I didn't get a wink of sleep. I stayed up all night because the 14th of December of 2022 marks another historical day for my country.
I went through my social media account, not a single post about the elections from anyone on my friends list. Everyone was adhering to the Black Out period that was issued by Fiji's Elections Office.
I felt that if I fell asleep, I'd be late to my allocated Polling Site which was at the Delaitokatoka Methodist Church Hall. Just the thought of queuing up in a long line made me feel exhausted. Would it rain? or would it be sunny? How many people will come to vote?
By 5:30 AM I've had breakfast and several glasses of milk. I kept peeping out the window to see if anyone had started lining up infront of the Polling Site. We live right across, so it was convenient for me to walk right over in a minute or two.
I saw a group of youths, eligible for voting, hungover and walking past our home away from the Polling Site. "Didn't they care about casting their votes today?", I thought to myself.
After some time, I could hear at least two people already chatting lively in front of the Methodist Hall. I quickly gulped my last cup of milk and by 5:45 AM I was sitted on a bench outside the venue with three people.
We patiently waited for the venue to open their doors since voting was scheduled to begin at 7:30 AM.
At around seven, the news of someone passing away came. In a small community like Delaitokatoka, everyone knew each other. The sudden passing of a family member of one of the landowners was received solemnly. A police van with three police officers arrived and directed to the home of the man that had just breathed his last breath on Elections Day.
A distant aunt of mine standing in front of me asked a Polling Officer if they could also go to her home to get her daughter's vote since she was currently unable to walk due to an illness. She also wondered if her old father who was bed ridden could cast his vote too.
The air was cool and the sky clear. The white clouds slowly moved across the sky with the gentle blowing breeze. People were arriving in small numbers and joining the line. Two old ladies were ushered to the front of the line.
The sun suddenly made its presence felt, we opened our umbrellas. Then it started drizzling, without warning heavy droplets began to descend from the sky.
In a short timespan, the weather was like a yoyo. Going between sunny, drizzling to heavy droplets then back to fine and cool. Unpredictable just like the outcome of the elections.
A police officer rode by in a police motorbike. Patrolling the road.
The two Polling Officers came out and declared the site officially open for voting to begin. Then a police officer went over some house rules, such as:
Citizens were kindly requested not to talk to one another.
Cell phones were to be switched off at all times.
The moment I was waiting for finally arrived. We made our way into the site one at a time, showing our Voter's ID card and getting verified before being directed to either Polling Station 1 or 2. I was directed to Polling Station 1.
After filling in the ballot paper, I got my pinky finger inked and dropped my folded ballot paper into the zip-locked bin. Making my vote count.
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