Election Fever

A memorable moment of the Regency series of Blackadder is when he says to Mrs Miggins "After the chaos of the general election, we can return to normal". To which Mrs M (being a woman so not having a vote in Regency Britain) replies "Has there been a general election then Mr Blackadder?" That's a bit like how it feels on Flores.

For an island of 4,000 people, there are - incredibly - TWO local authorities here. The conselhos of Santa Cruz and Lajes are respectively the third and second smallest conselhos in Portugal. (Can you guess which is the smallest?) Below is the camara municipal of Lajes:-

SC and Lajes even have a long running territorial dispute. In the 18th century a party of worthies was called in to adjudicate the boundary. They fixed it at a straight line running from the mouth of a river on the east coast to the mouth of a river on the west. Which was worse than useless in the era before Google Earth because they then fell out over that line's course through Flores' lumpy topography between its two termini.

It's still going on in the 21st century. Lajes has recently accused SC of extracting sand from land in Lajes territory. The claim's been reported to higher authority which has adjudicated in favour of Lajes and condemned SC in reparations to the value of the sand taken (6 figures). SC hasn't paid yet and the bad blood continues.

Into this maelstrom steps Luis Maciel to run for presidente of Lajes under the slogan Juntos Conseguimos - "Together we can do it".

Together with whom, I ask? I know Luis quite well as he is the island's veterinario. One of our cats gets regular bouts of a chesty cough and has to be whistled over to Luis' surgery in Lajes for periodic prescriptions of anti-biotics so often he must be the best travelled cat on the island (in terms of distance covered if not variety of journey).

So Carol and I were having a smirk that the cat is Luis' biggest campaign donor in terms of vets' bills paid. But in reality, Luis doesn't charge a consultation fee and only charges you for the drugs prescribed at prices which are sweeties compared with UK standards - if our British vet had ever run for office, she would have been a shoe-in to the White House with a few billion to spare.

Anyway, the thing is no-one else has any election posters up yet. Is it a one party state or are all the other candidates too amanhã to bother campaigning? Not that it matters as we'll be voting for Luis anyway. So will the cat. If he can stir himself.