A long, long, day

The clock on the wall points toward the seven. “What time do you have”, a member of the election committee asks to the observers. They confirm it’s almost time. The last person cues, cast his vote and the door gets closed. Election day is over.

Elena asks something in Macedonian. She turns towards me with her eyes open wide. “We cannot leave the room till the counting is done.” This is not the way we expected to spend our night. No dinner in the city, meeting the other observers, writing the report and see the results on the television. NO: we will stay in a hot classroom and experience the whole democratic procedure.

Two men put some tables together in the middle of the room. At the left they put two ballot boxes. This is going to be a long night.

Fifteen minutes past seven. The president opens the first box and pick up the first ballot. At loud he tells the room which number and name is circled. The man at the right confirms and the paper is put on the table. Next vote, same process over again. And again and again.

Finally all votes are ordered, the observers counted them all and now the counting by the election committee can start. “Eden, dwa, ti” and so one, till the pile is transferred from the left to the right side. Elena tells me that this is good for my Macedonian counting and starts laughing.

After more than two hours the counting is done. All the persons are relieved that it’s over. It has been a long day. Now we can go home. But then one of the domestic observers starts to argue. The numbers of the committee are not similar as his. After a small discussion they find the problem. He counted invalid votes in the total, but they should be excluded. The president tell us that we can go now. Only the two of us, the rest of the persons have to stay. We leave the room and get off to meet the others and find out the results.