Excitement on Election Day
Posted by Sarah Whitney, Global Development Fellow
As I walked past the White House on my way to class this afternoon, I was struck by the memory of election night last fall. Celebrating such an influential election as a first time voter right here in DC was empowering. For the first time in my life, I saw the excitement that could surround a nation of informed and involved citizens, and the power that my generation could have as campaigners, supporters, and voters. As I stood in front of the White House that night, I recalled a photograph I saw this past June as a GDI with SMRC at the Apartheid Musuem in Johannesburg. That aerial photo showed a line of South African voters, coiled around a polling station in 1994, waiting to cast their vote as anxious and empowered citizens in the country’s first general election since the end of apartheid.
This is my last week of classes, and as a graduating senior I have a lot of work to do. But today I have been enthralled with the reports coming in from South Africa. Over 23 million citizens were registered to vote in the country’s fourth general election since 1994, and youth made up nearly 30% of the voting population. Many of these are first time voters, inevitably experiencing the same excitement I was on November 4th last fall. In a Reuters report from South Africa, 19 year old Buhle Nchukana said, “I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning. It’s my first time to vote and I’m obviously excited. We are hoping for a better future, especially for students.” South Africa’s current leader, President Kgalema Motlanthe, commented today, “Everyone who participates in this election shapes the history and direction of this country, no voice is less important than the other.”
Although the ANC is expected to see a large win and Jacob Zuma has been presumed South Africa’s next president since before we were in Manyeleti last summer, this election will bring changes to the nation and to the communities in which SMRC works. I am anxious and excited to hear what the students at Manyangana High School and the young people in Uta thought about the election. I want to know how they believe this election will affect their community and their future. How many of them were first time voters, and how many of them may not have gotten the opportunity to cast their vote? Will this election affect real change in Manyeleti, and what will be the role of young people in South Africa’s new government? Most importantly, how can Claire and I use the experiences of the Uta community this election day in developing the programs we hope to support through the new community center, to empower youth in the same way that our most recent election empowered a generation of young Americans? What do you think?
