Describe the election and what each candidate offers the group?

Golding states that although Piggy was the most obvious choice, he was no leader. This leaves Ralph and Jack. The children gravitate toward Jack because he had called them with the conch. This symbolized a direct link with the old world. Ralph also was attractive, well built and he had "a mildness about him that proclaimed no devil". Indeed Ralph was the closest child to the “adult world” in the novel. Even though the hunters also liked Ralph they voted for Jack with "dreary obedience". Although Jack's forcefulness doesn't help him during the election, his manipulation skills will eventually draw most of the kids away from Ralph.