HLM -Chapter 1092 The Situation Looks Bad

McGee was furious when he saw it and stepped forward to argue. “Mayor, why isn’t there Prime Minister Lawrence—”

“There is,” Wang Bo deliberately cut him off, twisting his meaning. “Isn’t she right there, smiling at you?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” McGee said. “I’m not talking about the portrait, I’m talking about governing policies!”

Wang Bo shrugged. “Sorry, there was no space left, so we didn’t put them up.”

McGee was beside himself with anger. “How can this be acceptable?”

Wang Bo frowned. “Why can’t it be? Are you the mayor, or am I?”

McGee was instantly rendered speechless. He could only grit his teeth inwardly—just you wait. If I get elected mayor, I’ll make you pay.

The official voting began at nine o’clock. Voters formed long lines and started casting their ballots.

Sunset Town was different from other places. There were many new immigrants, and these people didn’t have a particularly strong sense of belonging to New Zealand, so the atmosphere at the polling station wasn’t very solemn.

Some people even asked Wang Bo as they passed by, “Mayor, why aren’t you running for election?”

Wang Bo shrugged. “Governing one town is already hard enough for me. Let alone running a whole country—I’m not cut out for it.”

“Then you could just be a foolish ruler, haha.”

“That’s nonsense. How could the mayor be a foolish ruler? His achievements in building Sunset Town are there for everyone to see. With his abilities, he’d definitely be fine as prime minister.”

Wang Bo gave a dry laugh. They were really overestimating him. Even if the Heart of the Territory could be upgraded into the Heart of the Nation, he still wouldn’t be able to manage an entire country.

Nearby, Ben McGee’s expression was ugly. He looked at his trusted subordinate, Ralph Jackson. The latter stared straight ahead, guarding a vote-counting machine as if nothing else existed.

McGee coughed, but Ralph didn’t move at all, as though he hadn’t heard a thing.

At that moment, Ben McGee sensed that something was not right.

Wang Bo also had to vote. Naturally, he voted for Carmetti—one of their own. The people of Sunset Town had basically all voted for him. Wang Bo had already promoted him as “one of us.”

Each ballot that went in would beep twice and a green light would come on. If it was an invalid ballot, a blue light would light up. If there was a problem, a red light would appear.

The red light never came on, but the blue light lit up many times. Quite a few people were fooling around, scribbling other words on the ballot or writing down a name unrelated to any candidate.

Wang Bo was helpless. In New Zealand, elections were supposed to be a sacred affair. Photography wasn’t even allowed at the site, yet many people still treated it like a joke.

He looked at a pile of useless ballots in his hand. Many of them had his name written on them, leaving Wang Bo both amused and exasperated.

The two candidates and their campaign teams waited tensely for the results. Around ten o’clock in the evening, the election outcome would be announced.

But at eight o’clock, Alexander called Wang Bo.

Wang Bo answered, and an excited voice burst out. “Hey, buddy! You know what I’m about to say, right? You definitely know!”

“Our people won!”

“That’s right—you’re damn smart, I knew you were smart! Our people won! Carmetti made it! He’s now the great new Prime Minister of New Zealand!” Alexander practically shouted the last sentence.

Wang Bo let out a long breath. All that investment hadn’t been in vain after all. The victory of the Labour–Green Alliance was absolutely great news for Sunset Town.

At ten o’clock, the general election results were officially announced. The Labour–Green Alliance won 48.1% of the party vote, securing 61 seats and finally wresting control back from the National Party.

As a result, the Labour–Green Alliance’s prime ministerial candidate, Carmetti Johnson, became the prime minister of the new government.

This time, the National Party lost badly, receiving 34.7% of the party vote and a total of 45 seats. The New Zealand First Party got 8.9% and 11 seats; the Māori Party received 1.3% and 2 seats; the ACT Party got 0.7%, and United Future 0.2%, with those two parties each gaining one seat.

Alexander’s call wasn’t just to inform Wang Bo of the news. He also asked, “Wang, have you ever thought about joining Parliament?”

Joining Parliament!

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

New Zealand practices a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy modeled after Britain. Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state, represented by the Governor-General, while the prime minister leads the government.

Before 1996, New Zealand’s parliamentary elections used a single-member district system. The country was divided into different constituencies, each with candidates from various parties. Voters only needed to choose a candidate from their own constituency. The candidate with the most votes entered Parliament, and the party with the most seats gained the right to form a government.

From 1996 onward, New Zealand reformed its electoral system based on the German parliamentary model, implementing Mixed-Member Proportional representation. Parliament’s 120 seats are divided into 63 electorate seats, 7 Māori seats, and 50 party-list seats.

During elections, voters have two votes: one for a political party and one for their local electorate MP. About half of the parliamentary seats are filled by directly elected electorate MPs, while the remaining seats are redistributed among the parties.

What Wang Bo was being offered was one of these redistributed seats—a very precious opportunity. Parliament holds enormous power in New Zealand’s political system. Once elected, an MP is far more influential than members of China’s CPPCC.

But Wang Bo wasn’t interested. He said, “Thank you, Chairman Alexander, for your kindness. But I know my own limits. Being a town mayor is already my ceiling. I’m not qualified to handle national affairs.”

In a way, this was him knowing his place. Alexander was only asking casually—was he really going to give Wang Bo a seat in Parliament? That would only happen if Wang Bo were Alexander’s son.

It was just polite small talk, like when Wang Bo used to visit a friend at mealtime as a child and the friend’s parents would say, “Why don’t you stay and eat with us?”

Of course, Alexander’s sincerity was far less than that of a friend’s parents. Agreeing to eat was one thing; if Wang Bo had agreed to take a parliamentary seat, he’d probably have been treated like Ben McGee—as a complete idiot.

Sure enough, after Wang Bo declined, Alexander didn’t press the matter. Instead, he said, “Your town mayoral election is coming up soon, right? The Green Party will fully support your re-election. If you need anything, just tell us.”

Wang Bo smiled confidently. “Sunset Town is my territory, and it’s also our Green Party’s backyard. I don’t need anyone’s help—I can handle it myself.”

With the prime ministerial election concluded, Sunset Town entered its fourth-year election cycle.

Wang Bo soon discovered that things were not as simple as he had imagined. This time, his campaign really was facing a crisis.

According to the rules, township elections allow party-designated candidates to run. In addition, the town itself can nominate representatives, up to a maximum of three, to compete together.

That was where the problem lay. Wang Bo had always assumed that the townspeople wouldn’t put forward a representative to compete with him.

But he was wrong.