Waiting for a Result

Australia voted on Saturday to decide who will run our country for the next three years. It looks like we have a hung parliament so both major parties are now scrambling to ensure the support of independents in an effort to form a minority government. It may be some time before we know who will be our next Prime Minister.

Voting is compulsory here in Australia so we’re guaranteed the largest possible number of Australians over the age of eighteen play a part in selecting who leads the nation.

We’ve moved house since the previous election so we’re in a new electorate and we had to find a new polling place. We’re used to turning up, walking straight in, voting, and then heading on our way. This time we had to wait in a queue for quite some time before finally casting our vote.

The people running the booth seemed completely unprepared for a big turnout. We were there around 10:30 a.m. and the senate ballot box was already crammed full. It was a struggle to get my vote into the box.

One of the electoral workers told us that it was the only box they were given for the entire day. It was expected that it would be a fairly small booth. I guess the electoral commission didn’t notice the huge amount of development in the area in the past three years. Hundreds of houses have been built in new housing estates in the area over the past few years. I can only imagine that some frantic phone calls would have been made to hurriedly rectify the situation.

Mind you, while it was an inconvenience to wait in line, I’m still very glad that we live in a country that gives us the opportunity to play a part in the democratic process.