Elections in Mobius

Elections in Mobius are held for three territorial levels of government: the state, the nineteen States, and the 710 municipalities. Apart from elections, referenda are also held occasionally. The most recent national election results and an overview of the resulting seat assignments and coalitions since 1977 are shown at the bottom of the page.

At the national level, legislative power is invested in the Jesston State Hall, which is bicameral. The House of Congress has 400 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation. Elections are also called after a dissolution of the House of Congress. All elections are direct, except for the House of Peers, which has 133 temporal members, elected for a four-year term by the upper houses of the states who in turn are elected for a four-year term by the lower houses of the states, all of which on the basis of proportional representation.

Mobius has a multi-party system, with numerous parties, in which usually one party secures an overall majority of votes, though there have been instances in which several parties have formed a coalition government which usually includes the party supported by a plurality of voters.

Candidates to the elections of the House of Congress are chosen from party lists according to a system of party-list proportional representation. The threshold is 1/400 of the total number of valid votes.

Mobius elects the monarch when the incumbent monarch dies, abdicates, or is removed from office. Candidates must be at least 18 years of age, is a direct descendent of Myles, and has not opted out of the candidacy. A monarch is elected in a direct popular vote under a three-round system.

The most recent election was the general election in 2020.

Timing
The maximum parliamentary term is four years, and elections are generally held about four years after the previous one. Regular elections take place throughout the year, with municipal elections in May, regional lower house elections in June, regional upper house elections in August, regional presidential elections in September, and the national upper and lower house elections in November. This is to ensure that the transition period between the old and new cabinets are smooth by Inauguration Day in January. If the House of Congress is dissolved by the whim of the King of the Confederation so long as it has been at least twelve months since the last dissolution of Congress, a snap election takes place as soon as possible, usually after two months to give parties time to prepare. The term of the next Congressional election can be shortened or prolonged to ensure that it aligns with the next normal election cycle.

Municipal and regional elections always take place every four years, with the former happening in May, and the latter happening between June and September for the regional legislature and executive. Municipal legislatures cannot be dissolved, but regional lower houses can be, so snap elections can occur for the latter, but not the former. An exception to the four-year term for municipalities is made when two or more of them merge and a new election takes place for the merged municipality.

Peerage elections also take place every four years, in November following the regional elections, but before the Congressional election. The House of Peers cannot be dissolved, so no snap elections can occur, and thus sits for the entire four-year term.

Elections usually take place on Tuesdays, but the government can change this to a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday if there are good reasons to do so (e.g. when the election day coincides with a national holiday).

Eligibility
Every Mobian citizen who has reached the age of 18 must register to vote, and is required to vote in elections as voting is compulsory in Mobius, but they may stand for election as well. One has to be a Mobian citizen in order to run for office; any candidates must be naturalized by May of an election year. Someone may be exempted from compulsory voting if they are mentally incapable of making a reasoned choice. Two weeks before an election all voters receive a card, which is evidence that they are able to vote, and this card must be handed over at the polling-station before voting.

Because of the compulsory registration, and the compulsory voting, every citizen is on the electoral register which contains the municipality in which they registered, the current municipality in which they reside in, and their date of birth.

Mobian citizens who live abroad are also exempt from compulsory voting if they have been deregistered as a Mobian national, but they do enjoy full voting rights in monarchical, parliamentary, and regional elections, regardless of how long they have lived abroad. Mobius has a dedicated Assembly of Mobian Expatriates, the president of which is the Mobian Foreign Minister. Votes from expatriates go to the region they last lived in, and are counted towards the final count for regional, and parliamentary elections.

System
The House of Congress is elected using an open party list system of proportional representation.

Election
For all elections polling is organised on the basis of municipalities. In each municipality there are multiple voting stations, usually in communal buildings, such as churches, schools, and more recently, railway stations. There are two different systems: using the call-to-vote car or a voting pass. With the former, voters may vote, using this card, only at their nearest voting station, or if lost, their identity card. With the latter, users may vote at any station in their municipality, but must have the pass with them. If it is lost, a replacement can be requested, but only until a few days before the elections. A special voting pass can also be requested to vote in a different municipality.

When arriving at a voting station, voters hand in their card or pass to one of the three attendants of the voting station, who checks the card, cancels it, issues ballot papers to the voter, and directs him or her to the polling-booth.

Mobian citizens living abroad are able to vote by registering in advance and then using a postal vote. The results are counted by the region they last lived in and included in its own results.

Voting is done in one of two ways: manually marking a ballot paper with a red pencil or electronically, using a voting machine. In 2021, there's been an initiative for all municipalities to abandon pencil-and-paper voting in favour of electronic voting, something which was tried back in 2004, but was scrapped due to serious doubts being raised over the inviolability of the computers used from vote tampering and electronic eavesdropping. This new initiative would also put in place a special electoral intranet that only works on select voting machines manufactured in Mobius to alleviate those fears.

Post-election
Polls close at 22:00 and the votes are counted immediately. The first results usually come within the first five minutes after the polls are closed (from the municipalities with the fewest inhabitants). The final results are generally known around midnight, and are semi-officially announced the next morning, after which the legislative seats, if applicable, are allocated. However, recounting over the course of the following days sometimes throws up minor shifts in the allocation of seats.

Seat assignment
Nationally, the electorate in Mobius during the last general elections in 2020 was 16,190,986, of whom 100% voted, and all of the votes were counted as valid. With 400 seats, that means a quota of 40,478 votes per seat, the so-called Hare quota. Since the election threshold is equal to the quota, that is also the number of votes required to get one seat in the House of Congress.

However, the way residual seats are assigned, by using the D'Hondt method, a highest averages method, means that smaller parties are unlikely to get a residual seat, while larger parties have a bigger chance of getting one and may even get more than one. Firstly, numbers of seats are always rounded down, meaning there are always residual seats and parties that did not reach the quota do not get any seats (they do not take part in the following calculation). Next, the number of votes is divided by the assigned seats plus one. The party with the highest resulting number then gets one extra seat. Next, the process is repeated, with the party that got the extra seat participating again, albeit with a number one higher because they got an extra seat (the calculation stays the same for the other parties, which got no extra seat). But later on in the process, that party may get another extra seat. And since there are many parties in the House of Congress, this is not unlikely to happen.

When the largest party gets over 35% of the votes and is considerably bigger than the next biggest party, that party may even get as much as 3 or even 4 residual seats. This has happened plenty of times, even now where the People's Democratic Party (PDP) gets over 60% of the votes while the next-largest party has less than 20% of the votes.

Parties have the option of forming an electoral alliance, in which case they would participate in the above calculations as one party and therefore increase their chance of being assigned residual seats. The allocation of those seats among the parties within an electoral alliance is, however, done using the largest remainder method, which is more favourable toward smaller parties rather than the bigger ones if there is a considerable difference in size. But the overall advantage was greatest for small parties of comparable size.

Assigning people to seats
After seats are allocated to the parties, candidates have to be assigned to the seats. For the purpose of general elections, Mobius is divided into four hundred electoral districts. Parties can present different lists in each district. In theory, a party can place different candidates on each of the 400 different lists. However, it is usual that at least the candidate ranked first on the list is the same person throughout the region. It is even quite common that parties use the same list for a few districts, or vary only the last five candidates per district. Usually these five candidates are locally well known politicians, parties hope to attract extra votes with these candidates. However, because of their low position on the list, chances are low that these local candidates are elected.

The first step in the process of assigning people to the seats is calculating how many seats each of the different lists of a party gets, by adding the number of votes on each of the different lists together. If a party used the same list in more than one electoral district, these lists are seen as one list. Seat assignment to the different lists is done by using the largest remainder method.

The second step is calculating which candidate received on his or her own more votes than 25% of the electoral quota, by adding up all votes for a particular candidate on the different lists. These candidates are declared elected independent of the list order, and get one of the seats of the list where they received the most votes. If more candidates are elected on a list than the list received seats, the candidate with the lowest total number of votes is transferred to the list where he had his second best result.

As a third step, the remaining seats (if there are any) are assigned to the remaining candidates, based on their order on the list. When candidates are elected on more than one list in this way, the candidate gets the seat on the list where he or she received the most votes. This is continued until every seat is assigned. If one of these elected candidates later decides to leave parliament, then his seat is assigned to the next person on the list of the district he 'represents'.

An exception to the above exists in the form of "bonus pushers", famous people (former politicians, but also sports people) who are put on the candidate list but will not accept a seat when they get enough votes for one. This practise, while not abolished, is highly discouraged as it's seen as nothing more than fraud.

Monarchical elections
Mobius is unusual for a monarchy in that the monarch is elected in a direct popular vote. The monarch is elected for life unless he or she abdicates or is removed prematurely. Because of the expected high amount of candidates, there is a three-round system put in place to ensure that monarch is elected with at least half the electorate having him or her as the most widely-preferred candidate. However, there hasn't been a monarchical election because the first and current monarch, Myles, still lives to this day.

Peerage elections
Like the House of Congress, the House of Peers is elected under the party-list proportional representation system, but unlike the House of Congress, the peerage is elected by the regional upper houses, and the candidates must either be a member of the peerage, or be given permission by the King of the Confederation to run for the House of Peers, giving them the title of Gentleman. Each regional upper house elects seven Gentlemen or members of the peerage, the allocation of such is the same as it is for Congressional elections. This election takes place shortly before the Congressional election.

Lower house
Regional lower houses are elected in the exact same manner as the House of Congress, with the only difference being the smaller electorate and the amount of seats to allocate votes to. This election takes place in June.

Upper house
Regional upper houses are elected in almost the exact same manner as the House of Peers, though members of regional upper houses are elected by the members of the regional lower houses. This election takes place in August.

Presidential
For the states of Mobius that happen to be republican, their heads of state are elected in the same manner as how a monarch is elected in Mobius, but unlike the monarch, a regional president is elected for a four-year term. This election takes place in September.

Municipal elections
Taking place in May, municipal elections are the first to be held in an election cycle. In these elections, the people vote for a mayoral candidate, usually by a simple majority. The results in these elections are often used to predict the results of further elections.