1657 Elwynnese princely election

The 1657 election for Prince of the Elwynnese Republic was held in late 1657 in the Elwynnese Senate to fill the 1658–1662 term of Prince, following the completion of the term of Liv Dravot as Princess of the Elwynnese Republic.

With 5 senators voting, and 1 senator being incapacitated (Ryker Everstone), Aldin Ayreon-Kalirion was elected with 3 votes (himself, Heath Belledin, Armin Jamal-Arminzadeh) against Eki Verion who received 2 (herself and Liv Dravot).

Reactions

Elwynnese feminists highlighted the election as a testament to a failure to de-Froyalanize Elwynn, as men voted for men, and women for women, arguing that men wish to maintain their patriarchal privilege even more after the fall of the Froyalanish regime.

Ayreonists, however, see the election as based on merit and values, where two good candidates stood against each other in a democratic fashion, where a free exchange of debate was held, and where one candidate in the end won. That men only voted for men and women for women was, by the Ayreonist argument, simply a coincidence.

The Nationalist, Humanist and Verionist reaction however was that Aldin was too effiminate to rule, and that Eki Verion embodied all the values that the Nationalist and Humanist fraction would like to see in a ruler.

The Elwynnese Workers' Party denounced the election as undemocratic and feudalist–bourgeois and called for the Elwynnese congress to select the Prince instead.

Eki Verion, responding to the election, denounced the Prince-elect as a "manchild" and claimed that Aldin lacks support from the peoples of Elwynn, she called for an overhaul of the election results, and her to be named Princess instead.

The Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria, an influential newspaper with ties to the House of Osman and the ESB Group, poured scorn upon the "familiarity" between President Armin Jamal-Arminzadeh and Prince-Elect Zahir Aldin, whilst questioning the probity and impartiality of the President of the Senate in both making Aldin's nomination and casting the deciding vote in his favour. A strongly worded editorial was rumoured to be undergoing preparation.

Post-election disorder

Parts of the Babkhi community protested, especially in highly Babkhi lower-class conurbations in Alalehzamin. Rumours were spread that Aldin was not Elwynnese and that he was a eunuch (based on his androgynous fashion sense). Pictures of the prince-elect were also burnt. The Court of the Prince, still led by Liv Dravot, Princess, had to publicly defend the manliness and citizenship of the prince-elect: "The Court of the Prince today issued an unprecedented public statement reminding Elwynnese Citizens that the Prince-Elect, Zahir Aldin, is an Elwynnese national, has a son, and is not a eunuch, in response to virulent rumours to the contrary on all three points, which have been circulating on the BDN since the results of the controversial princely election were announced.

In spite of the reassurances offered by the government, the simmering discontent, nurtured still further by war-weariness, perceived discrimination against "denizens", and the burdens of excessive taxation, spread amongst the Babkhi, Cimmerian, and Norse ethnic groups and amongst the lower classes generally. Protest committees were formed in Ardashirshahr, Eliria, Islus, Port Illumination, Vijayanagara. The Nationalist-Humanists and EWP activists made a rare show of working together, in spite of their bitter mutual loathing dating back to the Communist Revolution of 1613, to organise demonstrations in favour of simultaneous Princely and Congressional elections. The Verionists meanwhile remained faithful to Eki Verion's call for the election to be annulled in favour of Liv's choice of her as successor.

The moribund Guild of Aldermen, a corporate body whose origins laid in the era of the Coordinated State, issued a rare statement appealing for calm, civic unity, and respect for the constitutional processes and the rule of law, warning that any protracted period of civil unrest might result in what it enigmatically termed an "inauspicious occasion", presumably as a reference to the Imperial intervention which ousted the Froyalanish monarchy in 1651.