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Today's Spotlight is on Fieranti, home to Cattala's second largest city, Calora. The province has 16 election seats, meaning that it's very important to win this province if you want to control the National Assembly. Here's what happened in 2007:



Fieranti was very closely fought in the last election, with Cattolica Conservatori and the Democratic Party both taking control of 7 seats, meaning there was no overall party in control. The Conservatives have rarely won more than 50% of support in this province, mainly due to the fact that it's middle class majority favours the centre-left policies of the Democratic party. The result in 2007 was the highest number of seats gained by the Tories in Fieranti in over 30 years though.

The Democratic Party has consistently controlled Fieranti for much of the past 60 years - it's regarded as a stronghold of the party and the middle-classes favour their consistent support for public services and investment in housing, employment and transport.

Il Popolo has only won Fieranti's support once, in 1991, when it won a national election for the first time. Since then, it has seen its urban support fall sharply, and has lost control of its Calora seats, but still has high levels of support in the far north of Fieranti, in rural communities that traditionally support Il Popolo's policies of strong local healthcare and education investment and other pro-agricultural and pro-rural policies.

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Today's Spotlight is on two similar provinces - the Greek-speaking islands of Hellas and Roumeli, two of the smallest provinces in population terms. In Hellas, home to only 60,000 people, there are 4 seats being voted on this year and in Roumeli there are eleven. Let's take a look at the two provinces.





These two regions are devoutly Catholic, and devoutly Conservative. And because of this, Cattolica Conservatori has won here consistently for the past 60 years - so much so that the worst result the party ever achieved in Hellas was 40% of the vote, following the 1963 political crisis that engulfed the party. These two regions are almost certain to support Lord Secolo at the next election.

Their opponents, the Democratic Party, has had mixed fortunes here. During the 1960s, it rose to become a strong rival to the Tories, and won the close-fought 1963 election in Roumeli. It has always faired better in Roumeli than in Hellas, and has never won more than one seat in the northern territory. Apparent criticism of the Greek community by it's leaders during the 1980s and the withdrawal of funding for a turbine factory by the Democratic party has pushed them into third place in both provinces for much of the past twenty years.

Il Popolo benefited from the failings of the Partito Democratico in the Greek majority islands, and managed to win Roumeli twice in the 1990s and has controlled one seat in Hellas for the past 15 years - the longest time a seat in the Ionian islands has been held by non-Conservatives in history. Il Popolo consistently targets the right-wing population of these two provinces who feel that Cattolica Conservatori has failed them in the past, and is using the shooting of a Hiigaran fighter jet off the coast of Ionia earlier this year as an example of this.

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Today's Spotlight is on the province of Monte Calida. Being one of the least populated provinces, Monte Calida isn't as vital in an election as the likes of Fieranti and Jennai. However, winning this province could be a vital step towards governance in years to come and could seal victory for a party.



Cattolica Conservatori hasn't always faired well in Monte Calida. Unlike other rural provinces, the population here isn't as right-leaning and they don't follow their faith when it comes to voting. It wasn't until 2007 that they finally managed to win round voters, through pledges to support local rail and healthcare. However their majority here is slim and it will be a close fight.

The Democratic Party lost considerable support to Cattolica Conservatori in 2007, and are hoping to win back voters in this province. The voters here are supportive of Il Popolo, who have far left and right wings, and therefore the centrist parts of Partito Democratico will hope to be the moderate voice amongst the clashing left and right. Renewable energy pledges should help the Democratic campaign win more than a measly 2 seats this time.

Monte Calida is a rural, mountainous region and because of this it is the heartland for Il Popolo. It's investments into rural rail during the 1990s have made this party a firm favourite of the locals in Monte Calida and they had an equal number of seats as Cattolica Conservatori in 2007. Tomorrow they are hoping to win the province outright, and if they want to win the election they need the full support of these rural communities.

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