right-wing or center-leaning parties. Some others were concerned over the apparent sudden last-minute surge in votes for the Green and Liberal Parties. However, many were supportive of the new government. Kenson and Beady were among the notable figures who congratulated the new government.