Elections in South Africa

On Wednesday the nation of South Africa just held the most critical elections they have had since 1994 when Apartheid ended and every person was allowed to vote for the first time. People all over the nation acknowledge the importance of this year's elections and voter turn out was again like that of 1994 with long lines of people waiting for their opportunity to vote. I'm waiting for all the final numbers that will come out tomorrow, but it appears as if 80% of the population voted this past Wednesday. 80%!!! That is amazing voter turn out. I suppose when you've been denied the right to vote in the past it becomes more precious of a privilege.
I have to say that being here for the month leading up to this election has been amazing! So many things have gone on. Corruption has been uncovered, the problems with leaving one dominate party in power for too long has been openly discussed, tribal division and racism have been acknowledged. And yet in the midst of all of this, people and even the media have remained amazingly positive about it all. Even when a complaint is made the media has been quick to point out how the people of this nation still believe in the positive impact of a free and democratic elections no matter how many small mis-haps occur along the way. Can you imagine how peaceful things might be if the American media could just find one positive thing to say now and again!
For me the best part of this whole election process has been how the political parties campaign. There are something like 12 political parties here and almost no mudslinging. No negative words about the other parties. I actually know what the parties here believe in because they campaigned on what they are standing for rather than what they are against. I only heard one party in this nation campaign as standing against the domination of the leading party, but even with that it was not an entirely negative campaign. I did see one other group use a play on words to say if you don't want to vote for the other group then vote for us (one group here is called Congress of the People and to shorten it they call themselves COPE. So the one add said, "Can't COPE? Vote I.D.") Then, I don't know the exact process of things here but apparently representatives from each party are present during the counting of votes and these people who have just campaigned opposing each other for the past months sit in the same room and talk and chat. How nice is that? Can you imagine if Obama and McCain had sat in the same room and chatted on America's voting day???
Anyway, just wanted to share about this amazing experience of peaceful politics!
Oh, and why do they say these elections were so critical? I heard one media person say this, "In 1994 we voted to see the beginning of a new nation. This year we are voting to see where this new nation will go."