Election-Fever Pt. 2

So, elections have finished here, and, in a shocking turn of events, Faure Essozinma Gnassingbe came from way behind late in the tallying to once again take his place as the noble and fearless leader of the proud and powerful nation of Togo. Seriously. We had no clue he was going to take it away again. (*cough* thats a bloody lie *cough*) But, please, can anything else possibly be expected from the benevolent 'fils du terroir', the one man who's love for the country runs deep, but who's EU-aid-lined pockets run even deeper. Lets be real, if you have an infinite amount of money to spend, you're going to win. All you have to do is hand out free stuff. Faure's face is EVERYWHERE in the country. Seriously, do you have any idea how many free t-shirts, hats, fans, pencils, posters, stickers, calendar-pens (those neat pens that have a calendar that rolls out of them. hey you know you'd use them if you were here!), scrunchies, swatches, flags, berets, and cash bribes were given out over the past 3 months? I've heard rumours of large trucks filled with sodabi just going up and down the country getting everyone drunk for free. Who wouldn't vote for this guy?

Higher, Longer, Stronger. Yeah, I bet he tells that to all the girls.

You know, I was going to post pictures of some other candidates and talk about the shit-ton of people who didn't vote for Faure, but do you have any idea how many pull-out-calendar-pens the opposition candidates gave me?

Answer: 0

Hey, UFC, losing is for losers! You Suck! I bet you don't even know how to use a calendar-pen! SUCK IT!

so, you know what? Fuck those guys. Screw them and their pretentious 'rallies' and 'marches' and 'demonstrations' and 'freedom frites' - all of their screaming and anger and un-cool, un-pen-giving fundraisers. My vote is with this guy--

A true gangster can write a letter and check the date. AT THE SAME TIME.

Actually, I would've voted for this guy, but he told me he was too busy to run for president. What with the funny-stick dance routine and all.

Goin all the way in 2015

So, to the meat of it, what was it like here during elections? Pretty damn boring. The general paranoia that was instilled after the last elections still exists, but nothing happened this time around. People got edgy around the time they started announcing election results, but apart from that, no one that I know really seemed to care. In the words of my land-lady, "Nothing will change no matter who wins. They're all thieves." Damn, where's the love Togo? Where's the love...

This image would be so much more poignant unfurling from the inside of a pen.