Rigged polls

WE’RE done with our local and national elections last May 9. The barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls will be moved to next year.

So what rigged elections are we talking about?

It’s the presidential elections, of all places, in the United States of America on Nov. 8.

*** One contender, Republican presidential bet Donald Trump, claimed the US election system is “rigged” and the polls were unfairly tilted towards Democratic presidential bet Hillary Clinton.

In the Philippines, there are only two kinds of candidates - the winners and the cheated.

In the US, if Trump were to be believed, they’re cheating even before the polls.

*** Trump, in the third and last debate with Clinton, once again blasted the media for "rigging" the election.

That earned a mocking sketch on “Saturday Night Live.”

When debate moderator Chris Wallace played by Tom Hanks asked how the mainstream media rigged the election, Trump played by Alec Baldwin said, “By taking all of the things I say and all of the things I do and putting them on TV.”

*** With the automated Philippine polls, fewer candidates cried they were cheated. Most of them accepted their defeat. But Trump said he’d accept the results of the elections only if he wins.

"I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win," Trump said.

We used to say “Only in the Philippines.” If what Trump said happens, we could say, “Only in the US.”

*** President Rody Duterte had a clear victory in the last elections. Trump wants “clear results.”

That probably prompted US President Barack Obama to campaign for a “big win” for Clinton.

“We want to win big. We don’t just want to eke it out, particularly when the other guy’s already started to gripe about how the game is rigged,” he said.