1864 Tumbran federal election

1864 Tumbran federal election
25 March 1864 1868 →
All 300 seats to the Tumbran House of Representatives; 151 seats needed for a majority
Registered	10,949,772
Turnout	77.0%
	Elected Prime Minister ; Richard Barker; Federalist

The 1864 Tumbran federal election was held on 25 March 1864, alongside elections for the first President of Tumbra, the first Vice-President of Tumbra, half of the Senate, and state legislatures. These were the first elections to be held for the legislative bodies of the Federal Republic of Tumbra, and were held as the United States of Tumbra was finalising a nine-month transition period to the Federal Republic. All men above the age of twenty-one were eligible to vote, meaning that approximately eleven million out of a population of forty-three million had the franchise. The Federalists, led by Richard Barker, won a plurality of seats, and entered a coalition agreement with the Liberals, led by Alexander Henderson. Four parties were elected; the minor left-wing Radical Party won seven seats, mainly in the south-west, on barely over 1% of the national vote.

Events leading up to the election

Following the 1863 referendum that approved a shift in how Tumbra was governed, from a weak confederation of states to a strong, centralised, federal parliamentary democracy, many personalities from the political spectrum that had endorsed the transition (known as the "Reformists") were expected to contest the election as one party. The Federalist party was established as the new Reformist electoral vehicle, but soon ran into in-fighting, particularly over the issue of free trade. Personal rivalries between members of the Reformist faction also resulted in an untimely split; in particular, the personal animosity between Ralph Davidson and Michael Turner, both of whom had served as Chancellors of the United States of Tumbra, was a key reason why the parties ended up splitting in the run-up to the election. Those affiliated with Davidson would remain in the Federalists, who would adopt an anti-free trade stance, while supporters of Turner would form the Liberal Party, which was broadly supportive of free trade. Outside of the trade issue and some other minor differences, however, both parties had largely similar platforms. As both Davidson and Turner were preparing for vice-presidential campaigns, they remained officially independent due to the requirement of the role for non-partisanship, leaving the organisation of party business to Barker (who was the incumbent Treasurer), and Henderson (the incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs).

Those who opposed the reformation of the United States into the Federal Republic (also known as Perpetualists) found themselves largely politically homeless. The Perpetualist nominee for Governor of Thornton in the 1862 presidential election, Daniel Thorneycroft, made a perfunctory effort to organise the Perpetualist political forces into a political machine resembling the Federalist organisation, but was not particularly married to the idea of wading into federal politics beyond his brief campaign for President in 1862. It therefore fell upon the small Perpetualist caucus in the Chamber of Deputies and Council of State — the Legislature of the United States — to try and organise the anti-Federalist voters. The caucus, led by their leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Samuel Lightfoot, accepted that the argument against federalism had effectively failed, and decided not to re-tread their arguments against the Federal Republic. What they would instead do was call for a small federal government and one that would devolve powers to the states — effectively a continuation of the United States structure, but within a stronger federal government. There was some debate over the name, with the name of the Republican Party being floated. The caucus eventually settled on the Centre-Agrarian moniker, as a means to signal to prospective voters who the party had been established for, and also to play down their recent history of opposing the Federal Republic; after the passage of the referendum, support for the Federal Republic had grown drastically. Lightfoot was elected as leader in a party-room vote.

A small contingent of left-wing groups met in the state capital of Clearmont, Hesham, to discuss the contestation of the federal election. While they welcomed the establishment of the Federal Republic, having believed that the United States of Tumbra had been fundamentally elitist and anti-egalitarian, they now wished to enter the new Parliament to push for further radical reforms. Under the banner of the Radical Party, the small party elected Henry Sheares, an author and close associate of Gerald Evander Gerritsen, as leader; the party would field 19 candidates across the southwest of the country, whose working-class population they decided was easier to persuade. While the party had initially invited Gerritsen to serve as its leader, he was preparing for a presidential campaign, which meant he could not assume any partisan affiliation.

Campaign

The official campaign period began in February, with the parties eagerly campaigning nationally, taking advantage of the efficiencies of an actually instituted party system. Both the Federalists and Liberals held party conventions to announce their nominees for Prime Minister — the Federalists nominated Barker in Serrapince, while the Liberals nominated Henderson in Bencoolen. Barker and Henderson would embark on national campaigns, speaking in major cities but particularly in the north-east of the country, which was deemed critical for either party's hopes of winning government due to its high number of seats.

Despite the campaign for the House taking place at the same time as that for half of the Senate, Presidency, vice-presidency, and state assemblies, the House election was given pride of place in terms of national prominence, and the newspapers gave it the most attention, to the chagrin of Gerritsen, Turner, and Davidson, each of whom thought that the presidential or vice-presidential election should have been given the highest regard in this matter. Barker and Henderson made the issue of tariffs and free trade the issue of the election, since it was what drove their parties apart in the first place; Barker emphasised that the country's delicate economic situation required protective tariffs, while Henderson campaigned largely on the freedom of goods and trade as part of the liberty that the new Federal Republic promised its citizens.

Both parties largely ignored the Central-Agrarian campaign, which sought to paint both parties as part of a bickering "uni-party" that would eventually merge back into each other after the election. Lightfoot, taking a populist tone, largely toured the rural western states to campaign on the issue of devolution of powers, warning against a federal government that was too powerful. His deputy, Francis Whitelaw, toured the agrarian southeastern states to emphasise the Centre-Agrarian's support for farmers, who formed a powerful voting bloc at the time. Both the Federalists and Liberals did not realise the Centre-Agrarians' effective coalition building until late in the campaign, at which point Liberal leader Henderson conducted a tour of the south-east to attempt to salvage the Liberal weaknesses in the region. Henderson was both aided and hindered by the fact that he was running for the university constituency of the University of Couno. The Liberals were virtually guaranteed all twelve university constituency seats by virtue of their support amongst graduates of the biggest universities in Tumbra, and this freed Henderson up to campaign without worrying about his local race. At the same time, him running for a university constituency harmed his perception amongst southeastern voters, who were largely swayed by the populist campaign of Lightfoot and Whitelaw.

The Federalists, meanwhile, focused their attention on the west in the dying stages of the campaign, with Barker re-treading rhetoric from the referendum as he talked of the benefits of the federal republic as a whole. He embarked on a coast-to-coast trip, from Bencoolen on the southern coast to Ridgewell on the northern coast, in a bid to shore up urban support for Federalists in what the party deemed winnable constituencies.

The Radicals ran a hyper-local campaign, focusing their efforts entirely on the nineteen urban and semi-urban seats their candidates were contesting. The party was the only one endorsing Gerritsen for President, and hoped that his coat-tails would at least help the minor party's efforts to win some seats in the election. Henry Sheares and other surrogates embarked on what they termed as a "public house" campaign; making stops at pubs and other places frequented by the working class to deliver speeches exhorting support for the local Radical candidate. They received hardly any press attention from the major papers, only getting attention from sympathetic local papers that were partisan in nature anyway.

Results and aftermath

Results

Party		Leader	Seats	Votes	%
	Federalist	Richard Barker	133	3,602,889	44.27
	Centre-Agrarian	Samuel Lightfoot	100	2,688,459	31.87
	Liberal	Alexander Henderson	64	2,033,848	24.11
	Radical	David Sheares	3	110,508	1.31
Total			300	8,435,704

As returns came in, it became apparent that neither the Federalists nor the Liberals had gotten the election result they had wanted. The Federalists ended up as the largest party, winning 133 seats and comprehensively beating the Liberals, who won only 64 seats — a tally that dropped to 52 when only counting geographical constituencies. The Centre-Agrarians won 100 seats, winning pluralities of the seats in the western and southeastern states, serving a major shock to both of the Reformist parties. The Liberals in particular had expected to do a lot better, but by virtue of the first-past-the-post electoral system, lost out to the Federalists narrowly in many north-eastern constituencies, where their vote had been concentrated.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, while initially reluctant, negotiations began to form a Federalist-Liberal government with Barker as Prime Minister. Barker and Henderson had a cordial relationship, having both served in the Cabinet of Oliver Grosvenor, and both had gone to lengths to prevent attacks on each other's character during the campaign. Both ignored private letters from their party's éminences grises — newly elected Federalist Vice President Ralph Davidson, and his losing Liberal opponent, Michael Turner — demanding they stop negotiations. After two weeks, Barker and Henderson formally entered a coalition to form an executive, with Henderson assuming the role of Deputy Prime Minister. Of the eight other Cabinet positions, the Federalists took six and the Liberals two — the Foreign Affairs portfolio and the Navy portfolio.

The Centre-Agrarians took the election result as a massive success, despite winning less than a third of the popular vote. They took the result as a successful consolidation of voters who had voted to maintain the United States, as well as the rural voters they had reached out to, in a single coalition. Taking advantage of the coalition agreement between the Federalists and Liberals, the Centre-Agrarians maintained their momentum and decried the coalition as the "uniparty" they had campaigned and warned against during the election campaign.

The Radicals, too, took their three seats as a success. While no other party wished to work with them, and they were relegated to the very back row of the Opposition benches in the new House of Representatives, the elected members, including Sheares, were amongst the most frequent speakers in the first Parliament session, and the groundwork was seen as a reason why the party could expand beyond its initial southeastern base in future elections.

Results by state

State	Federalist	Liberal	Centre-Agrarian	Radical	Total
Alexandria	9	1	1		11
Bencoolen	2	3			5
Georgia	12	5	8		25
Keybrook	4		8		12
Raleigh	2		4		6
Thornton	4		7		11
Bechor	20	12	12		44
Finnley	10	4	2		16
Harren	3	1			4
Marcato	11	1	1		13
Napier	27	12	14		53
Straton	3	2	1		6
Clearmont	8	4	11	2	25
Dartmoor	5		6		11
Severn	5	6	8	1	20
Gamaliel			3		3
Iswilyn	4		7		11
Westmond	4	1	7		12
Universities		12			12
Total	133	64	100	3	300