1st January 2043
A new year begins. In September of this year, the Commonwealth Presidential election will be held. Each President is in office for a five year term and there is no limit on the number of terms he can serve. Each of the major political parties puts forward their preferred candidate and independents may stand as well. This will be a very interesting election as the addition of Russia and Japan to the Commonwealth has resulted in a redrawing of the political map. In the past there has never been more than four candidates but this time there could be ten or more. Some concern has been raised about the potential implications as the winner is decided by the highest vote total on election day and this does not need to be above 50%. With so many probable candidates, it may be the winner has a relatively small percentage of the vote, which may lead to the President trying to govern in a time of crisis without a popular mandate.
According to most political analysts, the leading candidates besides the incumbent, President Jackson, include:
1) The liberal senator Catherine Lloyd, who bases her manifesto on diverting funds away from the space program to welfare reforms. She claims that the
