Cotland
08-10-2008, 12:29
On 7. August 2008, Cotland had hit the voting booths after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Thomas Rothsky (Progress Party) following the assault on the Gataway Republic, forcing an unexpected two-week long rushed election campaign throughout the country.
In the past 15 days, thousands of politicians throughout the country had been running around, visiting everything from kindergardens, schools and universities to retirement centers, military garrisons, shopping malls and churches, making promises and berating their opposition. Since the King's decision to have a new election came in the middle of the pre-election year negotiations for coalition options and preperations for the originally scheduled 2009 election campaign, there were no clear coalitions or options for the voters or the politicians, meaning that the parties had to depend on the issues they had in their individual party programs.
Since the start of the election campaign, two candidates for the Prime Minister post had singled themselves out: Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party, and Sverre Gardason of the Moderate Party. These two candidates had singled themselves out through the campaign. Stoltenberg had lobbied hard on the issues of a less restricted foreign policy than the Rothsky administration had operated on, social welfare for the weakest in society and improving relations with the Russian Federation and the Nerotikan Council State; while Gardason had lobbied and gained many votes on his demands for a continued strong military, maintaining the status quo in terms of foreign policy, and improving the economy.
TV2 National Election Special,
TV2 Studio 24, Bergen, Norway
8. August, 2008, 05:06 CET
«Ladies and gentlemen, we have the latest results!» Trude Teige, the female reporter responsible for leading the election wake broadcast that had been ongoing since the polls closed at 20:00 Oslo time. For the past nine hours, the electronic voting machines had been busy compiling the votes from undecypherable binary 0s and 1s into symbols understandable to human beings, and these again had been pooled in the voting centres and been reported in to the provincial and regional level, from where they were reported to the national counting center and added to the big picture.
«The National Election Committe has announced new figures with ninety-seven point two percent of the votes being counted, and they look at follows.» Teige said as she turned and looked at a fancy pie graphic that showed seven different colors, each with varying parts of the pie. The largest pieces were colored red, yellow and blue, with green, crimson, teal and beige taking up the remainder of the pie pieces.
«So far, the Moderate Party has received twenty-nine point five percent of the votes, with Labour and the Progress Party following suit with twenty-four point six and twenty-one point two percent, respectively. Following is the Conservatives with eleven point three percent, the Socialists with five point two percent, the Christian-Democrats with three point four percent, and the Liberals with three point six percent. Other parties that received too few votes to make it past the three point five percent barrier make up the remaining one point two percent of the votes.» Teige said before the graph was replaced with a semi-circle that showed 110 seats, arranged like the meeting hall in the Storting, the Cottish national assembly.
«Based on this count, the Moderates get thirty-three of the one hundred ten seats in the Storting, Labour get twenty-seven, Progress gets twenty-three seats, the Conservatives get twelve, the Socialists six seats, and the Christian-Democrats and the Liberals get four seats each. This means that not even the likely Moderate-Conservative coalition will get more than forty-five seats, ten fewer than they need for a clear majority in the Storting. That means that we'll get a minority government for the next four years unless there is some developments in the course of the night or the next few days. And with that, we're going back to Geir Thoresen at the Moderate election wake. Geir?»
TV2 National Election Special,
Hotel Oslo Plaza, Oslo, Norway
8. August, 2008, 05:11 CET
The image shifted to a hall filled with cheering people, clearly celebrating, with bottles of champagne being popped off and consumed by happy people dressed for partying, with the television broadcast on two huge canvas screens on either sides of a stage decorated with Moderate Party banners and Cottish flags. When the people on the election wake noticed that the reporter was reporting live from their wake, they cheered even more, deafening the reporter.
«Yes thank you Trude,» Geir shouted into the microphone, trying to be heard over the cheering party members. «Here at the Moderate Party wake, the mood has been a good one since the first voting results began being announced just past eleven o'clock, and it's just gotten better as more and more votes have been counted. Now I'm told that Mr Gardason is going to be giving a speech any moment where he's expected to claim victory, and we're naturally going to be following it live. Oh wait, here he is.»
The image shifted to a slim man in his early forties dressed in a fitting dark gray suit, with rich hazel hair, a neatly trimmed beard and sharp, alert eyes, who was standing on the stage and receiving a standing ovation from the people in the crowd. After standing there, savoring the applause for a moment, he motioned for them to calm down and let him talk, with little success.
«Friends!» He began, his voice booming over the hall thanks to the loudspeakers dotting the hall. The applause picked back up. «Friends, it's been a long day today!» Again, applause. «But now, the past fifteen days of hard work and dedication has paid off. We've just seen the results of the election, and I dare say we've won the election!»
The hall erupted into cheers and applause again for a minute straight before Gardason continued, giving a lengthy acceptance speech that was filmed, but sent in the background because Geir had appeared back on the screen.
«As you just heard, Sverre Gardason has just claimed victory in the national elections, right here from the Moderate Party Wake in the Grand Hall at Hotel Oslo Plaza. Back to you Trude.»
TV2 National Election Special,
The People's House, Oslo, Norway
8. August, 2008, 05:27 CET
«Dear friends,» Jens Stoltenberg, party leader for the Cottish Labour Party started, «It's been a good run, and we've done our utmost. Over the past fifteen days, you have all displayed extraordinary dedication and commitment to our party and our vision for the future of Cotland. You've worked your tails off, around the clock, and I think you deserve this round of applause.»
Stoltenberg clapped, and headed the Labourers applauding themselves for a little moment before he continued.
«Unfortunately, we weren't good enough at presenting our visions to the people. In the rushed election campaign that we saw, we simply didn't have enough time to properly present and formulate our vision so we could let the people in on how we want this country to be. The Moderate Party was, and I congratulate Sverre Gardason with the election results and his new job as Prime Minster. With that said, I intend to present to the new government a critical opposition that will be watching its every move, and to replace Mr Gardason as Prime Minister in four years. Thank you.»
And with that speech, Stoltenberg conceded defeat and left the field wide open for Sverre Gardason and the Moderate Party to claim the positions in the Cabinet.
In the past 15 days, thousands of politicians throughout the country had been running around, visiting everything from kindergardens, schools and universities to retirement centers, military garrisons, shopping malls and churches, making promises and berating their opposition. Since the King's decision to have a new election came in the middle of the pre-election year negotiations for coalition options and preperations for the originally scheduled 2009 election campaign, there were no clear coalitions or options for the voters or the politicians, meaning that the parties had to depend on the issues they had in their individual party programs.
Since the start of the election campaign, two candidates for the Prime Minister post had singled themselves out: Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party, and Sverre Gardason of the Moderate Party. These two candidates had singled themselves out through the campaign. Stoltenberg had lobbied hard on the issues of a less restricted foreign policy than the Rothsky administration had operated on, social welfare for the weakest in society and improving relations with the Russian Federation and the Nerotikan Council State; while Gardason had lobbied and gained many votes on his demands for a continued strong military, maintaining the status quo in terms of foreign policy, and improving the economy.
TV2 National Election Special,
TV2 Studio 24, Bergen, Norway
8. August, 2008, 05:06 CET
«Ladies and gentlemen, we have the latest results!» Trude Teige, the female reporter responsible for leading the election wake broadcast that had been ongoing since the polls closed at 20:00 Oslo time. For the past nine hours, the electronic voting machines had been busy compiling the votes from undecypherable binary 0s and 1s into symbols understandable to human beings, and these again had been pooled in the voting centres and been reported in to the provincial and regional level, from where they were reported to the national counting center and added to the big picture.
«The National Election Committe has announced new figures with ninety-seven point two percent of the votes being counted, and they look at follows.» Teige said as she turned and looked at a fancy pie graphic that showed seven different colors, each with varying parts of the pie. The largest pieces were colored red, yellow and blue, with green, crimson, teal and beige taking up the remainder of the pie pieces.
«So far, the Moderate Party has received twenty-nine point five percent of the votes, with Labour and the Progress Party following suit with twenty-four point six and twenty-one point two percent, respectively. Following is the Conservatives with eleven point three percent, the Socialists with five point two percent, the Christian-Democrats with three point four percent, and the Liberals with three point six percent. Other parties that received too few votes to make it past the three point five percent barrier make up the remaining one point two percent of the votes.» Teige said before the graph was replaced with a semi-circle that showed 110 seats, arranged like the meeting hall in the Storting, the Cottish national assembly.
«Based on this count, the Moderates get thirty-three of the one hundred ten seats in the Storting, Labour get twenty-seven, Progress gets twenty-three seats, the Conservatives get twelve, the Socialists six seats, and the Christian-Democrats and the Liberals get four seats each. This means that not even the likely Moderate-Conservative coalition will get more than forty-five seats, ten fewer than they need for a clear majority in the Storting. That means that we'll get a minority government for the next four years unless there is some developments in the course of the night or the next few days. And with that, we're going back to Geir Thoresen at the Moderate election wake. Geir?»
TV2 National Election Special,
Hotel Oslo Plaza, Oslo, Norway
8. August, 2008, 05:11 CET
The image shifted to a hall filled with cheering people, clearly celebrating, with bottles of champagne being popped off and consumed by happy people dressed for partying, with the television broadcast on two huge canvas screens on either sides of a stage decorated with Moderate Party banners and Cottish flags. When the people on the election wake noticed that the reporter was reporting live from their wake, they cheered even more, deafening the reporter.
«Yes thank you Trude,» Geir shouted into the microphone, trying to be heard over the cheering party members. «Here at the Moderate Party wake, the mood has been a good one since the first voting results began being announced just past eleven o'clock, and it's just gotten better as more and more votes have been counted. Now I'm told that Mr Gardason is going to be giving a speech any moment where he's expected to claim victory, and we're naturally going to be following it live. Oh wait, here he is.»
The image shifted to a slim man in his early forties dressed in a fitting dark gray suit, with rich hazel hair, a neatly trimmed beard and sharp, alert eyes, who was standing on the stage and receiving a standing ovation from the people in the crowd. After standing there, savoring the applause for a moment, he motioned for them to calm down and let him talk, with little success.
«Friends!» He began, his voice booming over the hall thanks to the loudspeakers dotting the hall. The applause picked back up. «Friends, it's been a long day today!» Again, applause. «But now, the past fifteen days of hard work and dedication has paid off. We've just seen the results of the election, and I dare say we've won the election!»
The hall erupted into cheers and applause again for a minute straight before Gardason continued, giving a lengthy acceptance speech that was filmed, but sent in the background because Geir had appeared back on the screen.
«As you just heard, Sverre Gardason has just claimed victory in the national elections, right here from the Moderate Party Wake in the Grand Hall at Hotel Oslo Plaza. Back to you Trude.»
TV2 National Election Special,
The People's House, Oslo, Norway
8. August, 2008, 05:27 CET
«Dear friends,» Jens Stoltenberg, party leader for the Cottish Labour Party started, «It's been a good run, and we've done our utmost. Over the past fifteen days, you have all displayed extraordinary dedication and commitment to our party and our vision for the future of Cotland. You've worked your tails off, around the clock, and I think you deserve this round of applause.»
Stoltenberg clapped, and headed the Labourers applauding themselves for a little moment before he continued.
«Unfortunately, we weren't good enough at presenting our visions to the people. In the rushed election campaign that we saw, we simply didn't have enough time to properly present and formulate our vision so we could let the people in on how we want this country to be. The Moderate Party was, and I congratulate Sverre Gardason with the election results and his new job as Prime Minster. With that said, I intend to present to the new government a critical opposition that will be watching its every move, and to replace Mr Gardason as Prime Minister in four years. Thank you.»
And with that speech, Stoltenberg conceded defeat and left the field wide open for Sverre Gardason and the Moderate Party to claim the positions in the Cabinet.