Voting Day

It's Voting Day! Nothing huge, just the local governance vote.

South Africa operates on an interesting system. We have a huge variety of political parties, and whoever gets the most votes in a particular area, gets to run it. The main government vote happens every 4 years, but in between we get to choose who our local reps are.

Not that it matters, in some ways. We have this thing called "floor crossing", so the guy you chose in January could switch allegiance in September - taking your vote with him to a completely different party! Sucks, but true.

Nevertheless, as a finally-registered-for-this-area voter, I marched the few paces down the hill to the local voting station which is conveniently set up on campus. Voters from ward 84 (quite a few km's around) come here to make their mark on two ballot papers. One for our ward, one for the city council. Yup, we have such subdivided power that we can actually vote in rings!

I was pretty surprised to have to stand in a long queue. Local elections aren't known for their impressive turn-out. It's not compulsory to vote (as it is in Australia), so many just chuck the voting and take the holiday given by the government. But ward 84 is gowing well - cars are turning up in their hordes, bearing people all eager to have their say.

And have our say, we have. For the rest of the day television coverage will give us updates on who has said what, as counting starts very quickly. Perhaps today will see a shift in power, perhaps not. It's up to each to decide what they think is best.

But I've done my bit. I've got a permanent-marker spot on my nail to show I've done it, and a little slip of paper & stamp in my ID book too.

I'll be really interested to see how the rest of my ward voted. You can be sure I'll be keeping an eye on the stats.