Nuntikarta Giovanniterrana

[Giovanniland]

[Giovanniland]

1423 Elections in Giovanniland: What to Expect?

Porto Violeto, Giovanniland — Elections for the Senato are slated to happen on 18 March 1423, as Prime Minister Amore Gile Abrente's term in office comes to an end after coming to the position on 5 May 1418. The Senato, Giovanniland's national legislative branch, is elected by popular vote and decides the Giovannilandian head of government according to the party or coalition that can form a majority in the chamber. General elections happen when the Senato is dissolved, happening at most five years after the previous one, or earlier if the Prime Minister resigns, dies in office, or is subject to a successful vote of no confidence.

The nation has fared well during Mrs Abrente's term, with the continuation of notable technological development coupled with respect for the environment, a core tenet of her Partito Soquale-Verde (PSV), and major events including the Quorivo & Kharventhin Esferiad, a flagship project of the term together with neighboring Blue Bubble. Mrs Abrente is hoping to capitalize on these successes by continuing to serve as her party's leader, meaning that maintaining the most seats within her left-wing coalition, the PSV alongside the Partito Labrista (PL) and Partito Komunista (PK) would confirm a re-election.

The last time a PSV incumbent was re-elected was Emilio Albinio (current Minister of Foreign Affairs) in 1409, and the current prime minister has a fair chance, though there are two possible outcomes in which she does not get re-elected. One would be that the PL led by Elisa Anario-Silva surpasses the PSV in legislative seats and thus gets to nominate their own pick for the position, as is tradition. The other is that the opposition coalition returns to power, led by Vinikio Lamponi of the Partito Librale-Demokrata (PLD) and Lauro de Abreo-Florino of the Partito Respublikano (PR).

Regular opinion polls made by the institute Voge Populi throughout January and February showed the following outlook in regards to seat predictions. The governing coalition's current 307 seats look very likely to increase, and if the latest polls were taken as an election, it would stand with 316 seats. In the opposition, we see a shift to the right involving the PR potentially getting more seats than the PLD for the first time in decades, whereas the PV and PP aren't faring well.

Party	Ideology	Leader	1418 Election	4/1	11/1	18/1	25/1	1/2	8/2
Komunista	far-left	Valerio Visellio Larone	69	65	63	59	61	63	64
Laborista	left-wing	Elisa Anario-Silva	111	119	125	124	120	124	122
Soquale-Verde	center-left	Amore Gile Abrente	132	140	138	139	133	129	130
Librale-Demokrata	center	Vinikio Lamponi	83	66	69	72	77	75	71
Respublikano	center-right	Lauro de Abreo-Florino	74	81	78	80	85	83	86
Violetista	right-wing	Zodeno Fenestella	25	21	19	19	18	21	22
Patriota	far-right	Marko Arruntio-Pompei	6	8	8	7	6	5	5

For those unfamiliar with Giovannilandian elections, the Senato's 500 members are elected representing an electoral district according to its population, therefore any opinion poll must take this in mind instead of simply gathering nationwide votes. In addition to the national Senato elections, each region and municipality will elect members to its Kuria, a local assembly that chooses the leader for the respective administrative division and develops local legislation. In the live coverage of the election day, we hope to bring you a lot of updates about how the outlook of the 1423 Senato goes as votes come in. Stay tuned!

[Giovanniland]

Giovannilandian 1423 Election Results!

Porto Violeto, Giovanniland — In a surprising turn of events, Elisa Anario-Silva of the Partito Laboristo is slated to become the new Prime Minister of Giovanniland once the transition period ends and the new Senato chooses the leader of Giovanniland for a period of at most five years. Elisa's party attained 133 seats in the national legislature in comparison to the 120 seats won by the Partito Soquale-Verde of the presumably outgoing Prime Minister, Amore Gile Abrente. Although the governing power stays in the hands of the same left-wing coalition (PL, PSV and the far-left Partito Komunista), it is Giovannilandian tradition to always have the Prime Minister of a coalition hail from the party with most seats in it. 

A total of 18,230,986 voters came to the elections, which is a turnout of 75.87% from the total of 24,028,155 citizens with at least 18 years of age. Voters cast their votes for the general election according to their electoral district, where each party chooses one representative to run. Regions and municipalities also elected members to their local legislatures (the Kuria), which in turn choose the leader for the given administrative division.

The results confirm regional trends seen in previous elections, such as the Partito Violetista's strong appelation as a regional party in northern Lavender Island, as well as the domination of left-wing parties in major cities, bringing a large number of votes for their coalition's candidates. Left-wing voters also prevail in the very populous Giovannia Magna, Altana and Lido Flavi regions, whereas the also densely populated southwestern coast of Lavender Island, namely the Primolido and Abrenosto regions, leans more to the right. 

Other political analysts focused on a more national overview of trends as seen in various polls. The graph below gathers together several polls by different sources from the start of the year until three days before the elections, and then the actual results themselves with a prevalent bigger dot at the end. Polls aren't always accurate and only serve to show a snapshot of a specific moment rather than to predict, and this is shown by the fact most polls were predicting a Soquale-Verde win or at least a tie, but instead the Labristas gained a 13-seat advantage over their coalition allies. The surge of the Respublikanos, as well as the fall of the Librale-Demokratas, were also movements not well caught by the polls, whereas for the other parties the polls were more or less in line with results. 

 

In any case, the final results were 133 seats for the Labristas (26.6%), 120 for the Soquale-Verdes (24%) and 72 for the Komunistas in the governing coalition (14.4%), a joint result of 325 seats which makes 65% of the 500-seat Senato. The other 175 seats represent the opposition parties, with the Respublikanos' 111 (22.2%) accounting for more than half of them, followed by 43 for the Librale-Demokratas (8.6%), 17 for the Violetistas (3.4%) and 4 for the Patriotas (0.8%). Parties who gained seats in comparison to the 1418 Senato were the PK, PL and PR, whereas the PSV, PLD, PV and PP lost seats.

These shifts, besides the obvious effects that they will have in changing the premiership from Amore Gile Abrente to Elisa Anario-Silva, also leave the PR's leader Lauro de Abreo-Florino in a much stronger position to potentially challenge the left-wing coalition in the next elections. Lauro, from the famous Abreo-Florino family that has given several Prime Ministers to Giovanniland in the past, most notably the brothers Tommaso and Kesar that started national industralization in the 12th century, will certainly enjoy influence over his peers from other parties, such as the PLD's Vinikio Lamponi and the PV's Zodeno Fenestella. Also a rising star in politics is the communist leader Valerio Visellio Larone, whose leadership in the party has succeeded in rebuilding the party's influence in Giovannilandian politics after a decline from its previous prominence in the late 13th century.

Meanwhile, in regards to the overall national vote for the parties, the Labristas led with 4,593,621 or 25.2% of the votes, followed by 4,215,195 or 23.12% for the Soquale-Verdes, 3,442,918 or 18.88% for the Respublikanos, 2,758,706 or 15.13% for the Komunistas, 1,871,580 or 10.27% for the Librale-Demokratas, 1,095,264 or 6.01% for the Violetistas, and lastly 253,702 or 1.39% for the Patriots. Due to the nature of the elections being decided in each prefecture and then summed up to make the national Senato, there can be disparities between the popular vote share and seats distribution, this time benefitting mostly the Respublikanos at the cost of the Violetistas. The final legislation composition is shown below:

 

With elections concluded, we look forward to what the future holds for the country under new leadership. Although Giovanniland has a new leader from a different party, most stances on key national issues and political ideologies are fairly similar between the outgoing Mrs Abrente and the incoming Mrs Anario-Silva. After all, the new Prime Minister can rely on her predecessor's successes, including but certainly not limited to the Quorivo & Kharventhin Esferiad, the development of environmentally-friendly technology to maintain Giovanniland's position in the group of pioneer nations in this field, and continued improvement in social and economic standards across the nation.

[Giovanniland]

1423 Giovannilandian Chess Championship Concludes!

The official logo of the 1423 Giovannilandian Chess Championship.

Sonserina, Giovanniland — The 1423 Giovannilandian Chess Championship came to an end this Tuesday, 26th December 1423, with multiple-time former champion Raffella Quadrigaro returning to the position of champion after almost a decade. The competition started in the first day of the month and featured forty participants from different regions of Giovanniland, playing in a group stage where the top two from each group advanced to the knockout stage and then decided the winner. The event was visited by notable political figures, including Prime Minister Elisa Anario-Silva and His Majesty King Giovanni VI, as well as His Serene Highness Prince Marcarius of Saint Mark. It happened in Sonserina, a city of 103,715 inhabitants, considered the national capital of chess.

Every year, regional competitions determine the participants of each championship. Places are allocated to each region in proportion to their population, and these competitions are often a place for rising stars in national chess to be known for a wider audience, while established players usually are the first to confirm their qualification. The following image shows the names of all participants for this edition and their titles, with GM standing for Grandmaster, IM standing for International Master, and CM standing for Candidate Master. All of them were ranked and divided into five pots by ELO rating and then randomly sorted into one of the eight groups, which will be described afterwards.

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
GM Guillermo Uryde-Amorino*, 2780  GM Giuliana Flaviano-Emina, 2651 IM Gioseppa Opiternio, 2503 IM Augusto Rossiano-Gellio, 2457 Vanessa Tiberiano Edrense, 2251	GM Giovanni Amdo-Gyasso, 2752 GM Kyro Lartidio-Velanio, 2659 IM Aurelio Vindemia Orfeo, 2522 CM Daniella Gigero, 2361 Massimiano Faustino, 2164	GM Karlo Neurino-Sousa, 2702 GM Gallio Kervario Hortense, 2583 IM Gepelle Gormo-Pasano, 2531 IM Gratia Frigiva-Lukio, 2460 Zerina Suevio-Medottone, 2224	GM Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone, 2674  GM Gianna Superbo-Legia, 2570 IM Amanda Gilvano Valli, 2473 IM Margerito Alboquerko, 2469 Angelo Dolabella Porto, 2189
Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
GM Sergio Amorante-Aquilano, 2734  GM Vittor Nyima-Lyamo, 2680 IM Tommaso Koliva, 2519 CM Eustakia Erdene, 2380 Madalena Amento-Oltoveno, 2275	GM Severo Spindola Giordano, 2642  GM Oralino Kyenze Gormo, 2630   IM Markella Viator-Tamudio, 2444 CM Isidoro Artena Santi, 2424 Amando Nevio-Karpo, 2310	GM Gustavo Takeda, 2711  GM Antonio Ambrosio Borba, 2559  GM Zutrina Palbario, 2543  CM Otto Velite-Peskennio, 2415  CM Serena Agrikola, 2345	GM Raffella Quadrigaro, 2834 GM Lavanda Rosetta-Lyra, 2621  IM Augustino Neuriani Kalburno, 2490  CM Giulio Punso-Lodago, 2369 CM Vittor Urbano-Allamore, 2332

Group A was led by defending champion Guillermo Uryde-Amorino, winner of the 1421 and 1422 chess championships. It also had three other participants that were last present in 1421, namely Giuliana, Gioseppa and Vanessa, as well as Augusto whose most recent entry into the national championship was five years ago. In a surprising twist, Guillermo did not finish in first place because both him and Giuliana had the same amount of points, but in the head-to-head record he had lost to her. The two ended with three points each, from three wins and one loss, while Gioseppa was close but did not make it—she won against the eventual group leader but drew against lower rated opponents.

Group B's highest rated player was Giovanni Amdo-Gyasso, notable for being the champion in 1411 and runner-up in 1422, and he indeed finished first far ahead of the others, with three wins and one draw for three and a half points. Aside from returning participants Kyro, Aurelio, and Daniella there was also Massimiano who entered the national tournament for the first time. The surprise of this group was Daniella, who returned after three years and qualified in second place to the dismay of Kyro. Both achieved two points, but as Daniella had more wins, she qualified for the knockout stage for her first time.

Group C saw the participation of perennial participants Karlo and Gepelle, who rarely fail to qualify; returning players Gallio and Gratia; and another new arrival to the tournament, Zerina. Karlo—notable for winning three consecutive championships from 1408 to 1410—led the group with the same results as Giovanni did in Group B, however competition was more fierce, as the second place Gepelle was only half a point behind. The international master has a history of creating some upsets, for example in 1421 when she defeated then-defending champion Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone and caused her to miss the knockout stage; in fact she might be promoted to Grandmaster in the near future. This time, she defeated the slightly higher rated Gallio who then lost the second place to her.

In the Group D, the 1420 champion Lavinia improved her chess record by topping the group after failing to qualify to the knockout stage twice in a row in the last two editions. She got 3.5 points and only failed to win against Amanda Gilvano Valli, who also ended with the same amount of points, thus their draw meant that Lavinia finished in first for her higher rating. Amanda continues to enjoy success after her surprising run to fourth place in 1421 despite not having any chess title at that time, followed by a fast rise in the national rankings. New participant Angelo did not get any points, however the bigger disappointment of the group was the grandmaster Gianna, only earning a single point and finishing in fourth, behind international master Margerito.

Group A	P	W	D	L	Group B	P	W	D	L
GM Giuliana Flaviano-Emina	3	3	0	1	GM Giovanni Amdo-Gyasso	3.5	3	1	0
GM Guillermo Uryde-Amorino	3	3	0	1	CM Daniella Gigero	2	2	0	2
IM Gioseppa Opiternio	2	1	2	1	GM Kyro Lartidio-Velanio	2	1	2	1
IM Augusto Rossiano-Gellio	1	0	2	2	IM Aurelio Vindemia Orfeo	1.5	1	1	2
Vanessa Tiberiano Edrense	1	0	2	2	Massimiano Faustino	1	1	0	3
Group C	P	W	D	L	Group D	P	W	D	L
GM Karlo Neurino-Sousa	3.5	3	1	0	GM Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone	3.5	3	1	0
IM Gepelle Gormo-Pasano	3	2	2	0	IM Amanda Gilvano Valli	3.5	3	1	0
GM Gallio Kervario Hortense	2.5	2	1	1	IM Margerito Alboquerko	2	2	0	2
Zerina Suevio-Medottone	1	1	0	3	GM Gianna Superbo-Legia	1	1	0	3
IM Gratia Frigiva-Lukia	0	0	0	4	Angelo Dolabella Porto	0	0	0	4
Group E	P	W	D	L	Group F	P	W	D	L
GM Vittor Nyima-Lyamo	4	4	0	0	GM Oralino Kyenze Gormo	3	2	2	0
GM Sergio Amorante-Aquilano	2.5	2	1	1	CM Isidoro Artena Santi	2.5	2	1	1
IM Tommaso Koliva	2	2	0	2	GM Severo Spindola Giordano	2	1	2	1
CM Eustakia Erdene	1	0	2	2	Amando Nevio-Karpo	1.5	1	1	2
Madalena Amento-Oltoveno	0.5	0	1	3	IM Markella Viator-Tamudio	1	1	0	3
Group G	P	W	D	L	Group H	P	W	D	L
GM Gustavo Takeda	3.5	3	1	0	GM Lavanda Rosetta-Lyra	4	4	0	0
GM Zutrina Palbario	3	2	2	0	GM Raffella Quadrigaro	2.5	2	1	1
GM Antonio Ambrosio Borba	1.5	1	1	2	CM Giulio Punso-Lodago	2.5	2	1	1
CM Serena Agrikola	1.5	0	3	1	IM Augustino Neuriani Kalburno	1	0	0	3
CM Otto Velite-Peskennio	0.5	0	1	3	CM Vittor Urbano-Allamore	0	0	0	4

Meanwhile, Group E was one of the only two groups where a participant won all the matches. It was Vittor Nyima-Lyamo, who recently earned the Grandmaster title and notably got the bronze medal in the previous edition. He even overcame Sergio Amorante-Aquilano, a regular participant of this tournament and champion in two separate occasions, 1411 and 1418. Eventual third place in the group Tommaso did not get the chance to see the knockout stage again after his quarterfinal appearance two years ago, while the two other participants Eustakia and Madalena enjoyed returning to the tournament after three and four years respectively, despite not getting a good performance.

Group F was a group where all participants had been in at least one of the two last editions. The two Grandmasters of the group, Severo and Oralino, had little difference in their ratings, and in fact drew the match between the two, however the former did qualify while the latter did not. It was the candidate master Isidoro who achieved second place instead, in his fifth appearance here, after an also interesting run as far as the quarterfinals last year. The overall group was competitive, all players without exception being exactly half a point in distance between each other, from the first place Severo to the last place Markella.

As for Group G, it was the only group to have three Grandmasters, since a total of seventeen players with this title qualified to the competition. The 1419 champion and strong contender for his second title Gustavo Takeda led the group as expected, however he did not win all the matches as he managed to do in the previous two years. Instead, he won three of his matches and drew the other one, against fellow grandmaster Zutrina Palbario. She was able to join the tournament again after a two years-long absence and performed strongly, taking the second place in the group. The other three players in the group—Antonio, Otto and Serena—all have played in the national tournament before, however they could not achieve a good result this time.

Finally, Group H was the other group where a player got the most points possible, four, after winning all matches. Unexpectedly it was not the top rated player of the group, multiple-time former champion Raffella Quadrigaro, but rather Lavanda Rosetta-Lyra. Lavanda finished in fourth place in the last tournament, her best finish so far ever since her first participation seven years ago. Meanwhile, Raffella qualified for the knockout stage in second place, fighting until the end with Giulio Punso-Lodago for the position, but it was an improvement over the previous year where she stayed out of that stage entirely. This was also a group where all participants have played in one of the two last editions, including the other two players Augustino and Vittor. 

The results of the knockout stage.

After the group stage, twelve Grandmasters qualified for the knockout stage, as well as three International Masters and one Candidate Master. In the upper part of the bracket, Raffella Quadrigaro made up for her not very good group stage performance with a streak of confident wins, denying players such as Giovanni Amdo-Gyasso and Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone a chance of getting another championship. The latter went as far as the semifinals, defeating multiple-time champion Karlo Neurino-Sousa throughout her way, and thus proceeded to play the third place match. Meanwhile, other players did not get past the round of 16, for example Sergio and Isidoro, two of the quarterfinalists in the previous championship, and Zutrina who reached this stage for the first time.

The lower part of the bracket had matches just as interesting as the upper part. Vittor Nyima-Lyamo was the finalist from here, firstly defeating the two best international masters of the tournament, Amanda and Gepelle—the latter was the only one to go past the round 16, after she won against Oralino. Then, a very awaited and exciting match came into being, with Vittor facing Gustavo Takeda in a repeat of last year's quarterfinals! Gustavo came to this match with high morale after knocking out the defending champion Guillermo Uryde-Amorino out of the tournament, but it unfortunately wasn't enough in the tiebreaker matches, and he fell a second time to Vittor.

Last but not least, the final and third place match happened in December 25th and 26th which is the same time as the Lavender Festival started, a very important week-long celebration in Giovanniland, thus adding to the great expectations for these last two matches. The bronze match was fittingly between 1419 champion Gustavo and 1420 champion Lavinia, in a very close dispute that the former won after tiebreaks. As for the great final, multiple-time champion Raffella faced the rising star Vittor, and convincingly won the game to add one more title to his collection, although Vittor also played very well. Raffella has played professional chess for over three decades now, winning the national championships of 1400, 1405, 1407, 1413, 1414 and now 1423. Celebrations then ensued, as the medals were awarded to the top three and the final rankings were announced.

Rank	Player	Group	Points	W	D	L
1	GM Raffella Quadrigaro	H	6	5	2	1
2	GM Vittor Nyima-Lyamo	E	6.5	6	1	1
3	GM Gustavo Takeda	G	6	4	4	0
4	GM Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone	D	5.5	4	3	1
Quarterfinals
5	GM Giovanni Amdo-Gyasso	B	5	4	2	0
6	GM Karlo Neurino-Sousa	C	4.5	3	3	0
7	GM Guillermo Uryde-Amorino	A	4	3	2	1
8	IM Gepelle Gormo-Pasano	C	4	3	2	1
Round of 16
9	GM Lavanda Rosetta-Lyra	H	4.5	4	1	0
10	IM Amanda Gilvano Valli	D	3.5	3	1	1
11	GM Giuliana Flaviano-Emina	A	3	3	0	2
12	GM Oralino Kyenze Gormo	F	3	2	2	1
13	GM Zutrina Palbario	G	3	2	2	1
14	CM Isidoro Artena Santi	F	3	2	2	1
15	GM Sergio Amorante-Aquilano	E	2.5	2	1	2
16	CM Daniella Gigero	B	2	2	0	3
Group Stage
17	GM Gallio Kervario Hortense	C	2.5	2	1	1
18	GM Giulio Punso-Lodago	H	2.5	2	1	1
19	IM Tommaso Koliva	E	2	2	0	2
20	IM Margerito Alboquerko	D	2	2	0	2
21	GM Kyro Lartidio-Velanio	B	2	1	2	1
22	GM Severo Spindola Giordano	F	2	1	2	1
23	IM Gioseppa Opiternio	A	2	1	2	1
24	GM Antonio Ambrosio Borba	G	1.5	1	1	2
25	GM Aurelio Vindemia Orfeo	B	1.5	1	1	2
26	Amando Nevio-Karpo	F	1.5	1	1	2
27	CM Serena Agrikola	G	1.5	0	3	1
28	GM Gianna Superbo-Legia	D	1	1	0	3
29	IM Augustino Neuriani Kalburno	H	1	1	0	3
30	IM Markella Viator-Tamudio	F	1	1	0	3
31	Zerina Suevio-Medottone	C	1	1	0	3
32	Massimiano Faustino	B	1	1	0	3
33	IM Augusto Rossiano-Gellio	A	1	0	2	2
34	CM Eustakia Erdene	E	1	0	2	2
35	Vanessa Tiberiano Edrense	A	1	0	2	2
36	CM Otto Velite-Peskennio	G	0.5	0	1	3
37	Madalena Amento-Oltoveno	E	0.5	0	1	3
38	IM Gratia Frigiva-Lukio	C	0	0	0	4
39	CM Vittor Urbano-Allamore	H	0	0	0	4
40	Angelo Dolabella Porto	D	0	0	0	4