Bribe

The prime minister crossing the red line outraged Rob.

Attacking the Supreme Court was the same as attacking him; after all, he had appointed all judges to the Supreme Court. 

With the new Prime Minister attacking him like that, he had no choice but to react. 

Of course, he had the choice of letting the democracy do its job by allowing the prime minister to prosecute billionaires.

But, for him, that was not something he considered.

The billionaires were his friends who supported him for years; now, he must protect them.

He is not as powerful as Alex III.

Alex III is a vampire, an immortal, but Rob still needs to do brain rejuvenation surgery every few decades.

He cannot alienate powerful people like billionaires.

In a statement, he slammed the PM for 'politicizing the court,' and privately, he directed his prosecutors to start investigating the Prime Minister and parties supporting him. 

This is a traditional method. 

Everyone has secrets; if you dig enough, you can find dirt on everyone. 

Using government force to 'investigate' political enemies is a common tactic employed by dictators like Rob. 

Even if he couldn't find any criminal acts, he would at least be able to discover anything that can turn public opinion.

At the moment, the prime minister is popular.

Taking him out while people support him is difficult; the first step is turning around public opinion. 

Even if he couldn't find anything on the Prime Minister, he could eventually find something on his party. 

The investigation began in secret. 

The PM had very little power in matters regarding the courts and prosecutors. The prosecutors obtained their warrants directly from the Supreme Court, precluding any appeals. 

After only a month, they found lots of very damaging information. 

First, the Prime Minister himself is not as clean as he may seem; on many occasions, he awarded government contracts to his friends, and worse, he did it secretly. Even though it's not illegal, it doesn't look good. 

Second, a few of his relatives suddenly gained government positions weeks after he became Prime Minister. Again, even though it's probably not illegal, it doesn't look good. 

Aside from the Prime Minister himself, some in his party have been found to have extramarital affairs. Even though it's not illegal, it can help to paint the PM and his party as corrupt cheaters. 

One MP from the prime minister's party received a bribe from a corporation.

While receiving bribes from corporations is not illegal, there is a way to do it.

Rose, for example, always got her bribes by campaign contributions, bookselling, or selling her 'paintings.'

Book sales and selling artwork are primarily used by most politicians in UISEC to receive bribes legally. 

For example, Rose writes a book, and a corporation buys a million books. Because the book was on the market and available to all, no law prevented the corporation from purchasing it. They also pay sales tax on the book sales, so it's completely legal.

As for selling artwork, what is art anyway? 

Rose usually sells paintings. One cannot distinguish her paintings from those of elementary school children. Except for a few corporations, they always pay millions for her artwork. Nobody can ask why that simple painting is worth so much; art is subjective, after all. 

Even a white paper might be considered art to some corporations if its 'artist' is a powerful government official. They would happily buy the blank paper, praise it, and even publicly display it. Some normies viewing it would then be impressed and think the blank paper has something special about it.

Rose has lots of surgeries and expenses, so she needs the money. In return, she continues to support the 'free market' and lets them abuse their workers. 

She gets her bribes legally.

However, that MP got the money without going through the process. 

It was enough to be charged with a bribe.

If one wants a bribe, one must do it legally.

Rob sighed with relief.

What he did next was to 'anonymously' give all the damning information to an ally in the media. 

For the next month, every day, that media channel broke with breaking news.

Every day, a new scandal emerged. 

After one month, the Prime Minister's approval rating was way down. 

Rob used the opportunity and public outrage to call for a new election. It was not clear if he still had the power to call for elections unilaterally. 

A few years ago, the parliament passed a law that prohibited 'calling' for an election and fixed intervals to four years. But, with the Supreme Court in his pocket, Rob wasn't worried. 

The Supreme Court is the most powerful institution regarding soft power; it doesn't have an army like Rob does or can't pass laws like the parliament can, but it can interpret laws however it wants. 

It can change laws without going through the process. 

Even if the law is written, 'wearing red clothes is prohibited,' the Supreme Court could interpret the law away. 

They could rule that 'red' only means a specific color and not a range of colors; they could rule that 'clothes' means only a particular model and not all clothes; they could rule that the law was intended for a specific place and was not intended for all places. 

In short, they have so many ways to twist laws to their liking that without the government controlling the Supreme Court, no matter which laws Parliament passes, the Supreme Court interprets them out of existence.

The Prime Minister sued to stop the new election. 

The lower courts ruled for the Prime Minister, but the Supreme Court quickly overruled them and allowed the new elections. 

UISEC's constitution had no clause expressly granting the president power to call new elections. 

However, the Supreme Court ruled that 'the spirit of the constitution' granted the power to call elections to the president.

As for what the 'spirit of the constitution' is, nobody knows. 

For the next month, the two sides campaigned, with Rose painting her opponents as corrupt. 

The election produced a result that upset Rob very much. 

Even though the new PM lost his majority, the party won enough votes to remain in power with the support of a few independent MPs. 

It was a disastrous election result for Rob, who spent so much personal capital on getting rid of the new PM. 

He absolutely couldn't allow the PM to remain in his position. 

So, he personally challenged the election results in the Supreme Court.

He argued that the prime minister's campaign promises amounted to bribery. After all, the prime minister campaigned hard to increase government help for the lower class. In Rob's view, it was bribery. 

There was no clause in the constitution to prohibit such promises.

However, the Supreme Court, all appointed by Rob, unanimously ruled the election was tainted by bribery and thus threw out the result. 

Again, the court invoked 'the spirit' of the constitution, not any specific clause. 

The Prime Minister and the elected government were outraged. They slammed the court as corrupt and called the process just a show. 

Rob didn't deny anything. 

In Rob's opinion, a 'non-political' court is just an illusion that some uninformed people have. There can never be a court that is not political. 

Judges are people with political views, which will inevitably taint their decisions. What is essential is to make sure your side has a majority on the court so your side's political views win. 

Rob did appoint political friends to the court, but why shouldn't he? 

In public, of course, he didn't say any of this; he just praised the Supreme Court for their 'reasoned' decision. 

Then, Rob secretly directed the candidate qualification commission to disqualify the PM and a few others who campaigned on increasing government aid. 

The commission unanimously did as Rob said. 

With their candidates disqualified, the government decided to sanction the election, not running at all. 

A lot of people in the capital came out to protest. 

Rob sighed when he saw this. 

The situation had reached the point of no return. 

He ordered the police, which he also controls, to disperse the protesters. But the protesters persisted. 

Non-lethal means failed to calm the protests. 

Rob was an all-or-nothing person. He wouldn't hold back when he decided to act. 

So, he ordered the police to clamp down hard.

The police started outright shooting people with real guns. 

After a day and a few hundred people dead, all the protests throughout the country calm down. 

People don't like to admit it, but the fact is that violence works. 

Nobody likes to be the one dying. Before, they weren't fearing death, so they came out, but now, they knew the police would outright shoot them, so they didn't dare to come out. 

The gun laws in UISEC were very tough.

It wasn't like the former Five Star country, where people could buy guns.

Here, only the police and military could have guns.

It was because Rob was afraid that one day, the guns in people's hands could be used against him and his government.

Why did his police bravely go there and shoot the protesters? Of course, because they were sure nobody would shoot back.

As a dictator, like all the dictators ever, he loves to have a monopoly on violence; he could use guns to kill people, but the people couldn't use them to fight back.

It, too, is a common tactic shared by dictators.

Rob, already deciding to go all out, ordered the police to identify the leaders of the protest and capture them. With surveillance cameras everywhere, it was easy. Rob wanted to make an example.

The best way is to use their families. The protesters might think it's alright to die for the cause of democracy, but if Rob starts targeting not only the protesters themselves but also their families, they won't dare to protest anymore. 

People care about their families more than themselves. 

He also publicized all of this. He wanted everyone to know, 'If you protest, your family will be punished.' 

After a few months of horror, the new election was finally held. 

No surprise, with a turnout of 29%, Rose won 4/5 of the seats. 

Obviously, only people who supported her came out and voted. 

Even with this, Rob didn't end the 'democracy.' 

The votes have been counted fairly. 

Rob is a conflicted person. 

He likes democracy, but only if his power remains untouched. 

With this done, his grip on power has been strengthened. Only, he was no longer in the dark. 

From now on, he will be the villain most of the people of UISEC curse whenever they feel unhappy.