East Mainland legislative election, 2010

The election for the 4th Legislature of East Mainland will be held on Friday, February 13, 2010. It will be the fourth general election held for the state legislature since its inception in 2000, and the first to be held under a new system of proportional representation. The coalition government of the Conservative Party of Georgeland and the Georgeland Party, led by Lucien Hagerty and Georgia Cobar respectively will be seeking a second term in power. Their main opponents will be the Liberal Democratic Party of the United Islands, led by Sebastian Dorido.

The election will be held concurrently with the East Mainland gubernatorial election, 2010.

Timing
The latest the election could be held was May 2, 2010, four years from the first meeting of the 3rd legislature. Though a March election had been generally predicted, Chief Minister Hagerty elected for a slightly earlier date. The election date of 'Friday the Thirteenth' was remarked upon as ominous by media outlets; Hagerty has stated he is not supersticious and is not concerned by the coincidence of the date. The election will be held just after the beginning of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.

New electoral system
The first three elections to the East Mainland legislature were held under a first-past-the-post electoral system, where a candidate was elected simply by winning a plurality of votes in one of the 115 single member seats. As part of their coalition deal with the Georgeland Alliance, the Conservatives promised to introduce proportional voting. This was enacted in legislation in mid-2009. The new legislature will still contain 115 members but be elected with a mixed-member proportional voting system, under which sixty legislators will be chosen by plurality in new, larger constituencies, while the remaining 55 will be chosen by a single transferable vote.

State of parties prior to the election
The previous election yielded the following results:


 * Conservative 50
 * Green 7
 * Liberal Democratic 40
 * Georgeland Alliance 8
 * Socialist 2
 * National Front 2
 * Independent 6