Candvian parliamentary elections, 2018

Candvian parliamentary elections are set to take place on 4 March 2018. The Parliament is elected through a system of proportional representation. The Candvian People's Party is currently the largest party, in a coalition with the Liberals. The minimum threshold for a party to enter Parliament is 5%. It resulted in the Candvian People's Party getting nearly a supermajority of seats.

Campaign
The previous parliamentary elections in 2013 resulted in the new Candvian People's Party getting around 39% of the vote and 41% of the seats. The ones in 2008 resulted in the Candvian People's Party entering Parliament winning 7% of the vote.

Maria Creslana's government was slightly unpopular at beginning of her chancellorship in 2013 but it bounced slightly up in 2016 and it reached peak popularity in 2017. Most opinion polls started showing his Candvian People's Party winning the election in a landslide. However, all parties but the Candvian People's Party are now almost equally popular, with around 5% in the polls each. This led to grave concerns this election could result in Candvian People's Party getting all 250 seats if the opposition doesn't unite.

When King Paul called for the election on 18 February 2018, immediately movements were created calling for the opposition to unite in opposition against the Candvian People's Party, stating "if we don't unite, the PPC will get every single seat and your future might be in jeopardy". The right was particularly worried about this, and talks are ongoing between the Conservative and National Renewal parties on a possible coalition for the election in order for the parties to gain over 5% of the vote.

The Candvian People's Party, like the Liberal Party, Justice Party and Green Party, campaigned in favor of joining the Western Union. Prime Minister Creslana immediately launched campaign ads stating "all our brotherly nations are in the Western Union" and "the Western Union will bring us more economic development, good job growth, a healthy economy, more foreign investments and defence of our territory". The Nationalists, Renewalists and Communists fought hard against the Western Union, stating that "it would effectively remove Candvia's status as a sovereign state".

The Left and Socialists, on 22 February 2018, announced a coalition for the elections. The Left-Socialists is the name of the coalition. A Socialist spokesman stated that he expects that a united leftist ticket would be able to beat the Candvian People's Party and the right in any election, making the claim that the majority of Candvians are "deeply left wing". This statement was disputed and was called 'fake news'.

The Creslana government has 77% approval among Candvians, the best approval rating in history, behind only late chancellor Lucas Calderon of the People's Union, who in 1953 had a record approval rating of 79%.

On 23 February 2018, Prime Minister Creslana announced WU Parliament elections will be held on 14 March. This announcement made the WU Parliament election campaign overlap with the Candvian parliamentary election campaign, a move criticized by Creslana's political opponents.

Polls
So far the Candvian People's Party (PPC) has had a lead of over 50% in almost every single poll since May 2017. The Candvian People's Party, if it gets 61% of the vote, would win in a landslide unseen since the 1961 landslide victory of the conservative People's Union, which won 61% of the vote and 197 out of 250 seats under the leadership of Lucas Calderon. The People's Union would go on to win again in 1966, 1971 and 1976, again in large landslides, before finally cracking by the 1981 election.

Trivia

 * The consequences of a landslide Candvian People's Party victory in which it gains all the seats could be enormous as the country would effectively transition into a one party state. A civil war could happen because the party would likely get around 56% of the vote if it won 250 seats.
 * Some political pundits state this is "extremely unlikely" to happen as they believe that the right and left will try to unite against the Candvian People's Party.