Automatic selection of Ribaval card in 2p game??

[RobO]

I'm playing a 2p game (49599, my first 2p of this game). My opponent was starting player and thus Emperor at start. I did not pick the Rival card in the first round. It turned out that the game did it for me, automatically. I then proceeded to win the Emperor election (so I should obviously have picked it - I'm new to the game).

The game log says:
RobO: Pass (Rival card automatically taken) (Actions phase finished)

My question is - why the automatic selection of the Rival card?
I cannot find anything about this in the rules.

[MaBi]

I coded the game years ago and I can't remember. I looked at the rules and you are right, it's not mentioned anywhere, but for some reason I explicitely implemented this behaviour. Maybe I just saw it as an "obvious" move, because you have nothing to lose to challenge the Emperor: there are no victory points distributed for the voting, so skipping it wouldn't change anything.

[RobO]

Yes, I see. Taking the card does not cost anything, so there is no point in not doing this as the last action in a 2p game.