The Genuine Trader Party Movement
Implementation of the new OPEN Forum budget set very demanding quotas, leading the Forum to vote, later in 1393, to cut back and balance more with the lightfire industry, in response to Prime Minister Wen's testimony.
This setback, along with the unsuccessful 1392 election campaign, led Trader Party figures to place blame on Rit Leon and his internal coalition to favor the Leon-Kontacet Trust. And thus, the Genuine Trader Party Movement was born. Beginning as a smear campaign, this Movement endorsed politicians in the Trader Party to run against fellow Trader Party incumbents who favored Leon. And the move was successful in September 1393, as many of Leon's colleagues were swept from Party nominations in the Municipal General and County Commissioner Primary elections.
The Reformed RAD Party
In response, Rit Leon began his own campaign, which discredited statements issued by the Genuine Movement. And on Election Day of 1394, half of the elected seats remained with Leon's coalition, as Leon won the Trader Party Primary for his Governor position, a key win for his re-election bid the following year. Such a comeback was honored, but Leon cited deeply-seated hostility within the Trader Party. That November, he called for his fellow politicians to form an independent political party, a call made in a special meeting that would later be known as the November Conference of 1394. This call gained popularity with both politicians as well as voters; and on 2 May 1395, the Reformed RAD Party was established.
Criticizing both the Trader and Proculturalist Parties as "establishment parties," calling out both Parties' "marriage" to the lightfire industry, and pointing out economic stagnation with the OPEN Forum's "15 Percent Rule," the Reformed RAD Party vowed to loosen restrictions on federal funding administered by the Forum and restore the Independent Commonwealth to a dominant status in the Circlarian Realm via expansion in the domestic dymensional planecrafting industry. On 3 May, Governor Leon announced his association with the new Party, and was joined, on 12 May, by James Lawrence Kontacet. To note, Kontacet did so in formally announcing his bid for the Prime Minister role. Kontacet's calls for formal endorsements to meet the required Party threshold were met with significant gains within the week.
Supporters of the so-called "establishment parties" viewed Kontacet and the Reformed RAD Party as "radical" and "inconsiderate of current events," citing the Party formation as a strategic mistake. As the Genuine Trader Party Movement continued, Arland Terrace Moore arose as its leading figure.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Commonwealth citizens began to agree with Kontacet, especially over economic stagnation tied to the OPEN Forum and the lightfire industry. They also saw a lucrative potential in the development of the dymensional planecrafting industry as a unified front, leading Kontacet's popularity to explode and Kontacet to win more than five times the threshold number of political party endorsement signatures.
Rit Leon won re-election as Governor of Combria in 1395, while the OPEN Forum saw the strongest majority to date in favor of the Reformed RAD Party and the dymensional planecrafter industry. Meanwhile, the Reformed RAD Party gained a simple majority, by one seat, in the House of Representatives, and by four seats in the Higher Council.
The End of Prime Minister Wen's Tenure
Having exhausted the four terms allowed in the Constitution of the District of Retun, Prime Minister Meghan Wen endorsed Ministry Councillor Macon Debi as the Proculturalist candidate for the next Prime Minister. Throughout his campaign, Debi vowed to continue Wen's policies and renew the FSHA Housing Project, of which Stage III of the current development was in effect until the year 1400.
And so the Prime Minister political party Primary Elections in September 1397 yielded Macon Debi for the Proculturalist Party, Arland Terrace Moore for the Trader Party, and James Lawrence Kontacet for the Reformed RAD Party.
In 1398, Debi expanded on his campaign by promising a well-planned rehabilitation agenda for the lightfire industry and to establish a research institution similar to the NIRD for the darkfire industry. Meanwhile, Arland Terrace Moore campaigned on a promise to establish a more comprehensive deep-trade program, carry out a more loosely-organized rendition of Debi's darkfire agenda, and to preserve the OPEN Forum but to allow for more exceptions to the "15 Percent Rule."
Kontacet, in contrast, promised to completely repeal the OPEN Forum and replace it with a similar Forum administered by the "most popular industry," which was, most likely, the dymensional planecrafter industry, to draft and pass legislation to dictate an expansion plan for the dymensional planecrafter industry, and to eventually exit the South Coast Trade Deal.
It was this agenda, coupled with his popular case against the "establishment" Parties and the lightfire industry, that led Kontacet to win the election for the Prime Minister position on 16 September 1398. On that day, the Reformed RAD Party gained strong majorities in both the House of Representatives and the High Council.
Kontacet's Tenure
In January 1399, Prime Minister Kontacet issued a letter to both legislative chambers calling on them to strike down the OPEN Forum. In short time, both chambers followed through, and, on 15 January, Kontacet repealed the OPEN Forum "at the stroke of a pen." In its place was enacted the Economic Industrial Forum Act (EIFA), which established a body similar to the OPEN Forum but with radical differences. The Economic Industrial Forum was divided into Tier I and Tier II. Tier I, composed of the voted "most popular industry," would receive all of the funding from the Commonwealth Council, and was allowed to withhold up to 50 percent of it. The other 50 percent, or more, would go to Tier II, composed of the other industries, who would divide among themselves the remainder of the funds. All Bills of Proposal had to be approved by both Tier I and II of this new Forum before going to Council for approval. This triggered moments of chaos, both internally and externally; but ultimately, owing to popular pressure, most of the funding went to Tier I, which would be occupied by the dymensional planecrafter industry.
As a result, the dymensional planecrafter industry saw a major boost in funding, while nearly a dozen dymensional planecrafter projects for both domestic and international expansion emerged.
This led to a temporary increase in economic standards for the Commonwealth. But then, in December 1399, the Linbraean Regiondom Tradestone Market crashed. As part of a ripple effect, this led to the Edoran Tradestone Market to crash and the Remikran Union, now under financial strain, to consider disbandment. The Edoran Regiondom, in response, sent representatives to the Commonwealth Council to lobby them into investing in the scriptfire industry. Investors in the Commonwealth re-evaluated their interests, as a result of this, and began withdrawing from Kontacet's dymensional planecrafter agenda, while many figures from this sector began criticizing this agenda for not being economically feasible given the current circumstances.
Prime Minister Kontacet responded to this by publicly bashing and legally intimidating journalists and critics speaking out against him, an that triggered public outcry. In this environment, the Realist Party re-emerged, led by a figure named Kent Ogden, who embraced the advice given by the Edorans. In March 1400, workers voted resulting in a shift in the EIFA Forum, where, the following year, a majority in Tier II voted for budget reconciliation to shift a lump sum of funding toward the scriptfire industry.
This decision drained funding from the lightfire industry, of which many businesses began to declare bankruptcy. In the wake of this, the Lightfire Subform voted, in April 1400, to withdraw the Commonwealth from the Malfua Trade Deal in Ancondria.
The 1400 EIFA budget reconciliation also had an impact on the South Coast Trade Deal, which led to retaliation from other involved entities in 1401. To such retaliation, Prime Minister Kontacet ordered the Commonwealth military to carry out "fearful" intimidation tactics. A growing number of Commonwealth citizens began to see Kontacet as being unreasonable during this time; and the Realist Party, led now by Kent Ogden and Vet Silonk, proposed a more well-rounded budget similar to Kontacet's agenda but more inclusive of the scriptfire industry. In late 1401, Kent Ogden died of an aneurysm, which boosted support for the Realist Party through martyrdom sentiment. On Election Day 1401, the Realist Party won a majority of House seats and a third of High Council, as well as all but one Governor seat.
Kontacet's perceivably rash decisions led entities to withdraw connections with the Commonwealth in the international OCEA Forum, to which Kontacet responded with retaliatory sanctions. This led to even more people criticizing Kontacet, as Kontacet continued to defend the validity of the dymensional planecrafter industry.
In 1403, Vet Silonk, continuing to push for the more well-rounded budget, announced his bid for Commonwealth Prime Minister position on behalf of the Realist Party, winning the Party Primary later that year.
In 1404, Silonk expanded on his vow by promising to amend EIFA so that the composition of Tier I would be decided by Tier II instead of the Commonwealth Council, and that the Tier budget proportions would be determined by both Tiers. Furthermore, Silonk called for more investment in the scriptfire industry. Meanwhile, Kontacet criticized Silonk's approach for damaging the dymensional planecrafter industry's economic potential, and pushed for further advertisement on a dymensional planecrafter project expansion carried out in 1403.
By Election Day 1404, it became overwhelmingly clear that a majority of the Commonwealth population saw Kontacet's re-election campaign as too reactionary and his Administration as too incompetent, leading challenger Vet Silonk to win.