Chapter 90: General Election Ends
No matter what Karsten thought, on October 28, 1892, the general elections in Bulgaria came to a successful end. The impact was, of course, significant. It marked the end of the general party politics in Bulgaria.
Ferdinand knows that this is only a short time. In the long run, political parties will still take the stage of history. In fact, it is also a helpless move. At present, Ferdinand can say that it is easy to form a political party if it is secretly formed, but what are the consequences?
The rise to power of Konstantin has been set. At the moment, Bulgaria has no one who can compete with him. If another party supports it, this will certainly affect Ferdinand's authority.
Ferdinand did not intend to raise a rival. He did not dare to underestimate such a historical figure. Politics has no bottom line, and if one is not careful, the tide is turned, and it is too late to cry.
Ferdinand did not want to put hearts and minds to be tested. The best way to do this is not to give it a chance. Political parties and the king's power are naturally contradictory. Constitutional monarchy is still good, but if the direct response is a bad republic, Ferdinand can't even cry.
It is simply to be done once and for all. At least under the influence of Ferdinand, the Bulgarian population of this generation is not a fan of political parties. Without the support of the people, do they still want to be powerful?
Ferdinand would have long been a formidable force when the people had forgotten all this. Just like the British Queen Victoria now, prestige has been deeply rooted in the people. Even if it is a constitutional monarchy, she has begun to detach herself from politics and can still dictate the direction of Britain.
The spirit of life is good, and the big picture has been set. This parliamentary election aligns with Ferdinand's will, plus he has secretly controlled half of the votes. He really can not think of the chance of losing. Ferdinand is now back to his usual self, taking it easy and admiring the beautiful lady's legs in the royal palace.
At this time, Alisa came in and handed over a document, blushing slightly, and said, "Your Highness, here are the results of this election. The lists of members of the National Assembly are all here!"
Ferdinand reluctantly withdrew his thoughts. The task at hand was important. The lessons of history taught him the example of Nikolai II if he acted recklessly.
When he looked at a thin page of the list, there was also a thick stack of information. Ferdinand just swept this election without incident. More than half of the seats were in his pocket. There were only a few political party members of parliament, and there was no doubt that all the women who had signed up to run for the election were lost. However, one of the tidbits still caught his interest.
There will also be a winner under normal situations, no matter which way it goes. Even if the votes are the same, there can be another round, but here an accident happened. Ferdinand asked in wonder, "Oh, what's going on? How come no one won in the Gabler district? Did the candidates make a mistake as a group?"
Alisa said cheekily: "These issues, Your Highness, are listed below with detailed reasons. The candidates in this district were all former Liberals, and the local people were very unhappy with them when they found out. A total of more than three thousand people voted, and the highest winner, Kaki Ivanov, did not get more than thirty votes. Not even three percent of the votes were cast for all the candidates combined. What the others filled out is interesting, you can see."
Ferdinand flipped back a few pages and stopped at page sixteen, which caught his interest, with what the voters had filled in was very amusing.
The highest percentage of votes was for "God", which took up 48 percent of the votes, followed by "Call for the removal of several candidates from the election", which took up 36 percent.
There are also attached a variety of reasons, for normal reasons such as: hiding identity information before and moral problems. The odd reasons such as: too ugly to represent me, they are suspected of being foreign spies and suggest a review, they are the devil incarnate...
It must have been so great to see Ferdinand laughing in tears. One could imagine what kind of feelings the several candidates, who were running for office at the time, would have had after hearing these reasons on the spot!
No one will indeed be elected. Even the unlucky one with the highest percentage of votes - Kaki Ivanov - is too unhappy to announce himself as the winner!
If not, he would be the shortest elected member of parliament in Bulgaria's history. The voters on the scene probably would not mind exercising their right once more - to remove the member from office.
Even so, they will become the laughing stock of history. The candidates will leap to become world-class figures and serve as counter-examples to educate future generations - politics is not for everyone.
The rest of the people who filled in the content are varied. Some filled their own names but also in the heroes of Bulgarian history, Ferdinand the king, and some in the foreign figures.
They have expressed their complaints about the candidates in various ways. The organizer is still very smart; as soon as they published the statistics, he announced that no one was elected. The people were assured by not letting the person with the highest percentage of votes be elected as required.
They also asked the candidates' opinions on the spot, without regard to their mood. How awkward the scene, needless to say, that the voters are satisfied anyway. They do not see anything worthwhile and would instead leave the seat of a member of parliament vacant first. They fully exercise the right to be in charge.
This incident, after it spread, also left a very lasting impact. Since then, there have been boycotts of "candidates" in elections worldwide. These include the presidential elections in European countries, where the people have rejected candidates.
There is no doubt that the Bulgarian political parties have been hit hard again in this election. The public boycott was beyond their imagination. Thirteen parties won only five seats in parliament combined, with less than five percent of the vote.
It is safe to say that they will have to continue to stay afloat for a long time to come, with their political influence at its lowest point. A new wave of withdrawals from the party has started again, with one passionate young man leaving in disgrace under constant pressure from his family and friends.
Besides hurting the political party people, they also met the results of this election with a cold response in the international arena. The British, Germans, and Austro-Hungarians were all hurt and tried to influence Bulgaria's future state policy through this election in order to interrupt the pro-Russian trend in Bulgaria. For this election, they also started their own influence to help garner votes, but the results were so tragic.
The most disputed right of women to run in this election was rejected unanimously by the conservatives. Well, the neocons didn't support it either, so one could say Ferdinand was the lone fighter this time.
Ferdinand should be thankful that there are no women members of parliaments born in this election and that they are only used as the subject of tea-time talk. Otherwise, it is possible that now the old ladies have come to the gates of the Sofia Palace to petition.