Election Season

You can’t pass a telephone pole here this week without seeing a campaign poster. The first-since-the-coup election of new parliament members happens Sunday. If any party gets a majority, it will form the new government. Otherwise, lots of horse trading will determine who gets control of which ministry, including the prime ministry.

Unless of course the current military rulers don’t like the outcome, in which case they’ll either invent a reason for staying in power a bit longer, or swallow their pride and admit that the coup didn’t accomplish what they hoped it would.

Even though I don’t really understand most of what’s going on, this election intrigues me more than the American one. It’s short-lived, for one thing. Candidates in the States have been debating for months, and still have nearly a year to go. Who can sustain excitement that long? Here, the election date wasn’t even decided until mid-October.

Also, the posters are cool. My favorite features a serious looking woman dressed in her university graduation robe, above the caption, “Not Crazy!” Then there’s the Artist Party, whose slogan is “No governing principle is best.”

I was amused to learn that if any of the election winners turn out to be suspected of vote fraud, they’ll receive yellow or red cards, just like in soccer. Either color forces a do-over; red means the candidate is disqualified. So much simpler than asking the Supreme Court to step in or examining hanging chads!