1899 Qing General Election (Aisin Gioro Scenario)

General elections were held in the Qing Empire on 10 March 1898 to elect 850 members of the House of Representatives. It was the first general election held after the 100 days reforms, which transformed the nation from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy with the creation of a unicameral parliament, modeled on the British and American ones. The election was won by the Tongmenghui, led by Sun Yat Sen, a party that proposed the continuation of reforms and industrialization to catch up with westernization and compete with other global powers.

Background
After the 100 days reforms, where many of old traditions, procedures and slow bureaucratic mechanisms were discarded in favor of modernization and mass industrialization, Emperor Guangxu tasked generals to remove conservative nobles, politicians and officers with a total of 5800 individuals removed from their positions, notably Cixi and notorious commander Yuan Shikai, which was tasked to remove Cixi, but a last-minute decision made by Guangxu added him to the blacklist, leaving no opposition to the reforms.

The newly-established Imperial Council, which was an official advisory council replacing the ancient one, was filled with reformists affiliated to Sun Yat Sen movement, the Tongmenghui. The council advised Guanxu to schedule new elections for 1899, and voters should have followed a determined amount of criteria that was observed only by 6% of the Qing population, namely 40,000,000 Chinese. However, as these elections were experimental, voters had to choose their electors which would subsequently vote for candidates in single constituencies. Only in 1904 there will be an official and free election, with an increased number of citizens following the criteria, from 6% to 57%, granting a major boost in turnout.