The sheep are organised into two parties of four sheep each. One of the other sheep is the undecided voter who determines the result. The last sheep is the third-party voter who keeps voting to kill the wolf, which is obviously unrealistic since it has so little political support.

This makes it sound like each party votes for the wolf to eat the other party, but interestingly that is not actually the way that it works. One party, which I will call the red party, says that the wolf is really a dog: the dog must be free to eat those sheep that it finds least worthy, to keep up its strength and protect them from all those wolves in enemy flocks. The other party, which I will call the blue party, says that the wolf is really a sheep, who if properly reformed will stop its cannibalism: each sheep must contribute one body part to the wolf, fairly and equitably, so that it stays alive but underfed until it learns to eat grass.

Whichever way the undecided sheep votes, the wolf will also vote that way, producing a majority, so each party woos and flatters the undecided sheep. The independent sheep, on the other hand, is reviled by both sides, but especially by the blue party, since they both want an all-sheep flock: if only it voted with them, then they wouldn't need the undecided sheep, and they'd be able to implement their policies consistently and be done. The red party considers the independent sheep to be wrong like the blue party, only more dangerous: it actually wants to kill their pretended protector.

Of course, the wolf eats whichever sheep it catches, regardless of the vote.