Massive turnout in South African Election

Latest South African Election Results UPDATED HERE.

There are reports of a massive turnout in the South African General Election of 2009. In what News24 calls the most exciting election post apartheid reports are made of polling stations being overwhelmed in various areas.

The report goes on to talk about various isolated criminal acts, such as marked ballot papers being found and area managers ‘losing’ their voting material. The most pressing problems are those of time and resources. With such a high voter turnout, it’ll highly likely people will still be queing come 9pm closing time. Those already in queues at that time will be allowed to vote.

The ANC has called for extended voting times in light of this, but this is most likely to be declined as reported here.

The other pressing problem is ballot paper supply running low and being non existent in some areas.

This is reminiscent for me of the 1994 election. I can’t recall another election generating this much hype and interest. Most of the countries 23 million registered voters are expected to vote.

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Tags: south africa elections 2009, south african elections 2009