What a privilege to vote for the party of my choice

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By tonymac04

The miracle of voting in South Africa

South Africans went to the polls this morning for the fourth time since the advent of our democratic dispensation in 1994.
These are some of my thoughts about the process:
This morning I did what has been taken for granted for decades in most other countries of the world - I placed a cross next
to the party of my choice on a ballot paper and put the paper into a ballot box. No great shakes, nothing earth-shattering in
that, one might say.
But let's not forget the history that we come from, a history in which millions were prevented, for many decades, from doing
exactly that.
I always feel a great sense of the past when I go to vote, remembering those who worked so hard, made so many
sacrifices, and indeed died, for the right to do so. It is a sacred moment in the life of a democracy, a sacred ritual almost, a
declaration of freedom and individual responsibility.
It is because it is so important that I feel irritated by those who try to downplay the importance of the moment. I feel irritated
but have to respect their right not to vote, which is also an important right.
However the responsibility of a citizen in a true democracy really is to vote, whatever the circumstances.
During the apartheid years, until about 1977 I did vote, though somewhat grudgingly I have to admit, for the old Progressive
Federal Party and its predecessors. After 1977 I refused to participate any more in the process as the apartheid regime only
used the sham democracy to justify its continued oppression and disenfranchisement of the majority in South Africa.

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photos
Part of the queue of voters in front of me at the voting station this morning

What my vote means to me

The next time I went to a polling station was when there was a referendum for
the tri-cameral constitution, in which I think I spoilt my paper as a protest
against the whole thing.
Thereafter I shunned white politics until the referendum about the release of
the people's leaders and unbanning of the democratic formations, when I
voted, enthusiatically, YES!
And then, of course, that great day whose anniversary we celebrate next
Monday, 27 April 1994, when with great excitement I queued for more than four
hours in the blazing sun to proudly place my X next to the name of the African
The elections are run by the Independent
National Congress, a process I repeated twice more. Electoral Commission, which was set up
Today, after a lot of soul-searching, thought and not a little sadness, my cross in December 1993, just months before
the 1994 elections
went next to the name of the Congress of the People, or Cope. But I was sure
of that vote, and proud that I was able to make a rational, informed choice, and
place my cross on that ballot paper, along with a few thousand others who
made their choices and voted in the Valleisig Dutch Reformed Church, Faerie
Glen, Pretoria.
Voting is a privilege and a duty - as the saying goes, if you don't vote, you don't
have the right to complain.
When we vote in South Africa, for whosoever we vote, we are fulfilling the
hopes, dreams and aspirations of those many millions who went before us
The queue in front of the voting station at
without ever having the opportunity to do so themselves, who were denied the my daughter's school, Tomorrow's
right which citizens of other countries take for granted. People Independent School in the
May we in South Africa never take the right for granted, but always maintain Pretoria suburb of Faerie Glen

vigilance that the right is never again taken away or diminished, tampered with
in any way. Its too precious a right.

This year's campaign

The campaign this year has been the most robust since the inaugural
democratic elections of 1994, for two main reasons:
1. The controversy surrounding the candidacy of the African National
Congress's (ANC) President Jacob Zuma, who until the charges were dropped
by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) faced a raft of accusations of graft,
money laudering and other forms of corruption.
2. The emergence of a new opposition party which split off from the ANC in
October last year, the first party of any significance to do so. This party is the
Congress of the People (Cope) and it has fought a spirited campaign in spite of
its youth. Voters entering a voting station

The elections are being contested by some 40 parties on both national and
provincial levels, all of them vying for the support of around 23 million
registered voters, a large proportion of whom are young, first time voters.
The ANC has been in government since the 1994 elections, consistently pulling
more than 60% of the votes, but it has been facing increasing levels of
frustration at the slow pace of delivery of the changes that voters have
expected. It is also facing the difficulties of changing from a liberation
movement to a normal political party and faces huge ideological and
organisational challenges within its ranks.
The ANC is part of the so-called "Tri-Partite Alliance" in wich it has two
partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of
South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). There are many in South Africa who feel
that these two partners in the Alliance have forced the ANC to move leftward,
though that is not the perception of all observers, and I have personally some
problems with that characterisation of the situation.
What is a problem for many, and here I am in agreement, is that the party
forced the very able but somewhat aloof former president Thabo Mbeki out of
office before his term had ended, and did so in a way which was not dignified,
though it was not in any way unconstitutional.
Zuma himself has been widely criticised for his personal attributes and the aura
of corruption which still hangs around him, as he has not faced his accusers in
open court and there are many questions surrounding the dropping of the
charges against him.
However he has an almost fanatical support base among rural and working
class people, and has been touted in some quarters as a "Black Jesus."
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), under the leadership Typical lamp-post posters seen all along
the highways and byways of the country
of the very articulate Ms Helen Zille, has waged its campaign pretty much on
opposition to Zuma as a person, citing his many gaffes and the dropping of the
charges as making him unfit to rule.
The DA's main posters in the election have been displaying in bold lettering the
slogan "Stop Zuma," as if he is the only election issue.
Cope, on the other hand, is having its first electoral test today, and has fielded
a highly attractive, articulate and well-educated former Methodist bishop, Dr
Mvume Dandala, as its presidential candidate. The party has been plalgued
with organisational glitches, to be expected in so young a party contesting an
election on two fronts so soon after its formation.

The process today Some of the party logos

With more than 19 000 voting
stations across the country, many in
almost inaccessible locations, there
were bound to be problems, and
some stations opened late this More posters
morning and it voters were naturally
frustrated.
The ANC logo
A presiding officer in a voting station
in kwaZulu-Natal was allegedly
discovered this morning to be in
possession of a ballot box stuffed full
of already marked ballot papers,
before the polls had even opened.
She has been charged with fraud
and other offenses under the
The logo of the Congress of the People
Electoral Act. (Cope)
Generally I believe voters have
confidence in the IEC, and the
process seems to have gone with
remarkably few problems considering
the huge logistical challenges faced
by the IEC.
This is the fourth time that all
registered voters in South Africa The logo of the DA
have gone to the polls and all
indications are that the political
landscape is going to be different
once the count is finished.
There is little doubt that the ANC will
win, but the positions of the
opposition parties are what will be of
interest, as well as the size of the The logo of the Independent Democrats
(ID)
ANC majority.
If nothing else, this election has
shown that South Africa is becoming
politically mature, and that the issue
of race and the defeat of apartheid
are becoming less important to
voters, that we can look forward in
the coming years to a normalisation
The logo of the Inkatha Freedom Party
of politics, where bread-and-butter (IFP)
issues will start to take precendence
over history and ethnicity.
Dr Mvume Dandala

The logo of the United Democratic

Movement (UDM)