Election Eve

The municipal elections are tomorrow. I am scheduled to help set up at the celebration hall, then go to a poll and be a scrutineer. We are braced for victory, though we can't be too optimistic about the election outcome.

I found out today that both Incumbent and Rival use paid volunteers. There are organizations that contract out students and people learning to speak English to deliver campaign literature for low low wages. They are paid by the number of pamphlets delivered so they are actually working below the minimum wage. It's cheap labour for the politicians, there's pocket money for the workers, and no laws are broken.

MyCandidate has not had to resort to paying for labour. That tells us her volunteer base, and therefore her support, is larger than both Incumbent and Rival. So I am optimistic that she will win.

But it's hard to say. Who know what dirty tricks the others will be up to. As scrutineer, I will be looking for unusual goings on, like people voting more than once, like the same person accompanying many voters to the voting booth on the pretext the voter can't read.

Yet, we could be on the verge of a great dawning.