Chapter 4: Time for politics pt.1

The smell of freshly brewed coffee and the feeling of fresh, cold air woke him up. "Good morning sleepy," Daniel heard his roommate say, "I hope you don't mind that I woke up and made some definitely-not-premade-cheap-meal-for-students."

"Nah, don't worry about it. Lets rather look at election day. We both got no class and election results will come out on Sunday about 2100 Aquarian Standard Time." replied Daniel.

"The top two candidates for Presidency are currently President Andrew Petersen (Caprica) and his VP Richard Adar from Caprica." came from the political commentator Jennifer Rose from Virgon Channel 1."Running against them are Jeff Hartman, a governor from Scorpia, and ret. Col. Henry Blake from Picon."

She was known to have pretty good guesses regarding who would be elected or which parties would build coalitions. She had guessed the election of the Liberal anti-military Governor Li in Leonis, which, even though the Leonis Empire had collapsed over 100 years in the past and along with it any sort of military power, was still pretty conservative.

"For this election, I think that the duo from Scorpia and Picon will win over the two Capricans. Why? It is simple: Many have been unhappy about Petersen's policies and there have been several protests against his cabinet as well. I can't see how he is supposed to win." said her colleague Andrew Jordan "You're right Andrew, albeit I think that their victory will only be marginal.

"They should better win. That Adar guy is a moron." Daniel said, "Did you read his plan? He wants to allow civilian contractors access to fleet computers and networks. That's like the dumbest idea I have ever heard. He also wants to cut the fleet budget. That means fewer ships."

"I guess, but I mean social programs aren't necessarily bad, are they?" asked Jack "No, they aren't, but cutting fleet budget would danger the safety of the colonies." was Daniel's response, "And the problem is that the weaker and poorer Colonies like Aerilon or Sagittaron will pay the most and the higher Colonies like Caprica or Gemenon will receive the most benefits. This is the problem."

"Yeah, that is right. Doesn't matter though, let's see what is going to continue to happen."

[ 1 hour later ]

( Play: Battlestar Galactica OST - One Year Later)

Several of the colonies had already voted for their representatives in the Chamber, with several colonies still counting their votes.

Some of the Colonies have Voted already, including: Caprica, Gemenon, Tauron, Virgon and Canceron.

We are still waiting for the other Colonies to count the votes. On to the presidential race:

Hartman and Col. Blake are leading the polls by 6%. More news as we get them. Stay tuned."

[ 2 hours later ]

It had been an interesting time. More Colonies had voted. These were: Sagittaron, Libran, Leonis, Aerilon, and Aquaria. Missing were Picon and Scorpia.

Petersen and Adar had caught up and now Hartman and Blake were only leading by 2%.

"The race has been close between the two teams. Everything is possible." said Jennifer Rose "Yeah, but how? How did Petersen and Adar catch up? It's unbelievable."

[ 1 hour later ]

Scorpia and Picon had voted as well. It was now time to wait and see how it would play out. The political system in the Colonies was an electoral college. There were two Bodies of Parliament: The Chamber of Representatives and The Quorum of 12. The Quorum was like the Senate of the Earth nation called the United States, while the Chamber represented the House of Representatives.

In the past years, the Quorum had gained more and more power through several legislative acts, while the Chamber had been pushed into the background. While in the beginning the Quorum was meant to decide on controversial things and approve or disapprove legislative acts, as of late they had become the only deciding body, with the Chamber having no authority to decide on what they approved or disapproved. This meant that many legislative acts simply only went through the Quorum and the Chamber was ignored. While many protested, it wasn't easy to reverse this process to give the Chamber back the power they should've held to guarantee a balance in the government. The Quorum wasn't going to give back the power so easily.

While the Quorum holds 12 people, the Chamber holds 432 representatives, with the population and relative power of the Colonies deciding the number of representatives they could send. Of course, that meant that the more influential and powerful colonies had more representatives than the weaker ones. Aquaria, due to its very small population only had 1 representative, for example.

[ 4 hours later ]

"The reports are in. Petersen has won the presidency by 4%. It is now up to every planet to decide their support for the President-elect. If less than 6 planets support him, he'll be forced to lead the colonies with a minority government and if 6 planets support him, it will be more difficult for him to govern. And as usual, 7 planets or more means a majority government. More news as we get them. My name is Alex Anderson and stay tuned."

The two couldn't believe that Petersen was able to win the Presidency again. According to plan they would now have to wait for 2 days for the last election results, which were as mentioned how many colonies would support and back Petersen and how many would oppose him.

[ Sunday 2050 Aquarian Standard Time ]

It was 10 minutes to 9. The President-Elect's press interview was up next and what Petersen was about to do would shock everyone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Colonial Citizens. While we won the election, it seems as if many people do not support me and my decisions. So I have decided to step down. My VP Rochard Adar will serve as President in my upcoming second term. Thank you very much."

AN: I'm sorry this episode couldn't be one chapter. I'm running out of ideas, but I wanted to send out another chapter.

Small Change'

characters:

Daniel Hayes - Marc Bendavid (with normal hair, not the supershort hair)