BACKGROUND
Since 1947, Stalstatt has been a single-party state ruled by the United People's Communist Party (VVKP), which transformed Stalstatt into a socialist state. Despite elections being held every four years since then, the VVKP has been the only party to be legally allowed to participate. Every Chairman of the Council of Ministers has been a member of the VVKP.
Starting in the early 2010s, civil disobedience to the dictatorial government grew steadily, culminating in several riots in the nation's major cities. This resulted in the VVKP choosing Günther Beyersdorf, a political moderate, as the new Chairman in 2017. Beyersdorf at first attempted to subdue the protests with compromise, but when that ultimately failed, resorted to force. However, the military began to defect to the protestors following the bloody Siege of Strassenburg in late 2018, and the government accordingly began to disintegrate. Beyersdorf demanded the Congress to relax its restrictions on public meetings and censorship of the media, which was reluctantly granted as protestors managed to seize control of the city of Dresdner in May of 2019.
With the government appearing to be unable to handle the protests, threats of a civil war grew more and more frequent. Finally, in September of 2019, Beyersdorf announced, without the support of the Congress, that the VVKP would allow for other parties to contest the upcoming elections. While most of the party membership accepted this, hard-liners did not, and the result was the fragmentation of the VVKP into several parties, with the newly formed United Socialist Party (VSP) retaining a majority within the Congress and committing itself to reform. While protests are still ongoing, the tension around the country has noticeably dwindled following the announcement of free elections.
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Since 1947, Stalstatt has used the closed D'Hondt method for calculating the percentages for seats to the Congress. An attempt was made in 1973 to amend this to be a simple first-past-the-post system within legislative districts, but failed due to concerns of a potential upset in areas that were not fully devoted to the governing VVKP. A further attempt to reform the system succeeded in 2010, resulting in the D'Hondt system being changed to allow for open list voting. It is this system that has subsequently been used since the 2011 general election.
POLITICAL PARTIES CONTESTING THE ELECTION