We have the vote, but not really
Chuku wrote on Nov. 7 that he, too, voted. Not for American presidential though.
As he put it, this is the fist time ever to vote in his life. He didn’t vote in the 27 long years spent in China, and he was (astonishingly) entitled to vote for local officials in Finland despite that he is not yet a Finn national. And he’ll be able to elect the President when he obtain Finn citizenship. It is amazingly open that a non-national could even be possible to vote. Foreigners are not allowed to vote in the US, nor contributing. Maybe Nordic countries are just more democratic.
To be frank, I have only voted for once in my life, when I was still studying in a university in Beijing. At that time the Haidian District Congress (the People’s Congress of Representatives) needed to begin a new term, and one Rep will be elected from my constituency (my university). The election began in a not-special-at-all afternoon, all the news about the election and instructions how to vote were disclosed only less than a week before. There was no time for any campaigning or public appearance of the candidates at all, even if they really intended to. Actually no one took the election seriously including the most likely party-designated candidates themselves.
All three candidates were Communist Party members (as most people are in China). They were only briefly introduced by less than 3-line text of their background. I have to say, all three looked all the same: party members, professors, strangers. I really wanted to cast a meaningful vote, regretfully, I wasn’t able to.
