segunda-feira, 14 de outubro de 2013

What was different about the last elections

In a talk show, last week, the PSD representatives had a common theme tune: The choice of the people must be respected, after all, these were democratic elections just like all the previous ones.

Not quite. Although the result was no doubt due to Jardim's ever growing impopularity, there were also less violations of the election laws.

Jardim's trump card has always been the public inauguration ceremonies. These occasions were marked by huge banquets for the attending masses, preceded by  political speeches where Jardim ranted against the opposition parties. Two or three of these ceremonies would be held daily and Jardim's hate speech would be broadcast over television and radio...

This year, not only were the inaugurations fewer, but some were devoid of the usual banquets and Jardim kept his speeches impartial and short - less than two minutes. With several cases pending in the justice system for election violations, perhaps he was forewarned by state entities not to push his luck.

Jardim's other main weapon is the state-owned Jornal where the opinion-pieces are all written by PSD militants. In the run-up to elections, this usually meant three daily pieces praising Jardim and trashing the opposition. Now, however, most of the article-writers have dwindled away, and apart from Jardim himself, only one or two of his bootlickers remain active, and even their articles are luke warm.

The Jornal, however, continued to toe the line, promoting the PSD candidates above all others. In some editions, the PSD candidatures got twice as much coverage as all the other candidatures put together. A clear violation of the law, which should earn the director yet another criminal suit. Curiously, this bias towards the PSD candidatures was not due to coverage of the candidates themselves, but to the coverage of the campaign actions of a non-candidate - Jardim!

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