scattyme (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} scattyme) wrote,@ 2008-03-16 22:35:00 |
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Cluny election
Today in Cluny there was the second round of local elections in order to decide who will be the next mayor, who comes complete with an entourage of 25 or so people. This has turned out to be an interesting enough election that everyone seems to be talking about it.
The same people have been in power here for 18 years or so. A few months ago the mayor announced that he was no longer running, whereupon one of his colleagues said he would run instead. However this new candidate got into a big row - I'm not sure what about - with some of the other colleagues of the mayor and so there was a dramatic split and lots of consternation.
Meanwhile the president of the tiny university here in Cluny announced that he was going to run as well, and he came up rather quickly with an impressive entourage. During the winter his faction took over a crafts shop on the main street and used it as an office for people to drop in. They also held a lot of public discussions and came up with some ideas that seem quite fun, such as having horse-drawn shuttles around the middle of town (there are a lot of horses hereabouts since there's a national stud at Cluny). Then they sent out a glossy leaflet to everyone in town listing all their ideas.
After a few days, we got another glossy leaflet, this time from the former colleague of the mayor. Amusingly, he seemed to have copied almost all the ideas of the other lot verbatim. And then a few days later, yet another leaflet arrived. This was from the former mayor, who had apparently decided he was so offended at his former colleague that he was going to run again after all. Again, there was a lot of copying of ideas although in his case it seemed a little half-hearted. His leaflet wasn't all that glossy either.
So last Sunday we had the first round of the elections. The newcomers came in first but didn't quite get enough votes to win outright (they lacked about 60 votes in a constituency of about 4000). About 350 people voted blank. The mayor came in last - he'd left it a bit late.
The newcomers then challenged the other remaining candidate to a debate and told the media about it, and put up posters all over town. However the other candidate promptly informed the media that he "hadn't been invited properly" (whatever that means) so he wasn't going to participate in the debate. Instead his entourage rented an exhibition space next to the tourist office (on the main street) and set up a meeting place which, again, bore an amusing similarity to that of the newcomers.
We'll know tomorrow what the results are. From what I hear it seems likely that the newcomers will win because the other lot managed to annoy the mayor so thoroughly that the people who voted for the mayor would rather vote for the newcomers than for them. I kind of hope the newcomers do win because they sound fun.
Today in Cluny there was the second round of local elections in order to decide who will be the next mayor, who comes complete with an entourage of 25 or so people. This has turned out to be an interesting enough election that everyone seems to be talking about it. The same people have been in power here for 18 years or so. A few months ago the mayor announced that he was no longer running, whereupon one of his colleagues said he would run instead. However this new candidate got into a big row - I'm not sure what about - with some of the other colleagues of the mayor and so there was a dramatic split and lots of consternation.
Meanwhile the president of the tiny university here in Cluny announced that he was going to run as well, and he came up rather quickly with an impressive entourage. During the winter his faction took over a crafts shop on the main street and used it as an office for people to drop in. They also held a lot of public discussions and came up with some ideas that seem quite fun, such as having horse-drawn shuttles around the middle of town (there are a lot of horses hereabouts since there's a national stud at Cluny). Then they sent out a glossy leaflet to everyone in town listing all their ideas.
After a few days, we got another glossy leaflet, this time from the former colleague of the mayor. Amusingly, he seemed to have copied almost all the ideas of the other lot verbatim. And then a few days later, yet another leaflet arrived. This was from the former mayor, who had apparently decided he was so offended at his former colleague that he was going to run again after all. Again, there was a lot of copying of ideas although in his case it seemed a little half-hearted. His leaflet wasn't all that glossy either.
So last Sunday we had the first round of the elections. The newcomers came in first but didn't quite get enough votes to win outright (they lacked about 60 votes in a constituency of about 4000). About 350 people voted blank. The mayor came in last - he'd left it a bit late.
The newcomers then challenged the other remaining candidate to a debate and told the media about it, and put up posters all over town. However the other candidate promptly informed the media that he "hadn't been invited properly" (whatever that means) so he wasn't going to participate in the debate. Instead his entourage rented an exhibition space next to the tourist office (on the main street) and set up a meeting place which, again, bore an amusing similarity to that of the newcomers.
We'll know tomorrow what the results are. From what I hear it seems likely that the newcomers will win because the other lot managed to annoy the mayor so thoroughly that the people who voted for the mayor would rather vote for the newcomers than for them. I kind of hope the newcomers do win because they sound fun.
