1988 Laharnian state election

The 1988 Laharnian state election was held on 20-21 February 1988, to elect the 175 members of the unicameral legislature of Laharn, called the Parliament. A total of 1,431,601 people were registered to vote in the election. Turnout was 85.38%.

Electoral system

140 seats were filled from ten multi-member constituencies under closed party-list proportional representation. Within each constituency, seats were distributed according to the d'Hondt method.

After the distribution of constituency seats, an additional 35 at-large seats were distributed among the parties that received at least five percent of the statewide vote. Parties which failed to cross the threshold kept any constituency seats that they'd won, but were not considered in the distribution of at-large seats.

Electoral District	Seats
Alaro	28
Altatajdo	11
Estuaro	10
Kalkalo	16
Karbono	8
Kupro	15
Laharna Hadaro	9
Olveko	31
Rivervalo	6
Sunleviĝo	6
At-large	35
TOTAL	175

Results

The result was a landslide for the New Democratic Party, which won 55% of the seats on 48% of the statewide vote, nearly three times that of the runner-up Socialist Party. A total of 11 parties won seats in the Parliament, but only four managed to cross the 5% threshold required to be awarded at-large seats.

Political Party		Votes	%	Seats
	New Democratic Party	580,609	47.88	97
	Socialist Party	195,768	16.14	33
	United Laharn Party	111,387	9.19	18
	Liberty Party	80,417	6.63	13
	Our Strength — Our State	56,023	4.62	4
	Laharn First	42,767	3.53	4
	Agrarian Party	30,402	2.51	2
	Radical Centre Party	22,638	1.87	1
	Laharnian Dream	20,369	1.68	1
	Laharn is Beautiful	19,166	1.58	1
	Nationalist Party	19,207	1.58	1
Other parties		33,925	2.80	0
Valid Votes		1,212,678	99.21	175
Invalid Votes		9,657	0.79
Total Votes		1,222,335	100.00
Enrolled Voters/Turnout		1,431,601	85.38

The proportionality of the election, as measured by the Gallagher Index, was 6.63, somewhat higher (more disproportional) than desired. While a score of 0 would indicate a perfectly proportional outcome, a Gallagher Index of 5 or less indicates a broadly proportional result.

The main cause for the disproportionality was the fact that only the top four parties crossed the 5% threshold required to win at-large seats, while over 20% of votes were casts for parties that failed to cross the threshold. This resulted in the four largest parties being overrepresented at the expense of the smaller parties, especially the New Democratic Party, which was able to secure a majority of the seats–and thus form a single-party government–despite winning only 47.88% of the vote. This can also be illustrated by the fact that the New Democratic Party had an average of 5,985 votes per MP, while the Radical Centre Party's 22,638 votes earned it only one MP.

Government formation

With the New Democratic Party winning a majority of the seats in Parliament, they were able to form government without support from any other party.

On 18 April 1988, the Parliament was convoked, and Governor Manuelo Vajardo nominated NDP leader Karlo Bevincimo as candidate for Chief Minister. Later that day, Bevincimo presented to Parliament his proposal to form government, after which a vote was taken on whether to approve the proposal.

Party positions on the proposal

In addition to his own New Democratic Party, Bevincimo's proposal was supported by the Liberty Party, Our Strength - Our State, and the Agrarian Party.

The Socialist Party, Laharn First, and Laharn is Beautiful opposed the proposal. The Socialist Party indicated that, although their objection would have no impact on the outcome of the vote, they intended to function as the official opposition and an alternative government-in-waiting during the forthcoming parliamentary term.

The United Laharn Party, Radical Centre Party, Laharnian Dream, and Nationalist Party all signified their MPs would abstain from voting. The United Laharn Party's reason for abstaining was an objection to a single-party executive.

Voting results

The proposal for government put forth by Karlo Bevincimo was approved by the Parliament with 116 votes in favor and 38 votes against.

Faction	YES	NO	ABSTAIN
New Democratic Party	97	0	0
Socialist Party	0	33	0
United Laharn Party	0	0	18
Liberty Party	13	0	0
Non-Aligned	6	5	3
TOTAL	116	38	21

Appointment by Governor

Following a result of the vote, Governor Manuelo Vajardo formally appointed Karlo Bevincimo as Chief Minister of Laharn on the evening of 18 April 1988, along with the ministers serving in his Government.