Nero had rehearsed election day almost incessantly for two months. Every one of his people would wake up at four, they'd disperse to their assigned areas after a short but intense breakfast meeting at Sherry's, that he was paying for.
He'd distribute the bricks of cash he had earmarked for elections, and have them distributed to his associates in the election mobilization committees that he had funded. The money would be further distributed among the canvassers. Here, he'd trust them to go door to door, from household to household with the voter lists he'd gotten from earlier unofficial polls, targeting the members and supporters of the CPC. They'd be dressed, and primed on what the day would bring.
In a group, these voters would go to the voting centers, where they'd make a line in anticipation of the opening of the polls. Meanwhile, he would have a group of professional hooligans around each of the polling stations, promised beer and a small handout, for protection. In a stroke of self admitted genius, he'd gotten the hooligans from the various underfunded football and basketball clubs that dotted North West Shanty.
Meanwhile, he would be doing his best preventing the voters in RPC majority areas from voting. Voter registration laws were to be strictly enforced in areas where the Greenbacks and Nero had managed to penetrate. Using some archaic laws, the election watchers in supporting plazas would enforce laws governing the defacing of government property, i.e the voter cards had to be in pristine conditions. All raucous activity would be persecuted as disturbing the peace. Members of the public wearing any shirts showing political alignment would be asked to go back home and change as it was prohibited to campaign on election day.
The point was to frustrate and delay the unprepared RPC voters.
But then, he'd received stroke of luck after stroke of luck. When the officer commanding station that served a chunk of north western town had been introduced to him by Sherry, he managed to ask the police to enforce his new rules, for a fee. This freed up his people to be backup to the police. It had also allowed members of his team to join the police at the registration desks and control exactly who was allowed to vote in some of the most contested polling stations in the Ward. There were two lists now, the official voter roll, and another that linked political affiliation to your name and identification number.
Needless to say members of the RPC had a hard time voting, most of their voter cards had expired.
The participation of the election officials allowed his trained election observers to help the old and infirm cast their votes. They chaperoned them from their homes to the polling stations. Their job was to listen to the voters name their preferred vote, and direct them where to make their mark on the election ticket itself. The CPC had a perfect turnout and were perfectly preferred among this group.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
However, in some polling stations where Nero didn't have direct control over the process, some of his underlings got overzealous. By midday, a polling station in a neighborhood that was made up of members with similar ethnicity as the RPC's candidate, was burned down. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but the incident precipitated violence as members of the RPC realized the vote was actively being stolen by the CPC.
This was Nero's third stroke of luck. The RPC's strongest support was in areas Nero had barely been able to make headway in. But his people got the message to the right people that there were RPC supporters elsewhere that were not being allowed to vote. The RPC voters gathered into mobs. They were understandably upset. They pushed the election officials in their areas for answers. The perplexed officials, not a part of Nero's group, spooked, barricading themselves in their offices.
Mobs are difficult to control, in general, the tended to lash out the the nearest source of their anger. They rioted.
There were no RPC mobs in areas Nero controlled, as his security permeated the streets like water a wet sponge.
And so the mobs attacked where they gathered, RPC strongholds. Non-mob voters melted into their homes. They were leery of violence and gave up on voting if the had to fight through the police response to the rioting. The police overseeing those areas were similarly not the ones Nero had made deals with.
Sambi, members of the CPC, and Greenbacks around to observe the elections were delighted.
By Six PM, the orderly voting in CPC strongholds had completed, Nero's men had emptied their bags of cash on the voters, Every time someone would leave the polling station, a group of men just out of view of the polling station and observers asked the voters who they'd voted for, and if they liked their answer, they'd gift a small handout. Telling the voter to spread the word and invite more voters.
His canvassing team had moved from business to business offering cash in exchange for allowing the coolies and day workers time to go vote. The voter turn out was definitely better than during the general election. Even better, every body knew the money stemmed from the Greenbacks, pillars of society supporting your right to vote.
The polls in RPC strongholds closed at Nine PM. There was a constant start stop as police struggled to keep the polling stations peaceful.
Nero's plan was good, the count was anticlimactic. The CPC won. The few press outfits that attempted to report on the suspicious elections were drowned out by the rioting that engulfed the RPC strongholds in the aftermath of the announcements.
The CPC didn't let this go, they pushed hard on the inability of the RPC to control their people. Calling the mobs, "an clear example of the RPC's habit of ruling by violence and force." They had already started talking about a no confidence vote against the mayor of the city, the result of which might make the him resign.