It’s Wednesday morning, 8:30 hrs in a former gym, located in an old school building in the neighbourhood Blauwdorp. Khyra Faradji (20) has already been working for more than two hours. That is rather early for the second-year student of Arts and Culture, but this is election day and Faradji is a member of the polling station. "From the moment we opened the doors an hour ago, it has been quite busy," she says, handing out one ballot paper after another to incoming voters. "It is the second time that I am here as a volunteer. I do it just because I like it. Not only do I contribute to our democracy, it is also fun, getting to know the other volunteers well; it is also very instructive, because most of them are older. The moments when it’s quieter, we talk about our lives, our problems, and we laugh a lot too.”
The manual counting of the votes, which starts at 21:00 hrs, is a nuisance at the end of the day: "That is when we open the ballot boxes, drop all the ballot papers on the floor, sort them out and start counting. It takes hours, you can make mistakes, and how can you be sure there isn’t a corrupt volunteer among all those thousands across the country?" So, she hopes that one day she will see computers in the voting booths instead of ballot papers and red pencils. But, all and all, Faradji is happy to be part of it: "I help our democracy and also earn 200 euro. In my student job as a barista, I need to work for a week to earn that amount."