1848 Laguardian General Elections

The 1848 Laguardian general elections were the first nationwide elections and led to the formation of the first radical government under Francesco Russo

Background
After the Laguardian revolutions flared up in 1847 a constitutional assembly was formed. The goal of this assembly was to fix many people’s grievances with the political systems of the Laguardian states and to unite the peninsula peacefully. The assembly was mostly made up of members from radical groups, but also contained a significant number of royal representatives of the Laguardian Monarchies. The whole assembly was headed by the radical figurehead Francesco Russo and after months of work a workable constitution was finally finished and was put forward to all state governments.

The new constitution put forward a new unified kingdom of Laguardia, with direct parliamentary elections in a FPTP district system, a senate consisting of representatives of the states. The kingdom's government would be appointed by the king and would have to be approved by the parliament. Any law would need to be approved by the new parliament and the senate

In the end all states signed up to this new constitution, with the exceptions of Brecht and Nelar. These states, having missed out on being part of the Laguardian coalition and the Laguardian republic respectively, didn’t face the same wave of nationalism and radicalism. Thus they didn’t face the same pressures of joining the new kingdom as other Laguardian states.

Results
For this election 270 seats were up for election. All in FPTP districts. In this election only men that paid over a certain amount of taxes were allowed to vote. This meant the Franchise was only extended to ~3% of citizens.

Since there were no political parties at the time everyone was an independent, but many candidates did actively run under the banner of Radical, in support of Francesco Russo, the leader of the Radical movement that ran in the seat for Tarron.

Turnout in this election was 87%.

In the end Russo’s Radicals were able to win 94/270 seats. This initially led to the new Laguardian king, Emmanuel I, trying to install a conservative and royalist government. However many mps not part of the Radicals still supported Russo. This large majority in support blocked multiple governments proposed by the king, until he was forced to negotiate with Russo. The end result of these negotiations was a government in which Russo’s radicals controlled all domestic affairs and the monarch's ministers controlled all “prestigious” Foreign and military affairs.

This negotiated government gained the support of all 94 Radicals and an additional 98 independents. The government was sworn in with the support of a supermajority of 192/270 mps, and installed Francesco Russo as Laguardia’s first prime minister.