Elections in the Azure Order

Elections take place in Azure Order-controlled territories to select the Council of Elders every seventy-five months. Without extraordinary circumstances, the Council dissolves itself at the end of its term. It is more common to round off the length of each term to 6 years in normal speech, but the legal term limit is defined by the frequency of the elections, and in fact 6 years and 3 months.

Each district elects one elder to represent them in the Council. Before the reforms of the election of 2535, districts were based on geographical relationships, and the populations represented by each elder therefore varied significantly. However, the Election Department is now mandated to draw electoral district boundaries with populations varying no more than 20% from the mean. In addition, proportional representation seats take up one-third of the council. These seats are distributed according to the Hare-Niemeyer method. Since the political impasse after the election of 2541, one additional proportional seat is added if the total seat count would be an even number otherwise, to prevent a situation of two major blocs having exactly the same number of seats, with both being unable to appoint a high elder.

There are currently three major factions that contest these elections, the Reformists, the Conservatives and the Populists. The last election was held on 25 November, 2541, and the next election is scheduled for late 2547 or early 2548.