President Artamova ended his general election campaign by attending a final campaign rally in Pálot in Yevcimir today. Hoping to win the state that backed the Progressives during the 2011 campaign, the Union Party has claimed its own private polling puts it ahead in the state for tomorrow’s election. Yevcimir, a traditionally Centrist stronghold, is expected to go to the wire tomorrow as Artamova’s main challenger, Marina Yanaka, aims to keep the campaign going by forcing a run-off vote by preventing the president from winning an overall majority. Yanaka’s chances of doing so are now thought to be slim, as even her own spokesman today suggested that the Progressive leader was “not optimistic.”
Polls released ahead of the election tomorrow suggest that Yanaka’s deficit to the president now stands at well over 10 points, despite earlier having closed the margin to within just 4 points – as Artamova leads her 55% to 39% – one of the worst recorded for the Progressives. Whilst the president remains the runaway favourite for tomorrow’s election, the story of the campaign has been the rise of the Nationalist Party under two-time runner Valeriya Dashkov, who looks set to finish third ahead of the United Nationalist Democrats perennial candidate Tymur Rubin.
Speaking at his final campaign event, the president stated that this campaign had “united the country to move forward into its next chapter.” But Yanaka criticised the president for ignoring the rise of the Nationalists and said that he had been “silent” on one of the greatest shifts in Polascianan politics. Finishing her own campaign in the crucial swing state of Béspura, Yanaka again took the microphone to criticise Dashkov – who could capture up to 10% of the vote in tomorrow’s poll. “There is a rising and damaging theory that Polasciana’s security and unity could be used to tear us apart. As President, I would never allow that to happen,” she said, continuing that, “There is only one way to ensure that we do not see these tensions divide us any further; elect me as President and see the end of this damaging legacy left by the Union Party.”
Delivering his now well rehearsed and signature stump-speech, the president refused to criticise Marina Yanaka and instead continued to aim his attacks at the former President and Prime Minister; Koruin Gruaman. It has been his staple attack on the Progressives during the campaign – attempting to tie Yanaka to her former colleague’s record in office. “It’s a different candidate but the same Gruaman policies. We’ve spent four years moving this country forward – there is no reason to walk backwards. We should run as fast as we can in the opposite direction to anything that party has done,” said the president to rapturous applause as he waved to the crowds and headed for his campaign headquaters for a long night ahead of voting tomorrow.
Artamova is expected to vote early in his home state of Buratiyan tomorrow morning in the state’s capital Jaekto whilst Yanaka will vote in Emajic in Béspura where she was born. Both states voted for the president in 2011, but the Yanaka camp hope that they can remain competitive in Béspura and have outspent the Union Party in a highly visible campaign in the state led by the high-profile and popular Progressive governor, Katrina Fischer.
Polls will open at 4am and will remain open until 10pm with a preliminary result expected by 4am on Monday morning.
