Ita

Ita (Latin for 'yes', or 'and so...') is a populist political party in Georgeland. Ita is part of the Vox alliance of parties, of which it holds the bulk of the parliamentary seats. Founded by comedian and activist Ross Golding, Ita was launched in October 2018 in response to the ongoing East Mainland power crisis.

The party has a broadly populist platform, focusing on tackling corruption, political reforms, strong action on climate change, and more power to individual communities. Golding, who describes himself as a 'populist libertarian socialist', said when launching Ita that it was less a party, more a social movement.

The party regularly polled in excess of 20% of the vote in statewide polls, despite a state election having only just been held that February. With the power crisis and its associated political fallout causing severe damage to the incumbent Liberal Democratic government, Ita was seen as a firm alternative. When the minority government collapsed in March 2019, a new election was held at which Ita won 23% of the vote and 48 out of 120 seats. Golding, who had not been a candidate, took no role in the selection of a government; eventually the party chose Emily Quincy as leader, who became Chief Minister of East Mainland.

Ita won the by-election for the seat of Snetterton in May 2019, with their candidate Terry Truman  winning 26% of the vote. At the 2019 federal election, held in August, Ita won 33 of East Mainland's 62 seats, with its West Mainland affiliate winning 3 more. It won 22% of the vote in East Mainland, more than any other party. In its own right this made Ita the third-largest party in the new House of Commons, and the largest outside the coalition government of the Georgeland Alliance and Reform. Vox, with Ita its main constituent, became the official Opposition in the House of Commons.

Ita has no formal leader - Golding is the party's National Convener and 'muse' but is not a parliamentarian. Rejecting the centralisation of power, Ita's MPs instead elect representatives to the Vox "leadership group". These MPs are currently Adrian Khan, Troy Anderson , Joe Milosevic , Franklin Jones , Mary-Jane Epstein , Roy Kellerman and Holly Bucks. Terry Truman is the Chair of the Ita Caucus and the party whip. Epstein and Jones are co-vice chairs of the Vox Leadership Group, and are considered under parliamentary procedure to be the party's "leaders" for the allocation of staffing and resources.

In October 2019, Ita's members along with those of the other Vox parties began a process of voting on the interim arrangements, with the option of continuing them or electing a permanent parliamentary leader.

Golding is contesting the 2020 presidential election as Ita's candidate.