["PLAY THE KING" IS ACT TWO OF THE "PLAY" SERIES. PLEASE READ "PLAY THE QUEEN" FIRST.]
It's been four months since Priam Torres, the once unpopular president of the Elysian University Student Council, assumed office. Thanks to his chief-of-staff Cas...
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REYNARD
THE TIME had finally come to know who's the winner of the popularity contest. Yes, election day is here!
If I were still writing for The Herald, they'd surely assign me to Alaric's camp. That would be a thrilling assignment. Why? Because as of the fourth presidential survey, Priam Torres was leading him by only three points, but they were considered as statistically tied. Meaning, it's not yet guaranteed that his political rival would win the presidency. He still had a fighting chance to clutch it. The three-point lead was nothing but a coin toss after all.
It would have been more fun if I could root for Alaric. I wanted to see someone in his position—in a close second place—to pull off an upset and surprise everyone who thought that Priam got this election in the bag. That would be the plot twist of the decade! Unfortunately, I couldn't. Not because I was trying to remain neutral, but because I couldn't support someone who was morally and ethically questionable.
That's why when I exercised my civic duty in the university and went to the voting booth, I knew who to vote for. I could have boycotted this election if I wanted to remain in the middle. Or I could have chosen not to vote for anyone. But this wasn't the time for neutrality. I must take a stand. And I did.
Nang ibinigay sa 'kin ang balota, muli kong chineck ang tatlong choice sa pagka-USC president at vice president. In Elysian University, our electoral system was different from others. We don't vote separately for the president and the VP. A vote for the president is automatically a vote for their chosen vice. So they would win as a tandem. Tinanggal ko ang takip ng marker at shinade ang bilog ng napipisil kong tandem.
o Esteban, Alaric (AEGIS) Alegria, Phoebe Marie (AEGIS)
o Regina, Georgina (Independent) Flores, May (Independent)
o Torres, Priam (SALVo) Rustan, Tabitha (SALVo)
Once done, I fed my ballot into the machine and waited for the confirmation message. And that's it! I was done with my duty as a responsible student of this university. Automated na ang proseso rito kaya hindi na namin kinailangang manually isulat ang pangalan ng kandidato. Automated na rin ang pagbibilang ng mga boto mamaya.
The election watchers gave me a button pin with the phrase "I voted" printed on it. I pinned it on the chest part of my polo shirt. Hopefully, this would encourage other students to participate in the democratic process. Personally, I never believed that this freebie would be effective in getting a high voter turnout. But who knows? It might work better this election year.
So what now? Well, the election would run the whole day. May schedule ang bawat college para hindi magsabay-sabay at magka-stampede sa gymnasium. The polling booths opened at eight in the morning and would close at five in the afternoon. The results would probably be out in the evening. By tomorrow, if there were no electoral protests, we would know who would be our next USC president and vice president.
