“Please vote for me” encapsulates a democratic accession to power by Luo Lei in a classroom election with some undemocratic conventions: Luo Lei buys his classmates votes with a field trip provided by his father, he also gets to run again despite the fact that he has been monitor for two years already. True this is an election where the people get to vote free of any voter fraud, but the actions leading up to the vote question the integrity of it.

A democracy is “by the people for the people”, but can the people of this third grade class really determine who is best suited to “rule” them when they’re constantly faces with bribery and propaganda (Xu Xiaofei being accused of eating too slow to further promote Cheng Cheng’s campaign).

In the end, the film has a fair vote and every classmate gets a vote, but what is this teaching them about democracy if the campaign is just an invitation to speak negatively about their classmates and allow their fathers to buy them votes?