By Tshepang Mokgtla

With elections a couple of hours away, and the whole country preparing to go out and vote for their political parties of choice, the thought of standing in a long line can be extremely daunting. Well do not despair, we have you covered with tricks to help you avoid long queues on election day. Our electoral system requires you to go out to a voting station or the IEC to come to your home if you have registered for a special vote. We do not as a nation do mail voting, online voting or use televoting systems. So, if you didn’t register for a special vote you must read this.

This election is a National and Provincial election. According to the IEC you can vote for both in the province your voter registration was done or for national only if you are out of the province.

1. Find the smallest voting station. Usually, the easiest way to check is by going through the statistics of the previous elections. Some stations are small in the number of registered people while others are small with regards to the voter turnout.
2. With voting stations opening at 7am until 9pm on the 8^th of May, the highest voting traffic is in the first two hours and in the last two hours, these are the times one should avoid, unless you are in a small voting station. The best time to avoid the queue is between 9am and 12pm and from 2pm until 7pm. Although election day is a public holiday, there are many voters that will be working during election day and some will take their lunch break to go out and vote that is between 1pm and 2pm.
3. Most if not all political parties will be providing transportation to ferry voters. Take advantage of this opportunity. Request transportation at the party stands which will be located outside of the IEC demarcated voting areas.

Remember the above is a recommendation to avoid standing in a long line not an excuse not to vote. Casting your vote is very important. Participating in these elections means you are contributing toward shaping the country into what you would like it to be. Let’s all go out and ensure that we vote to manifest the future we want to see in the country. Visit www.myxse.co.za check if you are registered to vote.