Dundorf

[TheNick]

Oberlitz and Felder Advance to a 2nd Round of Voting, Zeitung Projects
February 5690

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#Wahl90: the March 12 runoff of the Presidential Election will feature Lorena Oberlitz and Herman Felder.

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Dunburg - The country voted yesterday in its first direct presidential election in 66 years, for the 5690-5695 term succeeding President Wolfgang Prawius' term-limited tenure as Federal President. In a strong surge of turnout, Lorena Oberlitz (DSDP) and Dr. Herman Felder (NDZP) were the two top voted candidates for President, but none of them came close to 50% +1 of the votes, which means that Mrs. Oberlitz and Dr. Felder will face a runoff election in two weeks. One big surprise of the night was the strong showing of independent candidate Rikkert Van Der Plaas who, without the backing of any party machine, obtained almost 14% of the votes, arriving third overall. His best performing State was Grozvic (20%), a state heavily populated by the Narik minority, which he claimed to represent in this Presidential election as the sole Narik candidate. He also ran on a strong fiscally conservative and a socially progressive platform, drawing votes from both left and right, and hinting on the campaign trail that he might found a new party, in the near future:

I feel really good about our chances in the election! If we perform well, I will think about it [forming a new party]. I really think Dundorfians need a neither left or right alternative that pledges to represent all people no matter their background, sexuality or beliefs and that wants to have a serious conversation about our bloated budget and fiscal responsibility.

Gerda Kempf, the candidate of hard-left DRF, obtained a good result: she won 11% of the votes and is the fourth-most voted candidate, it is a satisfactory result for her and her party because the merger with the DSU has proven successful and it gave to most leftist flank of the center-left coalition new vitality, also ahead of the November legislative election, when the coalition (DSDP-GPP-DRF) hopes to recapture control of the Kanzleramt, currently controlled by NDZP's Freda Gimbel. The other center-left candidate, Gloria Schumacher (GPP), was the least voted candidate with about 7% of the vote. The Green party launched the candidacy of Ms. Schumacher late in the summer and it was clear that they didn't expect her to win, mostly because of the strong profile of Lorena Oberlitz:

We have a very strong candidate in the center-left, former Chancellor Oberlitz. The Green party knows it will be difficult to win this election, and we decided that our best bet is Gloria. A young rising star that can build a national profile, and energize our base. We're working tirelessly to ensure that the next Federal President is a Progressive. Whether it's Gloria, or Chancellor Lorena Oberlitz.

 

In the center-right, the KBP and the TLD candidates underperformed the support of their parties' baseline, part of the reason is, according to our election experts, is the independent candidacy of Mr. Van Der Plaas. Exit polls show that voters who voted TLD and KBP in 5686 have supported Van Der Plaas more than other voters. Another reason Van Der Plaas got an impressive results is the record number of votes that he got among people who did not vote four years ago in the legislative election. Ms. Schumacher and Mrs. Kempf have both endorsed Lorena Oberlitz for the second round, while Mr. Gutenberg and Mr. Krancke have endorsed Dr. Felder. The independent candidate, Mr. Van Der Plaas, has said to his voters to "vote according to your own conscience".

The second round is set to take place on March 12, and whoever between Lorena Oberlitz and Herman Felder will receive one more vote, will be elected Federal President and will become the newest tenant of Karlottenberg Schloss, succeeding the ten year tenure of President Prawius. Will the NDZP manage to hold on the Presidential Palace? Find out with the Zeitung in two weeks!

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Presidential Election results:
- Lorena Oberlitz (DSDP): 24.746.953 (27,6%) - Advances to second round
- Dr. Herman Felder (NDZP): 19.669.244 (21,9%) - Advances to second round
- Rikkert Van Der Plaas (Ind.): 12.411.782 (13,8%) - Eliminated
- Gerda Kempf (DRF): 9.630.668 (10,7%) - Eliminated
- Tobias Gutenberg (KBP): 8.736.549 (9,7%) - Eliminated
- Gunther Krancke (TLD): 7.968.462 (8,9%) - Eliminated
- Gloria Schumacher (GPP): 6.608.218 (7,4%) - Eliminated

Turnout: 89.801.876 (80,2%) - was 75,8% in the 5686 Legislative election

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