True Core World Dynasties (Part 2)
Tang Xiao narrowed his eyes. Although he had not personally taken part in the Chancellor election that took place thirteen years ago, after the Siege of Naboo ended in 32 BBY, Francis Underwood had been one of its firsthand witnesses. The peril and intrigue of that election had been no less intense than the war on Naboo!
At the time, the Rim Faction senators, who held numerous votes in the Senate and had strength in numbers, supported Gran senator Ainlee Tim's bid for Chancellor under the leadership of their party leader, Ohn Free Taa. According to prior polls, Ainlee Tim's approval rating had been far higher than Palpatine's.
In the film, after Palpatine was elected, he had merely told Queen Amidala that he had won because, as Naboo Senator, he had received quite a few sympathy votes. But the truth was far from that simple!
Palpatine had entered the election at an absolute disadvantage, with almost no one favoring him. Yet once the election began, Rim Faction leader Ohn Free Taa defected on the spot and publicly declared his support for Palpatine. It dealt the Rim Faction Senators a crushing blow! And in the ensuing election, the chaotic Rim Faction had been utterly unable to stop Palpatine's vote count from steadily rising!
In the end, Palpatine had won against the odds, becoming Chancellor of the Galactic Republic by a narrow margin!
The open and covert struggles behind that election had been incomparably brutal. After all, the power required to make the leader of what could be called the Senate's largest faction defect on the spot was simply unimaginable!
Yet in Sanya Tagge's eyes, it had been no more difficult than crooking a finger!
The accumulated influence of those ancient great houses that had existed