Ballots on the Road

Driving home on Tuesday, I saw the Presidential Guard driving down the road. When this happens, there is a pretty standard procedure you follow. You pull off the road. Shut off your car engine. And look away. Their aimed guns provide pretty effective motivation for doing as they wish.

Tuesday was unusual because the soldiers were not downtown, but closer toward where I live. And they were not guarding the President or any of the Vice Presidents. They were guarding the election ballots, which, the news had announced, just arrived at the airport from South Africa where they were printed. So there they were. Three 18-wheeler flatbed trucks loaded with boxes of election ballots. Protected by the presidential guard. Pretty historic.

After the caravan passed, we started the car and continued on our way. (Actually we soon encountered another military vehicle stationed on an overpass, where is could observe the caravan from a distance.) My driver, who is Congolese but lived in the US for more than 20 years, observed, “In the US, bandits would take them and steal the election. But here there is no problem. Nobody will bother it.”