Chapter 165 The election begins

On June 10, 1903, after three years, the election of the Australian cabinet government began again.

Compared with the last election, this cabinet election is much more formal.

Because political parties have gradually become formalized and have attracted some members of the House of Commons and ordinary people to join, this cabinet government election also allows each political party to recommend one candidate to join the cabinet election.

This also provides an opportunity for parties without members of the House of Commons to participate in this election. Although there is only one quota, it is still a luxury.

It is precisely because of this policy that this election included a total of 198 members of the House of Commons, additional candidates recommended by seven political parties, as well as 11 members of the current cabinet and Arthur.

Except for Arthur who was only a supervisor and witness of this election and did not participate in the election and voting, everyone else was a participant in this election.

This also means that the difficulty of this election has increased to a certain extent. In addition to the experience advantages of previous cabinet ministers, some MPs who already have political party backgrounds also have the opportunity to become members of the new cabinet.

In the huge conference room of the Government Affairs Building, the originally huge conference room was already filled with members who came to attend the government affairs meeting. More than two hundred people occupied this large conference room, and the air and atmosphere became much hotter.

Because members of the House of Commons are elected every two years, there were many unfamiliar faces in the conference room. More than 200 people were divided into large and small groups tacitly. The groups communicated with each other and occasionally peeked at other people nearby. Human movement.

Among them, there are not many groups that can really form a large scale. Except for the original cabinet members and the four parties with members of the House of Commons, most of the other small groups are personal relationships between members. The scale of such groups is also limited. It's very small, mostly just two or three people.

When the chatter in the conference room reached its peak, Arthur also led Butler Hunter to the scene.

After seeing Arthur's arrival, everyone in the conference room kept quiet with a tacit understanding, making the originally noisy conference room instantly quiet.

"Your Highness!"

Everyone stood up and saluted.

Arthur smiled and nodded, motioning for everyone to sit down, and then led Butler Hunter to the podium in the center of the conference room.

"Everyone, you are all members of parliament elected by Australians to represent the interests of the people, or representatives of Australian local political parties. I am very happy to see you today, a very important day for the Australian people and the Australian government. Everyone's coming." Arthur said with a smile.

"The last general election of the cabinet government was held three years ago today. It was precisely because of that election that the eleven best cabinet members were elected for our Australian government. I believe that their achievements need no further elaboration. They His contribution to Australia is indelible."

"Today, we have come to such an important day again, and we are about to elect Australia's second cabinet government. I hope that no matter who goes to that glorious position, they can be loyal to the country, respect the royal family, and love the people. , and push our beloved motherland, Australia, to prosperity and greatness!"

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, Nuoda's conference room was immediately filled with long-lasting applause.

After waiting for several minutes, the applause gradually subsided at Arthur's signal.

Arthur continued: "I believe that before arriving at the conference room, all of you should have already thought about whether to run for office. The election rules this time are different from last time. Each candidate can choose up to two For the position within their ability, they will become a formal candidate for that position. However, the position of Prime Minister is an exception. Any candidate who is running for Prime Minister cannot participate in the election of other positions."

"Okay, no more nonsense. Australia's second cabinet election has officially begun." Arthur said with a smile, while motioning for Butler Hunter to come to the stage to preside.

Among the current Australian government and royal family, apart from Arthur, the only ones with sufficient status to chair this meeting are Prime Minister Evan and Butler Hunter.

But Prime Minister Evan was the prime minister of the previous cabinet government and was also a candidate for this cabinet election. His identity is obviously not suitable to host this meeting, and the only suitable candidate left to host this meeting is Butler Hunter.

As the chief steward of the royal family, Butler Hunter also represents the royal family to the outside world. There is nothing wrong with letting him preside over this meeting. After all, the royal family is still a relatively neutral party in this election.

Butler Hunter nodded solemnly, and then stood on the podium after Arthur returned to his seat.

"Everyone, following His Royal Highness the Duke's order, the second Australian cabinet election has officially begun. Guards will soon distribute a candidate form to each of you. You can fill in the positions you want to run for. As His Highness the Duke said As in, you can run for up to two ministerial positions. If you have already run for the position of prime minister, you cannot run for other positions." Butler Hunter introduced the rules.

"If everyone has no doubts about the rules, then the formal election can begin." Butler Hunter looked around and found that no one had any questions about the rules, so he nodded and motioned to the guards to issue an order.

Such a form is actually very simple. All you need to fill in is your complete name, address, age, political party (if any) and the two positions you want to run for.

But it was such a form that confirmed that most people in the conference room hesitated for a long time and were still not sure which two positions they wanted to run for.

The ones who filled it out relatively simply and without hesitation were actually the previous cabinet ministers and some MPs who had already discussed it among the political parties.

They all have specific goals for the positions they want to run for, and changing them easily will cause them to lose their advantage.

It took nearly an hour to fill out the form, and most people hurriedly filled it out and handed it in under the urging of Butler Hunter.

These people are obviously ill-prepared, and they are more of the kind of weak MPs who do not have an advantage in this election.

Nearly half of the congressmen did not fill out this form, which also means that they gave up the opportunity to stand for election.

Many of this group of people were also members of Congress without political parties or experience. They had a clear understanding of their own situation and knew that they would hardly succeed even if they ran for election, so they gave up this opportunity very wisely.

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