Voting Day

So today is D-Day for voting here in South Africa and for the first time since the new government came into power, citizens living and working overseas were given the right to vote too.

There has been much build up to this day with the major political parties canvassing countrywide.  The concensus of many is that this country needs a change.  With the world economy on the down slide, jobs are more difficult for many to get, laws show prejudice to certain race groups, the standard of education is dropping lower and lower, the judicial system is selective and corruption and crime continues to rise in all walks of life.  Generally things are not looking good in South Africa for the average person and we hope that voting today will see some change.  No-one wants to think that our elections may go the same way as in Zimbabwe, but the reality is that they may just do so.  There have already been reports of some voting stations not receiving ballot papers and another report showing an official with ballot papers in their hand.  Both Johan and I received SMS's to our cell phones from the governing party, encouraging us to cast our vote for them...how on earth they received our cell numbers in the first place I have no idea, but it makes me wonder how private our privacy laws actually are and whether they received our numbers from RICA information.

Anyway we have been and done our thing, voting for both Provincial and Government candidates.  When we arrived at our polling station just after 9 this morning, the queue was short....waiting for just a few minutes before going inside, we saw our friends and neighbours from over the way arriving too.  A couple of minutes inside to receive our forms, make our mark in the booth and post them in the relevant boxes, and we were soon on our way home again.

How long it will take this time for all the votes to be in and counted we will have to wait and see, but I certainly am hoping for big changes...