Elections, reptiles and scary numbers Will the Chinese Year of the Snake bring bad tidings to WA? As the sun rose this morning, on the first day of the Chinese Year of the Snake, it dawned on me that it's not likely to be a particularly enjoyable year for Western Australians who are influenced by both astrology and superstition. According to those who know about these things, Chinese astrology points to one of the reptile's most defining features to characterise the year ahead. As a "skin-shedder," I'm told snake years often see periods of major transformation - or as some might call it, upheaval. Previous snake years have seen the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001, the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941 and the 1929 Stock Market collapse that ultimately led to the Great Depression. And although the beginning of 2013 will apparently be quite smooth, the latter half of the year is when the animal will begin to shed - and that's when it's going to get rough. Among colourful descriptions of various natural disasters coming our way, it was calmly explained to me that while the Year of the Snake comes around every twelve years in Chinese astrology, this particular occurrence is actually a much rarer and unpleasant version called the "Year of the Black Water Snake." To be honest, I'm not exactly sure where the "Black Water" comes from nor what it means to the future of human kind because somewhere between hearing the forecasts of upheaval and imagining a snake shedding its skin, I couldn't help but think of the fact that for only the fifth time in history, Western Australians will be asked to vote in three separate elections in one year - local, state and federal. While I honestly believe many of our members of parliament work bloody hard and cop a lot of unfair criticism, I'm sure there's a big slice of the voting public who would enjoy the irony of politics featuring so prominently in a year symbolised by a slithering, venomous reptile with a super-flexible spine. However I'm guessing it's not just Chinese astrologers who are nervous about the year ahead. What about the very western adage that bad things come in threes? Local, state, federal... And has anybody realised this is all happening in the year 2013? That's two, zero, 13 people! But seriously, this really is going to be a big year in Western Australian politics. Will Brendon Grylls be tempted to try his hand as a Nationals Senator if his gamble to stand for Pilbara in the state election falls over? Will the current Liberal state/Labor federal paradigm be reversed by the time the snake starts to shed? Will the 25 or so local government councillors who have declared their party allegiances by nominating for the state election finally bring some transparency to the hidden politics of local government? How many candidates will run and fail to be elected in all three elections? Two things are almost certain: Some of these questions will only get more interesting in the next four weeks, and There will be major upheaval and a heap of bad luck, at least for some. Why not send us your predictions for 2013, the unluckiest and most political Year of the Snake. Darren Brown is a former ministerial adviser in the Barnett government, who writes the Good Oil blog. He will write for WAtoday.com.au in the lead-up to and during the 2013 state election. You can follow him on Twitter here.