Blaque in the Lead as Election Day Approaches
2006.10.04 | By Svarthol
As the Federation shifts into election gear, billions of voters across Gallente space prepare to cast their votes in what looks to become one of the most hotly contested elections in the nation's history.
According to the latest numbers from the Federation's polling bureaus, presidential candidate Senator Mentas Blaque is currently in the lead with a public support rating of 54% to incumbent President Souro Foiritan's 46%.
This past summer has seen a steady increase in incendiary political speech by Senator Blaque and his campaign office, as well as by members of the President's cabinet. The President himself, meanwhile, has been consistently reluctant to engage in direct confrontation with the Senator, conducting his personal communications with such care that Sovicou Star chief editor Nelvine Ducomp in a July 27th editorial famously referred to his condition as "a rare case of actual diplomacy, one we all hope he recovers from soon."
Foiritan, previously known for aggressive debating techniques and extreme political fierceness, has this summer instead channeled his energy into extensive campaigning in the Federation's fringe districts. Of particular note have been his excursions into districts such as Chappel and Lavoux, areas with high concentrations of Intaki and Matari immigrants and historically low voter turnout.
Blaque's platform is concerned primarily with, in the Senator's own words, "reclaiming a sense of national pride" and "making sure our own people are cared for before tending to the needs of others." His promises of widespread domestic economic reform have met with resounding approval, and his large bloc of followers have been noted time and again for their almost religious zeal.
Foiritan's platform, meanwhile, revolves around foreign policy and free trade, concepts that have been at the core of Gallente political thought since the days of the Gallente-Caldari war almost a century ago.
Election day is scheduled for October 27th.