As decided yesterday, we took a leisurely stroll over to our local voting station, and were back home 35 minutes later - duty done. The voting process was quick and painless, and went something like this:

1. We joined the queue - about 80 metres long at the time.
2. We proceeded slowly to the head of the queue, which was at the door of the school building.
3. As four people exited, four of us were let into the building (I guess there were about 12 to 16 voters in the building at any one time).
4. I handed my Identity Document to the official who scanned the bar-code and printed a little "receipt" of sorts.
5. I took my receipt and headed to the next official who found and crossed off my name on a printed list.
6. Next, I moved over to the tattoo parlour (kidding) where a little drop of iodine was dripped onto my left thumb nail. (Here's Kerry-Anne's thumb nail.)
7. I then moved on to the next two officials who collected and checked my "receipt", and handed me a provincial and national ballot paper respectively.
8. Almost done, I walked around to the voting booth, where I took this photo and drew an X in the appropriate blocks.
9. And finally, I walked to the table holding the two ballot boxes, and dropped in my ballot papers.

I believe that some people had to wait far longer than we did to cast their vote. I guess it depends on the concentration of voters in a particular area, as well as the efficiency with which the voting station is being operated (along with technical challenges that I believe some had with the bar-code scanners). I took a drive past our voting station this evening just before closing at 9pm - and while there wasn't a long queue at all, there were still people arriving in dribs and drabs. Let's hope that everyone who wanted to vote made it through to the various stations on time.

Perhaps if you're not South African, or if you're not living in the country, you may be unaware that 22 April 2009 will bring one of the more important national elections since Nelson Mandela was elected in 1994.

While it may be interesting to watch South African politics unfold, the reality is that it's often a sad situation - though I guess that the same could be said for most political battles worldwide. Our hope lies in what this photo represents: not just the concept of democracy, but also the ideals and vision that people like Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo instilled in many of their followers. My hope is that these men and women will remember those ideals and teach them to their children and grandchildren, so that the truth of what was fought for so many years ago may live on for more than just their generation.