some cheer would return, and vowed to keep all the senior leaders of the party out of Hillbrow, until after the elections.
In general the press also seemed to have lost interest in the Hillbrow elections; this included our friends at the Hillbrow Herald and Exit. The journalists seemed to accept that it was a foregone conclusion the PFP would win by a fair margin on polling day.
The pace of canvassing and promoting picked up slowly again, even though the feeling of a looming loss was present all around. Leon and my job then became ‘keep people motivated’. As a result we spent more time in the office telling jokes and encouraging than going out convincing people to vote our way.
Poll day dawned. Our voting station was in a local school hall. As the kids still had lessons on the Tuesday preceding the day of elections, we could only move in to do our preparations in the late afternoon. Telkom was quick to install a few telephone lines to the classroom allocated to us for use as an Operations Room. Communications with the Campaign office was essential. We brought in a small 2 plate stove, kettle and a small fridge, so that meals and hot drinks would be available to the people manning the polling station.
Luck was on our side when lots were drawn for putting up our reception station, we got the centre spot, right in front of the gate where the voters would enter. We erected 3 yellow striped gazebos, the only ones we could get on hire, under which we had our tables and chairs. Here our volunteers would receive the voters to supply them with their voter numbers as per the Voters roll. Blue, white and orange ribbons were used to decorate the station, and T-shirts in the same colours were issued to all staff. To our left the PFP put up a tent, to the right the Conservatives put up an army-surplus tent.
On appearance we had won the first round, our reception area looked much more festive and optimistic than those of the other parties.
By then we had run out of light and all retired to get in as much shut eye as possible. As the doors to the polling station were to open at 07:00, we were all back on site by 03:00. Nobody of the other parties was there so we used the time to put our posters up on every tree, pole and wall we could. When the others did arrive there was some serious unhappiness, there was no space left available to them to put any posters. Mrs. "A", who I guess was acting as campaign manager for her husband, and me had a massive shouting match. I argued that ‘early bird catches the worm’, and we had them all. Mrs." A" then lodged an official complaint with the Presiding Officer, a magistrate from a distant town, who agreed with me and the statuesque remained.
When the voters started arriving we had some young girls, some of our Escorts' included, and men meeting them at the gate and accompanying them to our tables to get their voter numbers. This friendly reception did swing some hesitating voters our way, I am sure. During the first part of the morning the people manning our tables tried to keep records of the numbers of the people coming to our tables, enabling us to do a quick calculation as to the percentage of the vote coming our way. This took a bit of time to do, and as a result queues started forming. I gave instructions to suspend this exercise, as to get the voters to be attended to faster. Leon was not happy with this, and we had an argument about efficiency. So I had to remind him that as manager I was running his campaign; he job was to stand around trying to look intelligent, smile and shake hands.
Another logistics nightmare was transport; a lot of voters did not have the means of getting to the polling station. So I put Vic in charge of managing the small fleet of cars and minibuses, owned and driven by volunteers, to get the elderly, sick and lazy to the school, and then back home again.
At about 14:00 I estimated that we were running neck-and-neck with the PFP, while the Conservatives hardly seemed to get any votes. It was very apparent that the press had decided that the result in Hillbrow was a foregone conclusion, as they had predicted the previous day, a huge win for the PFP. Not a single reporter was noted at the school the entire day.
After 17:00 the voters started streaming in, our campaign office was doing splendid work in reminding voters that their support was needed, and that they had to come to the polling station after finishing work. A large proportion of these late voters were gay, bringing with them their own brand of humour and happiness. This created a fun atmosphere around our reception area, encouraging other voters to join in.
At 21:00 the polls closed and the sorting and counting of votes started. Only the candidate and campaign manager of each party were allowed in the hall to witness the counting, to ensure that no cheating took place. Supporters and well-wishers had to wait the long wait outside the hall, drinking coffee and getting into fights with each other. The noise of these arguments got to such a level that the Presiding officer had to ask the respective candidates to address their supporters and request more civilized behaviour. When the police, at the school for security reasons, stepped in the din did reduce to a level where the counters could at least here themselves count.
Shortly before the counting was finished Leon remarked to me that it was very close, but that he had a gut feeling that we had lost. Mrs. "A" overheard this remark, and quipped that stealing all the poster-space did thus not pay off. Both Leon and I later regretted that remark of his, it made the night much longer than it should have been.
The counting was completed at about 01:30, and the Presiding Officer announced the results, the National Party had the most votes, topping the PFP by 37! That was us, we had won. Jubilation broke out outside the hall, people rushing for phones to announce this totally unexpected result to the world! The celebrations though were short lived. Mr. "A" immediately objected, and demanded a recount. He based his objection on the fact that his wife had overheard Leon’s earlier remark to me that he had a gut feel that we had lost by a short margin, Mr. "A" interpreting this as an admission of defeat.
So the tedious waiting started all over again while the officials recounted the ballots. While Leon and I battled to stay awake inside the hall, the message had reached the press that the results in Hillbrow had been so close, and in favour of the National Party against all expectations. Reporters, national and international, descended on Hillbrow in their droves; they had a story, the complete surprise of the elections.
The recount took about 2 hours, but again the result was in our favour. Our margin of victory had been reduced by 4 votes. Again the PFP objected, this time by mouth of Mrs. "A". I Believe Mr. "A" by then had accepted defeat, but Mrs. "A" could not tolerate the thought that she will no longer be the important wife of a member of parliament, and she would miss the income a parliamentary member received for not doing much at all.
On the Thursday morning, at about 07:00 the Presiding Officer announced the final result, he was not going to call for a further recount, and all parties were told that his then announcement was final. The candidate for the National Party, Mr. Leon, had won the national election in Hillbrow with 36 votes.
When we left the hall I gave Leon a few meters head start, he was the man of the moment, after all. Outside the hall there was some minor chaos, with celebrating supporters screaming there welcome, dancing and generally forgetting their tiredness. A massive surprise awaited us too, as Leon exited the hall he was met by a barrage of camera flashes. The press, local and international, had heard that the elections in Hillbrow had not gone as expected! This was the highlight of a rather boring national election; it was the news story of the day! What was to have been a land-slide victory for the PFP turned into defeat. This went against the general trend in the rest of South Africa, where the swing was away from the National Party, to the left and right.
Many theories and reasons were thumb sucked, all missing the point. The voters in Hillbrow did not vote for a party, they had voted for an individual. The previous Member of Parliament for the constituency was not from Hillbrow, was hardly ever seen in the suburb and his record of achievement on behalf of the residents was extremely small. They voted for a man who now lived in Hillbrow, hoping that he experienced the problems facing the people
first hand, and that he could possibly bring this to government’s attention, and have some problems solved. That went for the Gay and Lesbian vote too, their plight of being discriminated against, even as low key as it was, needed some attention, and Leon did promise to make it an issue if he gets to Parliament.
Due to the many recounts classes for the day had to be cancelled, as we still occupied the premises well after the first bell had rung, giving us enough time to clear up our election stations.
Then it was home to sleep, any celebratory parties was postponed to Friday night. Congratulatory messages started pouring in on Friday morning, although I got the impression that those messages from the National Party leadership was rather mooted, they really did not want to win Hillbrow, it was too much of a hot political potato.
By Monday the press still theorized, getting political experts for their opinions, which were mostly ridiculous. We had other problems though, we had to clean up. All the posters and placards our helpers had so keenly put up had to be removed, the campaign office had to be returned into its former state, a busy Escort Agency. Most of our helpers had also disappeared, the