Scoitan legislative election, 2011

The Scoitan legislative election of 2011 will be held on June 3, 2011 and will elect the 36th Legislature of Scoita. All 87 seats in the legislature will be up for election. The election will be held simultaneously with the Scoitan gubernatorial election, 2011. The Conservative government of Chief Minister Brad Zimmerman will seek a fifth consecutive term of office, having been in power since 1996. Zimmerman has led the government since 2007, and will be seeking his second full term. The Tories' main opponents will be the Liberal Democrats, who have never held power in Emilypolis. The LDP is led by Neil Connors, who, like Zimmerman, will be fighting his second election. At the previous election, in 2005, the Tories did not win a majority and were forced to govern with the support of the Georgeland Alliance and the Free Scoita Party. The Liberal Democrats will need to win fourteen seats to win power; though nominally unlikely, they gained eleven at the last election and have been leading in many key marginal constituencies.

Background
Following the formation of the minority Tory government, criticism of its activities increased. No longer able to use its majority to push through legislation, the government came under pressure in mid-2010 over its local government arrangements. The Tories had proposed the Local Government Act of 2010, which would have given the State government the power to reconstitute local councils as it saw fit; existing law allowed for councils to be sacked and placed into administration for no longer than 6 months pending elections. Under the new rules, elections could theoretically have been suspended indefinitely and counsellors appointed rather than elected. The Liberal Democrats and Alliance combined to block the legislation; Zimmerman did not call a fresh election at that time. The Tories claimed the bill would have stamped out corruption in local government, while its opponents labelled it undemocratic. In February 2011, the government dismissed the Aliceport district council after claims of bribery and electoral fraud had been levied at six of its fourteen members. Though legal within the framework of existing law, the sacking again raised the issue of local government, with the Liberal Democrats (who controlled Aliceport) describing the sackings as politically motivated. The government continued to insist on its right to dismiss the council, but in March and April, evidence emerged that the Aliceport Tory councillors had requested the dismissal, leading to allegations of political meddling in local authorities. On May 11, the Opposition moved a motion of no confidence in the government which was supported by the Greens, Alliance and most of the other non-government legislators. Zimmerman immediately requested the dissolution of the legislature from (Liberal Democratic) Governor Don Mendez, who granted the dissolution for a June 3 election date.