Hulstria and Gao-Soto

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Kei Yoshimura, leader of We Can Become a Mountain, greets supporters after voting at a polling site in her hometown of Miyako, Hilgar.

We Can Become a Mountain Wins Plurality in Federal Assembly After Collapse of Once Dominant Liberal People's Party 
14 May 5740



KIEN, Hulstria - Only about a  year after it was elected the Federal Assembly for the first time in 5740, We Can Become a Mountain (Yama) has soared to become the largest political party in Hulstria and Gao-Soto after receiving over 16 million votes and increasing its seat count in the Federal Assembly by 72, giving it control of over a quarter of all seats.

Impressively, Yama managed to flip all states other than Hulstria proper, including a Budenlar, which is only about 10% Kunihito. It did particularly well in its heartland states of  Kuratha and Hilgar, as well, where it managed to come away with 37.8% and 37% of the vote, respectively.  Polling shows that Yama’s success in this region is tied to its dominant lead among Kunihito and Sekowan voters. In fact, Kunihito nationalist parties did well with this demographic across Hulstria and Gao-Soto, with the combined vote total of Yama and the Cooperative Party reaching a majority among these two ethnic groups.

This is may be a surprising result to many in Hulstria and Gao-Soto, as well as abroad, given that Yama was able to win over such a large portion of the non-Kunihito electorate despite its main premise being decentralization or even independence for Gao-Soto, but Dr. Mori Hayato, a professor at Idōwa National University’s Department of Political Science and Democracy, says that Yama’s electoral success was actually quite predictable. 

“The Liberal People’s Party (LVP), arguably Hulstria and Gao-Soto’s dominant political party, just disbanded only a few weeks ago. And that really only left a few, viable options in the eyes of many voters. Sure, newly formed parties like  the Hosian Democratic Party and Union Party were there, but they had never proven themselves electorally. So, when it came down to it, the Septemberists, moderates, and progressives that formerly voted for the LVP likely coalesced around We Can Become a Mountain as it was the only viable option that didn’t support the Hulstrian Nationalist project or a return to monarchy.” 

In fact, Dr. Mori also argued that the Hulstrian National Party’s decision to support the election of Karl Rothingren-Traugott-Okatori to Federal President may have also pushed some of its voters towards Yama, something that previously may have seemed inconceivable. But, it, along with the Federal Crownlander People’s Party,  ended up being the only two parties to lose seats in the election; they lost 16 and 17 seats respectively.

“It wasn’t too long ago that we saw a few hundred thousand people march through the streets of our country over the election of Mr. Rothingren-Traugott-Okatori and as we saw, many of these protestors were actually former voters of the Hulstrian National Party that felt betrayed by the election of a member of Hulstria and Gao-Soto’s former imperial family to the throne. If support for the republic is high enough on their priority list, than there’s only so many parties for them to turn to.”

As the largest party, Yama will now have to carefully navigate the formation of a government. It is expected that Yama will rule out working with Hulstrian nationalists. As such, the only remaining option is some combination of the Federal Crownlander People’s Party, Cooperative Party, Hosian Democratic Party, and Union Party. However, there’s no certainty that these parties will want to work with Yama, especially with how intertwined it is with the Kunihito nationalist and separatist movement.