In the dark Wintery pre-dawn (6:30 am!) I arrived at my voting station to find that there were already people there sitting patiently waiting for the doors to open at 7 am. I was there to observe the election process and was surprised by the eager faces waiting for their chance to vote. It wasn't my first time acting as a party agent at the voting station, so I knew that the only queue that was likely to stretch out the door that day was going to be the one made by the 7 am eager beavers.
Once I got over the pre-dawn grumpiness I was really excited to see many familiar faces from my neighbourhood coming to make their mark. There was a nice atmosphere in the (short and fast moving) queue. It was also nice to see so many people walking/running to the station and bringing their dogs and children. I loved listening to parents explaining the voting process to their children and the kids being excited to be there too. Obviously I was also really happy to pet the dogs coming to the voting station too. There was a little eruption of youthful hot tempers at one stage of the day, but the IEC handled it really well and that party's representatives melted away looking a little sheepish about their outburst. The other party representatives there were really nice and friendly and everyone was there to just see that things went well.
I was continuously impressed by the professionalism and friendly demeanor of the IEC representatives. It is a very long day for them and most of them managed to remain cheerful and grump-free right up until they left after 1 am. They were also very careful to make sure they did everything by the rule book, 100% correctly. I have enormous respect for the woman in charge of our station and the man in charge of the ward and for the hard work put in by all the IEC officials on Wednesday.
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| SPCA made my favourite election posters and the ones with no lies. |
So, you will have gathered that I am a big fan of the democratic process. I think it is important and necessary part of our beautiful country. The downside I noticed was just how much paper and plastic there was (I cringed when one party arrived with helium balloons only for them to blow away within an hour). Elections, as important and exciting as they are, have an environmental impact that people seem a little reluctant to talk about. And I couldn't help thinking if the IEC went to the trouble of printing all those ballot papers, the people (ALL of the them) could have gone out and voted. News24 listed some of the numbers involved in the election - for example: 73 900 000 - Ballot papers printed for the 2016 election. Have a look at the rest of the numbers, they are a little mind boggling. Do ballot papers get recycled? Do party posters or "Vote here" boards get recycled? I hope that it will not be long until we can start having "free and fair" electronic elections.
In the meantime, I am proud of my small role in Wednesday's elections. A couple of weeks ago I was listening to the radio in my car and they played "A World in Union" and I found myself tearing up and feeling sad about how far from being in union the world is (Trump, Brexit, ISIS etc. - see the first bit of my previous blog for a recap if you can stand it) and how that 1995 feeling of hope has been lost or dampened in South Africa. Today, I was in the car and when they played "A World in Union" I didn't feel sad at all because I think South Africa made a stand against corruption and stagnation on Wednesday and our democracy matured a little beyond the single party state that it has been - even the Rand is performing well!
P.S. I hadn't heard of many of the parties on the voting roll, but if anyone knows anything about "The Greens" I am intrigued. Google search isn't helping which suggests they need to "up" their game.
