2005 Constantinopolitan general election (Queen of Cities)

The 2005 Constantinopolitan general election was held on April 10, 2005. The election was called because of Prime Minister Asatryan's gamble on improving the standing of her ruling party New Way following a disappointing result in 2002. The incumbent government won big as New Way obtained the highest share of the vote of any party since 1980. The opposition Liberal Reform Party also performed well after adopting a more socially conservative platform, thus securing the support of the right-wing of their party. This election was marked by the good showing of Act Now!, a green party, and especially the new Direct Democracy Alliance, a populist party concentrated on anti-corruption and the adoption of semi-direct democracy. The Eurosceptic Socialists and Patriotic Movement performed poorly.

This election was the first one after the adoption of the 2003 Gender Equality Law that guaranteed gender parity on party led to a new record number of elected female deputies with 87 women seated in Parliament. The 18th Parliament would also be the first one with an openly gay deputy, Georges Nikolaou of Act Now!.

Electoral system
The 200 deputies of Parliament were chosen from a single nationwide electoral district via closed-list proportional representation with a 5% threshold. The adoption of the 2003 Gender Equality Law forced the political parties to respect parity on their electoral lists as 50% of names were to be female.

Background
The election was held amidst a period of economic growth for the Constantinopolitan economy following its accession to the European Union in 1999 and the Eurozone in 2002. In the years since the country became a hotspot for the relocation of headquarters of multinational corporations as the city-state had the advantages of low corporate taxes, government subsidies, easy access to the EU and the Middle East, and an educated workforce. The record economic growth of the early 2000s raised the government's approval rating to around 60%.