1984 Constantinopolitan general election (Queen of Cities)

The 1984 Constantinopolitan general election was held on May 6, 1984 as the previous parliamentary term had come to an end, a first since the country's transition to democracy in 1975. The election results were inconclusive as governing Socialists lost ground while the rising Liberal Party nearly doubled its share of the popular vote. The traditional center and right wing, represented by the Citizens' Front and the Reformist Party both lost seats to the Liberals while the minor center-left Progressive Party gained ground. The previously unknown formed Popular Rally, a far-right anti-immigration party, also gained representation in Parliament. After months of negotiations Costas Antoniou would ultimately be chosen as prime minister, ending the rule of socialist parties and the premiership of Djemal Erkmen.

Electoral system
The 200 deputies of Parliament were chosen from a single nationwide electoral district with a 5% threshold.

Context
The previous four years under Erkmen's Fourth Government were marked by various policies that sought to manage the Constantinopolitan economy in a period of recession while implementing The Socialists' electoral promises. Aiming to lead the country out of crisis by ramping up public spending, the government would introduce new social programs while increasing spending on previous initiatives and expanding labor rights. In the previous four years, the government created a universal health care system and a mandatory pas-as-you-go pension system for the benefit of all. Furthermore, welfare benefits were increased, the minimum wage was raised and indexed to inflation, the workweek was reduced to 40 hours, a 14-week maternity leave was implemented, new social housing was built and paid vacation was prolonged to three weeks. Possessing a comfortable majority in the Parliament, the government also proceeded to nationalize numerous banks and companies, stopping the trend towards deindustrialization that had begun in the mid-1970s. To prevent the outsourcing of Constantinopolitan industry, the government placed public and private companies under the supervision of the Industrial Commission, an organ that would gradually increase the government's control of the economy by buying shares of the companies that were placed under its control.

While the left-wing policies helped the economy to recover following a recession in 1980-1982, the expensive social programs and nationalization policies led to public scrutiny over the country's ballooning public debt. Indeed, many of the nationalized companies turned out to be unprofitable, causing the debt to GDP ration to soar from 18% in 1975 to 42% in 1984. The opposition Liberal Party ran on a platform on reduction of government spending as it considered the growing debt to be the biggest problem that the country was facing.

Over the previous decades, Constantinople's prosperity had attracted hundreds of thousands of mainly Turkish immigrants to come to the country. These immigrants formed isolated communities on the city's outskirts, causing growing concern over their integration into the city-state's Francophone society. These fears were spearheaded by the Liberal Party that claimed that such an influx constituted a threat to the country's identity, calling for tighter border controls and the forceful integration of migrants into society.

Government formation
The resulting Parliament was a divided one as no possible coalition was able to form, leaving the far-right Popular Rally as the potential kingmaker. Unwilling to cave in to the demands of an extremist party, Liberal leader Costas Antoniou entered negotiations with the center-left Progressive Party. After two months of discussion, a new four-party coalition government was formed between the Liberal Party, Citizens' Front, Reform Party and Progressive Party. This coalition would not last as Antoniou's neoliberal policies would lead to a split in the Progressive Party, leading to the snap 1986 election.