Someone knocked on the door and handed Du Jiahe a small note.
The discussion was nearing its end at this point, and basically, all the Grand Ecumenical Party members believed that the Privy Council's motion, overall, would do more good than harm to the Grand Ecumenical Party, and that all should vote in favor of the motion.
"Colleagues, this is a handwritten note from Gao Wangling, leader of the Justice Party. Nine members of the Justice Party and its alliance, plus an independent member whom she persuaded, will vote for Councillor Lu Qianxing as a municipal commissioner." Du Jiahe unfolded the note in his hand and read it, with no expression on his face.
Lu Ming frowned, feeling a little depressed. However, if he wanted to scold her, he couldn't do it here. It would be meaningless if others heard it.
"Oh? Then I think our entire party and our alliance should also fully support Qianhang!" Wei Baozeng was very serious. He rarely had such a serious expression when speaking within the party.
"Even if we all vote for Councillor Lu Qianxing, it will only add up to more than 20 votes! It doesn't make any sense!" The one who opposed it was Dong Wenquan, one of the first heavyweight councillors in the party that Lu Ming had met. He was the councillor of District 11 and the chairman of Dong Ji Gold Industry.
Wei Baozeng frowned and looked at him: "Who else among us has a chance to join the Municipal Committee?"
A member of the Legislative Council named Wang said with a smile: "The Citizens' Alliance supports Councillor Dong to join the committee. If our entire party supports it, then the votes will definitely exceed half."
Indeed, there are 57 seats in total, with Baclo's Free Citizens Movement Alliance holding 19 seats and the Grand Ecumenical Party Alliance holding 13 seats, for a total of 32 seats. When voting, they have a simple majority advantage, without any problem.
Wei Baozeng looked at Dong Wenquan, "So, what are the conditions for the Free Citizens' Alliance to support you? I guess they don't support you unconditionally, do they?"
Councillor Wang nodded and said with a smile, "Yes, we need two councillors who support the Free Citizens Alliance to join the committee. The Free Citizens Alliance also agreed that we can nominate Councillor Dong and you, Councillor Wei, to join the committee."
Du Jiahe smiled and said, "It means that our two-party coalition is in power. The Citizens' Union has three seats on the committee and we have two."
If the two parties act in concert, they can indeed form a governing coalition.
At this time, Wang Zili raised his hand, "Everyone, I am a newcomer, but in the municipal council election, unless you want me to vote for Councillor Lu Qianxing, otherwise, I will not support anyone to be elected!"
He was dressed as a fisherman, with a simple face, and the words written on his forehead vaguely said, "Lu Qianxing is my boss."
"I also only support Councillor Lu Qianxing!" Another councillor raised his hand. Her surname was Zhang, and her name was Zhang Jing. She was the only female councillor in the party. She was in her forties and was recommended by Mr. Qing to replace Mr. Qing as a councillor in the party.
Wei Baozeng originally ran for the Qinglao constituency, but she ran for the Wei Baozeng constituency.
She is also one of the only two female councillors in Beiguan. The other one, Gao Wang, succeeded her husband, which has little to do with gender. Zhang Jing, on the other hand, has somewhat responded to the feminist movement and is more pleasing. Beiguan also needs a female councillor.
"I also only support Councillor Lu Qianxing!" The councillor who raised his hand was named Zhao. He was in his fifties and was a senior councillor in the party. His constituency had always been in the suburbs.
"Me too." Another member of parliament raised his hand. He was a member of parliament who had been promoted by Mr. Qing. His surname was Wang.
Meng Dezhu hesitated for a moment and raised his hand: "Me too."
He, Liu Laocai, Wen Liangyu and Zhao Xingwang were originally the Gang of Four. When Lu Ming first entered this circle, the first politician he met was Principal Meng Dezhuo.
Wei Baozeng smiled and said, "I also support Qian Xing to join the municipal committee."
The atmosphere suddenly froze.
To say that they "only support" Councillor Lu Qianxing to enter the Municipal Committee is completely different from hoping to form an alliance with the Liberal Citizens' Union to nominate the second candidate as Councillor Lu Qianxing. "Only support" Councillor Lu Qianxing means that within the party, they follow Councillor Lu Qianxing's lead and frankly admit that they are Councillor Lu Qianxing's die-hard fans and diehard members of the Lu faction.
There are six people who have made such statements, including party whip Wei Baozeng.
Including Lu Ming, there are 7 people in total.
There are only 13 members of the party, accounting for more than half.
Dong Wenquan and Councillor Wang both looked unhappy.
Councillor Wang forced a smile and said, "If Bao Zeng puts it this way, then we can elect two municipal councillors, Councillor Dong Wenquan and Councillor Lu Qianxing. Bao Zeng shouldn't have any objections, right?"
Zhang Jing looked at him and said, "Member Wang, is there something wrong with your thinking? We just don't agree to form an alliance with the Free Citizens' Alliance. Don't you understand? There are too many mediocre people like you in our party, so we have been neither rising nor falling until Councillor Lu Qianxing joined us. We have become the second largest party, and now we have formed an alliance with Baklo and can directly become the ruling party! Because of this, Baklo began to look at you and Lao Dong in the right light. Do you really think you and Lao Dong are talented?"
"You!" Councillor Wang stood up suddenly. A councillor next to him hurriedly pulled him to sit down and advised him in his ear.
One advantage of women speaking is that no matter how harsh the language is, it is still easier for the person being criticized to back down.
There was a gentle knock on the door, and someone came in, handing Du Jia a small note.
Du Jiahe was slightly startled and smiled, "Okay, I think we don't need to argue about anything. The information from the Sunflower Party is that all members of their party will support Qian Xingjin Municipal Committee."
Everyone was stunned. The Grand Duchy Party, the Justice Party, and the Sunflower Party accounted for more than half of the MPs.
But the Sunflower Party has always been independent and never formed alliances with anyone, so few people would think of trading anything with them.
Wei Baozeng's eyes widened. "So, can we form a three-party alliance and have the four municipal commissioners be nominated by our three parties?"
Du Jiahe smiled: "Not necessarily, the Sunflower Party!" He shook his head and sighed, "The other committee members will still stubbornly nominate their own people."
Wei Baozeng smiled bitterly, as if this was in line with the usual style of the Sunflower Party.
"Qianxing, you, the Sunflower Party, have done your homework, but you act as if nothing happened. You are wrong!" Du Jiahe looked at Lu Ming and smiled.
Lu Ming was even more surprised in his heart. He knew better than anyone that he had never had any contact with anyone from the Sunflower Party.
His face remained expressionless and he smiled without saying a word.
"Then let's do this..." Du Jiahe pondered, "For the four municipal council members, we nominate Qian Xing, Justice Party leader Gao Wangling, and Sunflower Party leader Sun Xiangyang. They didn't make any demands, but we have to return the favor. As for the fourth council member, we vote for Lao Dong!" Du Jiahe looked at Dong Jiaquan, "But Lao Dong, you have to make it clear to the liberals that we will not vote for the liberals' nominees. So, whether they support you or not is up to them to decide. We can't say that we betrayed them and fooled them, right?"
Dong Wenquan looked unhappy and nodded silently.
…
On December 30, 950 of the Empire, the first meeting of the new Beiguan Parliament passed the "Municipal Administration Committee Reform Plan" by a vote of 35 to 22.
As a result, the Beiguan Municipal Management Committee officially changed from a 7-member committee to a 5-member committee.
In the following committee election, the five municipal commissioners elected were Chief Commissioner Dale Bucklo, Grand Ecumenical Party councillor Lu Qianxing, Justice Party leader Gao Wangling, Grand Ecumenical Party councillor Dong Wenquan, and Liberal Citizens' Union councillor Sherlock.
There are rumors that Grand Ecumenical Party MP Dong Wenquan deceived Dell Bacro in order to enter the five-member committee, but the specific details are not known to outsiders.
In Donghai, almost all newspapers and periodicals focused on Lu Qianxing, the newly elected municipal commissioner or deputy mayor of Beiguan.
A 19-year-old congressman has already made history in the empire. So, what about a 19-year-old municipal commissioner or deputy mayor
After all, the satellite towns in Donghai are no different from cities in other provinces, not to mention Beiguan, which has a population of over 500,000 and is an absolute heavyweight city in any other province. And according to its economic scale, there will be no problem for it to serve as the capital city of many remote provinces.
It is unbelievable that the deputy mayor of such a major economic city is only 19 years old.
Not only Donghai, but newspapers in many states and provinces published large photos of the young deputy mayor on the front page or cover.
But most editorials are not very good.
Because of this deputy mayor, the campaign funds reached millions of dollars.
Political donations are all public data and can be easily verified.
Obviously, this is another spokesperson for an invisible super-rich family, and his election is proof of the serious polarization between the rich and the poor in the empire.
Most newspapers and periodicals and related editorials are calling for fair elections, criticizing money politics, and expressing concern about the increasing cost of elections. The cost of local town council elections has already exceeded the red line of one million yuan. This is the tragedy of our democratic politics, and we need to do something to reverse this situation.
…
In the luxury car, Lu Ming slowly flipped through the editorial page of the World Journal, criticizing the "Lu Qianxing phenomenon."
He shook his head, gathered the newspapers into a ball and threw them into the trash can. What the superstructure really tacitly accepts, public opinion, is sometimes just a joke.
Sitting opposite was Murong Xue, who was wearing a bright red dress. Her current position was the office manager of Lu Ming.
Lu Ming's office now has dozens of affairs officers, two signs, and one team. The two signs are "Office of Councillor Lu Qianxing" and "Office of the Deputy Mayor". They are divided into several groups. For example, the second group is responsible for handling councillor affairs, and the third group is responsible for handling city hall affairs.
Sitting in the car, listening to Murong Xue's report, Lu Ming shook his head.
From the beginning to the end, no one knew why all 10 members of the Sunflower Party voted for him to be the municipal commissioner.
I wanted to talk to Sun Xiangyang, the leader of the Sunflower Party, and made several appointments, but he avoided me.
Murong Xue frowned and said carefully, "Boss, maybe it's because you have spared no effort to fight against extremist organizations and seek justice for those Central Continent people who were brutally murdered. In addition, from many of the cases you handled, I can feel that you value the identity of Central Continent people."
"The Sunflower Party doesn't have any suitable candidates, so they just nominated you to take office. But they are still observing you. They may think that if the two sides don't agree on the same ideas, it's better not to meet you now."
Lu Ming smiled. Murong Xue seemed to be making rapid progress, which was basically what he had thought.