election erections

hello there

well, i think it's pretty much a given that politics today, around the world, is - as it always has been - riddled with corruption and shady deals. elections have, to some extent, alwasy been affected by rigging, fixes and arrangements. this is nothing but, but it is also nothing right.

i actually think i am too tired to write this, but off we go.

here, according to a rather unreliable "news" service, is a whole load of dumped or if you like ditched voting ballots from South Africa's general election yesterday. they claim that "most" of the votes were for the DA.

apparently the Independent Electoral Committee, who do not have the best track record, are "investigating the authenticity" of this. because, despite people being up in arms and all at it over this, it could well be that this is an elaborate hoax.

should this turn out to be legit and these are ditched ballots, well, it is not right - far from it - but it also does not look like it would be enough votes to have swayed the direction fo the election. my guess would be these are "spoilt" ballots.

UPDATE - they were not dumped before they were counted.


meanwhile at home, the exciting world of European Elections is coming my way. woo and indeed hoooo, for i have not voted in one of them since, what, 91 or 92? i think me and my mate Bamber voted for David Bowe as he sounded like someone else more famous, just shy a letter i cannot, can i, think of.

anyway, here is what we have had through the door so far. yes, they are trying to look like men of action.

what a nice touch it was of the Conservatives to address their one to my (considerably) better half. i assume this means they want nothing to do with me. presumably it also means that they believe she, or i, have "overlooked" the living hell they made our lives as we planned to come home.

i would imagine the one off them Liberal Democrats will be arriving as soon as David lets Nick have a go at the colour copier machine in the office.

anyway, back to the world of the recent (as in yesterday) South African election. it seems that this picture is claimed to show an Independent Electoral Committee member (they are dressed in blue, look you see) carrying a whole load of ballot papers that, it is further claimed, were marked in favour of the ANC.

she was taking them into one of them top secret voting booths, the ones where if you even thought of taking a selfie you got arrested. yes, that is a copper in the hat behind the ballots.

i am not sure, if the above claims are true of the picture, why they went to so much trouble, really. IEC members have been, after all, keeping the ballot boxes in their homes for a while now, as the below picture claims to show. why not just shove the fake ballots in there, rather than carrying them all the way to the voting station?

perhaps faking them at the voting station makes them authentic and legit?

oh yeah, the ballot boxes at home.

eeeeh, and just think, Bono, Jim Kerr and that Springsteen fella did all them songs and protest speeches to bring freedom to South Africa. all three of them, and others, have had their vision betrayed by corrupt political parties. who'd have thought?

i suppose, for Pope Bono and his mates, it is a moral victory of sorts, for as many black political parties are now free to be as corrupt as white ones have. nice one.

look, i got some lovely things in the post today.

that's bus reading, that is. and other things. many, many thanks indeed, the person who sent them on to me, i look forward to having a read of them as i travel on my way ato and afro verk.

many of you will, of course, be aware of how brilliant and excellent the SA Police are via the sterling work they have done in that whole Oscar Pistothingie trial, the one where he's getting knacked for what some consider to me just a minor murder.

here, have your faith restored as this copper takes a break from arresting those suspected of selfie crimes to inspect the election ballot boxes at someone's house.

i have every confidence that he will get to the bottom of the matter.

yeah, i am too tired for all of this, so here's the inside of them pamphlets we got for the Euro Elections.

from what i remember being a Member of European Parliament, or if you like, it a licence to collect an awful lot of money for doing not a great deal beyond turning up in, of all places, Belgium every now and then and sitting down to have a coffee or something.

no, i certainly have not ruled it out as a career option, but i dare say that as a consequence of the above it's quite tricky to get on the list for selection.

actually no, i cannot be bothered with being a member of any Parliament, thanks.

to end, then, an imaginative interpretation of what counts as a safe and fine ballot box to put your vote in. yes, they are some of these IEC people stood proudly by their pioneering breakthrough in modern security.

presumably the ballot box that lady was supposed to put her vote in was either at the house of an IEC official. or maybe in the back of a police car, parked at KFC.

anyway, enough of that. bed. i am busy on the ebook thingie reading the Time Traveler's Almanack, these books above you have looked at will be read dans le bus.


except i can't remember if GIFS work here. pinched off someone, but seems right for here

 i think it does, but here is a video if not.

ta to whoever i pinched that one off of.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!