Elections

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Elections are held by several different governments or organizations in the Known World, to select individuals to hold an office. There are various different kinds of elections, ranging from the representative republic that governed the old Valyrian Freehold, to elections held within trade guilds and the like to select new office-holders.

Elections in Westeros

Few formal elections are held in Westeros, which remains a feudal society, though several organizations hold internal elections. The High Septon of the Faith of the Seven is elected by the ruling council known as the Most Devout. The Grand Master, who is not the leader of the Order of Maesters but their representative to the Iron Throne, is elected to the position by the ruling council known as the Conclave.

The Kingsmoot was an election held by the ironborn in ancient times: it was not an open electorate, but a system of elected monarchy. Every ship captain had the right to vote, and could put his name forward in the election so long as he had the support of at least three champions. Women in the Iron Islands are rarely ship captains, though there is technically no formal rule against them voting or even standing in the election (though in practice they have never had an elected queen in their entire history). Kingdsmoots were held at the sacred site of Nagga's Bones on Old Wyk island, and officiated by the Drowned Men priests. There are no formal political parties or even formal vote counts: all ship captains are present, and the priests simply declare when a clear majority of them have declared their support for one candidate. Divided elections could end in violence.

During the War of the Five Kings, following the death of Balon Greyjoy, the Drowned Men insist on reviving the tradition of the kingsmoot election. Half a dozen major candidates put their names forward, most prominently Balon's brothers Victarion Greyjoy and Euron Greyjoy, as well as Balon's daughter Asha Greyjoy. Heavily divided between Victarion's insistence on continued raiding and Asha's plea to stop before the mainland inevitably counter-attacks, the kingsmoot is instead swayed by Euron Greyjoy's audacious plan to conquer all of Westeros using Daenerys Targaryen's dragons.

Several other groups that descend from the ancient First Men, like the ironborn, also held kingsmoots - or some form of rule-by-consensus among local chieftains. The ancient High King of Dorne, before the coming of the Andals, was also elected in a kingsmoot, but the tradition fell apart after a contested result. The wildings beyond the Wall and the Hill Tribes of the Vale also follow only leaders they choose to follow, and hold open councils with their chieftains, but this does not involve voting or an "election" as such.

Military orders, however, hold their own internal elections in which every member, from the highest captain to the lowest guardsman, gets an equal vote:

  • The Night's Watch holds elections to choose its Lord Commander]], who serves as the leader of the entire organization until his death. The Night's Watch technically controls the territory of the Wall and the lands of the Gift behind it, making the Lord Commander the elected ruler of these regions ex officio. Any man, noble-born, bastard, or even commoner, can stand in the election (though noble-borns are often better-trained and thus have a better chance of rising through the ranks). Any man can put his name forward, and requires the initial support of only one other member to qualify as a candidate in the first round of voting (in practice, most serious candidates put their name forward when they already known they have a large number of supporters). The Night's Watch has no long-standing political parties, but the election is still a formal process in which every vote is tallied. Given that not all members can physically leave their posts to vote in person, it is the duty of the commanders of the different castle garrisons to report their vote tally to their headquarters at Castle Black. To win the election, a candidate must receive a two-third majority of the votes. If no candidate receives a two-thirds majority, the election simply continues the next day, with no set time limit, on and on as more minor candidates drop out and votes realign to the other candidates. Once, an election was so deadlocked that the voting continued for two years and 700 rounds of voting - though this was a remarkable case. Most elections only last several days.
  • The Warrior's Sons, the upper order of the Faith Militant, were led by a Grand Captain before their disbandment. Similar to the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, a new Grand Captain was elected in a vote by members of the order.

Elections in Essos

The old Valyrian Freehold was a republic, in which every "free-born land-holder" had the right to vote for Archons. Over the centuries, politics came to be dominated by the forty aristocratic families of Dragon-lords, who were divided into quarrelling factions.

After the Doom of Valyria, however, the Freehold collapsed, with its surviving colonies splitting up into various local forms of government. Slaver's Bay came to be ruled by aristocratic oligarchies, while the Free Cities for the most part came to be ruled by councils of oligarchic merchant-lords known as Magisters. Tyrosh is ruled by an Archon, who is elected from and by council of magisters, not popular vote. The Sealord of Braavos is selected by the magisters and keyholders of the city through a "convoluted" process.

Only in Volantis, oldest and largest of the Free Cities, is the "Freehold" system of government still practiced, as its aristocracy consider themselves the last ember of fallen Valyria. Volantis is ruled by three Triarchs, who serve one-year terms that end on the first day of the new year, at the end of a ten-day long campaign period featuring speeches by candidates, torch-lit parades, bribery, mummer's shows, and the like to win votes. The campaign season seems chaotic to foreigners, but functions orderly enough. Triarchs are allowed to run for re-election and incumbents often serve for many years. Despite all of the overt campaigning and bribery, the Volantene fundamentally have a deep respect for their elections: during the Century of Blood, beloved military commander Horonno was re-elected forty years in a row - but when he tried to declare himself triarch-for-life, the Volantene turned out to not love him as much as their sacred customs. Instead, Horonno was caught by rioters, and executed by being tied to two elephants and ripped in half.

Only members of the Volantene aristocracy who can prove their unbroken descent from old Valyria can run for Triarch. Any freeborn in the city has the right to vote - though there is a large disproportion of about five slaves for each free person in the city. Both men and women have the right to vote, and can even run for Triarch, though in practice a woman hasn't won the election for three hundred years, since the time of the famous Triarch Trianna at the end of the Century of Blood, who ended the city's disastrous foreign wars and was re-elected to office four times.

The elections in Volantis are actually organized around formal political parties, with long-standing policy platforms. The two factions in Volantis are the "Tiger" party that advocates war and conquest, and the "Elephant" party that advocates peace and trade. The Tiger party was in power during the Century of Blood, but after suffering numerous defeats they were finally voted out for the Elephant party, who have elected at least two out of three Triarchs in every annual election for the past three hundred years.