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Every month around election days, whether for country president, Congress, or party president, we see a ton of platform articles in the news feed. Most platforms are similar, as there are few in-game options for anyone, including elected officials. Most players no longer even read the platform articles as they are admittedly rather boring.

Why then, do political candidates continue to publish them? Does any one actually care what a candidate's platform says? Apparently not, as almost every election is based on party membership.

What does this mean? Well, take the country president election for example. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the candidate listed first on the ballot wins the election. There have been a few candidates who have come up from behind to win, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Party membership, aka the number of members a party has, determines how powerful the party's endorsement will be.

Hence, country president candidates attempt to gather as many endorsements, especially top 5 party endorsements, as they can to reach that number one spot on the ballot. They do this because everyone knows that country president elections are ultimately decided by the two-click vote and most two-clickers vote for the first person on the ballot.

Which brings us back to the platform articles. Belgium is currently seeing a negative ad campaign between the country president candidates. Why? Frankly, the negative articles and comments accomplish nothing as only one candidate will be at the top of the ballot and that candidate has already been decided as all party endorsements are in place. Platform articles and posturing at this point is pointless and detrimental to the stability and general mood of the Belgian population. Let's keep the rest of this campaign clean and positive. Good luck to all the candidates.

-Chris Stanwick