The media was even more efficient than the government. That very evening, they had already put out all sorts of election predictions.
<Mikhail was far ahead! No one could pose even the slightest threat to him!>
<The election was already settled. Mikhail could be declared the final winner!>
The choice of the people! Entirely deserved!
<The results of this election might set a record that no one would ever be able to break. Mikhail's approval rating had exceeded 99%!>
It was said that incomplete on-site tallies by media reporters at various polling stations showed that more than 99 percent of voters had cast their ballots for Mikhail...
That percentage was simply too astonishing, too outrageous!
Nothing like this had likely ever appeared in any previous election, either in Russia or anywhere else in the world.
Yet everyone found it perfectly reasonable. No media outlet raised any doubts, nor did anyone think there was anything wrong with this election.
After all, everyone knew that this new round of elections had really been held for Mikhail alone. The other candidates were standard "also-rans," forced to make up the numbers to satisfy constitutional requirements.
The only people with even a little competitiveness—Medvedev, Gryzlov, and Rosiana—had all been eliminated in the first two rounds of elections.
This was already the third round. It had practically become a joke, so everyone in the country, from top to bottom, just wanted the election to end quickly and stop making a spectacle of themselves!
Moreover, this time's candidate truly was the person most people considered the most suitable.
With all those factors combined, Wang Ye had truly become the "chosen one," pushed onto the stage "against his will"...
Of course, media reporters loved sensational headlines because they attracted more readers. There were certain details they would