Elections in the UCNA use Borda-count voting in some flavor, which has a ton of huge implications for how electoral politics works. One of them is that, at a certain point, it’s optimal to split a political party, because it lets you run twice as many candidates as you’d be able to otherwise, and (since the two parties usually cross-endorse each other) get more votes in the process.
La Cidrerie: A “swords and plowshares” (Army-agricultural) coalition. The official faction of the Reform Party, which in fairness did significantly reform the UCNA before it achieved all its goals and became the status quo.
In the old days, factions were nicknamed after the places they made their backroom deals. La Cidrerie broke the mold by officially naming itself after its favorite restaurant.
Phenomenal message discipline.
Believers: Too Muslim to be properly Christian democrats; too dependent on not estranging Catholic voters to be Islamist. When they can agree to Stay On Message and Not Discourse About The Godhead they’re passable reformists; they played the part in Yusuf II’s gilded age.
Cuba’s historically voted for the Believers since annexation, usually on the noble grounds of “fuck the mainland.” This has turned the Believers the de facto Navy coalition, and the one loudest about the UCNA’s trans-Atlantic image.
The Believers love moral posturing and live to kinkshame. They own the gossip columns, and have tons of backbiting journalists looking for the scoop that’ll get them all over the front page and ideally wreck some fucker’s career in the process.
Acuerdo: The left-labor coalition, for whatever that’s worth in a caliphate. The Acuerdo de Toleto was published during the 1889 Toleto labor war, spelling out the terms and conditions of coalition with a now-defunct socialist party. That kind of transparency was unheard of at the time, and the idea (and most of the Acuerdo) took off as the abolitionist platform collapsed.
Put themselves on the national political landscape on the “let’s stay out of a major-power war” platform. (The Believers were interventionist; La Cidrerie was of multiple minds.)
Always down to strike for a 5-hour cut in the work week. (The unofficial goal is to succeed at least once a decade.) They’ve succeeded twice without destroying civilization; the third time failed because they were trying for a flexible weekend. (They’re still trying.)
