Urcean procuratorial primary

Each of the 34 Urcean provinces, states, and crownlands holds primary elections help nominate individual candidates for the office of Procurator. This process is designed to choose the candidates that will represent their political parties in the general election.

The primary process generally developed over time. It was established among political changes in the Second Great War, though a rudimentary primary system was in place between 1903 and 1944. These primaries are staggered, generally beginning sometime in January or February, and ending about mid-June before the general election in November. Provincial and local governments run the primary elections. A province's primary election takes the form of an indirect election: instead of voters directly selecting a particular person running for Procurator, they determine the number of delegates each party's national convention will receive from their respective province. Delegates are generally awarded proportional to the population of each province and each candidate's vote share, with the formula determined both by each party and each province, and winners of individual provinces generally get a bonus share of delegates. These delegates then in turn select their party's presidential nominee. There are also small numbers of unpledged delegates employed by all major parties, which are the party chair, vice chair, and top elected official of that party in each province. The top elected official is determined by precedence, including the sitting Procurator or Chancellor and Temporary President if applicable, then to the governor if applicable, then to the legislative caucus leader of the upper house of that province's legislature. Accordingly there are a total of 102 unpledged delegates in the major party's primary system.

The staggered nature of the procuratorial primary season allows candidates to concentrate their resources in each area of the country one at a time instead of campaigning in every province, state, or crownland simultaneously. In some of the less populous provinces, this allows campaigning to take place on a much more personal scale. However, the overall results of the primary season may not be representative of the Urcea electorate as a whole as smaller provinces hold their primary in late-January/February and usually have a major impact on the races. The order of provincial procuratorial primaries is established by an act of the Concilium Daoni, though the provinces are free to determine the actual date of the election within that established order.