Vote halne—the elections: Lamidada
On election day, we prepared ourselves to join the expected masses of people who would be walking one to three hours (depending on your legs and sense of urgency) up the hill from Singati to the polling station at Lamidada where they were registered (where their name was on the ‘list’). For many this would be the final stage of their journey after having travelled for hours or days to cast their ballots. Well, we were definitely late to the party, as an 8:00 am departure time from Singati, following a luxurious breakfast of rotis and jam, seemed to be reserved for rookies. We missed the crowds of voters from Singati by several hours as they had strategically avoided the hot sun and long lines for the voting station. On the way up, we encountered some other late-comers, walking speedily and inevitably passing us, but saw far more people returning down the path. Most wore neat button up shirts and suit jackets, or bright saris and precarious heeled sandals, admirably traversing the small steep path in the hot sun. Voters greeted us with waves and asked, laughing, if we too were going to cast our votes. If our names are on the list! we shouted back.
It was made clear by those we talked to that this opportunity to vote was important for them, after all it had been a long twelve year wait for these elections. There had been concerns expressed in Singati over dinner the night before that neighbours and friends wouldn’t make the trek up to vote if the weather was bad or simply because they were reluctant to make the two-hour trek. Younger people arranged for vehicles to transport their elderly relatives to the polling stations. There was an excited, nervous energy in the air around the polling station and hushed conversations among the crowds of people who congregated for hours on the hillsides overlooking the the voting site, watching the process long after casting their own ballots.