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It was also a clear repudiation of the loud charges of fraud, for the South Vietnamese know all too well what rigged voting amounts to; in the country's two previous presidential "elections," Ngo Dinh Diem won by 98% and 88% of the ballots cast.
Since they commanded the loyalty of the army, the resources of the government, and had the almost certain prospect of victory to use as leverage in making deals for votes with the country's large sects—the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai—Thieu and Ky had counted on taking more than 50% of the vote. Privately, however, U.S. analysts in Saigon had calculated that in an absolutely free and unpressured vote, the Thieu-Ky ticket would probably garner between 30% and 50% of all votes cast. Thieu was actually elected President with 34.8%.
Rhetorical Invective. The electorate also had some other surprises for the experts. By everyone's reckoning, the two top civilian candidates were Tran Van Huong, 64, the rigidly honest onetime mayor of Saigon, and Phen Khac Suu, 62, former chief of state and present Speaker of the Constituent Assembly. But both men were left in the dust by Truong Dinh Dzu, a plump 50-year-old lawyer with a fiery McCarthylike gift of rhetorical invective. In fervent measure, Dzu attacked both Thieu and Ky as he campaigned on a peace platform. Coming in second, he pulled 17% of the vote, as against Suu's 13% and Huong's 12%.
Perhaps the most striking proof of the election's essential honesty was the contest for the 60-seat Senate. With the 480 candidates blocked off in groups of ten to a slate, the voters had to choose six from among the 48 slates. On the theory that it would ensure him a loyal majority in the Senate, the complex system was devised by Ky himself last spring when he expected to be the presidential candidate. But the voters were not amenable. Ky personally backed eleven slates, and all but one of them lost. Thieu promoted two slates, and both lost. Huong promoted two; both lost. Runner-Up Dzu backed five; all lost. Indeed, the six triumphant slates look something like a political scientist's dream of incipient democracy come true: two are likely to support the Thieu government, two are in stout opposition, and two are independent.
A U.S. Dove. When all the returns were in, it seemed clear that the balloting procedures had not hindered voters so much as they had contributed to an honest election. Each voter presented his yellow registration card at the polls and had its corner snipped off so that he could not use it to vote again. He then picked up one envelope and eleven separate ballots, each bearing the symbol of a ticket and photographs of its presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Election officials carefully instructed him to enter the polling booth, select the ticket he wanted to vote for, insert it in the envelope and then drop the sealed envelope in the ballot box. The voter was to tear the other ten tick ets in half and insert them in a refuse box. The same procedure was followed with the Senate slates, except that the voter had to choose six ballots out of the 48 available.