Jon Snow and Lyanna Mormont win HBO’s GoT Party election

It’s been a long campaign (well, the length of August), but HBO has declared a victor in its GoT Party election. With 1,601,017 ballots cast, the Game of Thrones-loving public have elected Jon Snow and running mate Lyanna Mormont as the president and vice president of Westeros…or something. The results:

As you can see, Jon and Lyanna didn’t run away with the election. It was a pretty heated race throughout. In the first week of voting, Jon was even trailing both Daenerys and Littlefinger, and didn’t establish a proper lead until the final week. Cersei, naturally, was dead last the entire time. Blowing up churches is not good for your public image.

According to the GoT Party website, Jon Snow released a statement after his win.

"Winter has come and the war between the living and the dead will not end swiftly. We have cast aside the differences between Crow and Wildling, bastard and trueborn, Northerner or Southerner, to fight a common enemy.We have seen that we cannot survive the Long Night divided. Unity is a necessity to meet the challenge of our time, but it is only the beginning.“The Long Night is coming, and the dead come with it.”"

Of course, it’s easier to talk about unity than to practice it. It remains to be seen whether Jon’s message of togetherness resonates in the south.

But to his credit, Jon never went negative during the campaign, unlike Cersei and Littlefinger. His first ad focused on his tough rhetoric, while his second centered around his popularity with the average voter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE0Rf3oUqnM

Still, getting power and keeping it are two different things, as this show likes to remind us. Will Jon Snow be able to move Westeros forward? Check back in four years…or when someone attempts a coup, whichever comes first.