Swaziland’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC)
says that more than 90 percent of those eligible have registered to vote, amid
claims of corruption and vote rigging.
Registration was extended by 12 days at the end of
June 2018 and 18,237 people registered during that time.
A total of 544,310 from 600,000 (90.7 percent) eligible
registered, according to official figures. The figures compare to 414,704 who
registered at the last election in 2013. Of these, 251,278 people voted.
Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati III one of the world’s
last absolute monarch. Political parties are barred from taking part in
elections.
Elections in Swaziland are widely recognised outside of
the kingdom as undemocratic. Parliament has no powers
as these are vested in the King. After the election, the King will chose the
Prime Minister, government ministers and the top civil servants and judges. At past elections people only got to select 55 of
65 members of the House of Assembly. The King chose the other 10. At the
forthcoming election there will be an additional four seats for people to vote
for. It has not been announced how many members the King will choose but the
Swaziland Constitution allows him to pick up to ten.
No members of the 30-member
Senate are elected by the people.
The EBC registration
figures have been disputed by veteran Swaziland journalist Ackel Zwane. Writing in the Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King,
on Friday (6 July 2018) he said there had been ‘blatant breaking of the electoral
law’ and the EBC had deliberately ignored this.
He wrote, ‘The law succinctly prescribes that there must be proof of
residence at registration, but the EBC has been inflating figures of registered
voters in the country’s malls and population centres without requiring proof of
residence.’
He added, ‘The figures have now been inflated with non-qualifying
elements registering to vote, all because there is no efficient system to prune
out the frauds.’
Zwane wrote, ‘It is at these
stages that an election loses its credibility.’
He said election law required people registering to vote in urban areas
to produce evidence of their Swazi citizenship or permanent residence. ‘Nothing
of this requirement was met at the registration points around the malls and
shopping complexes throughout the country.’
He added, ‘Now this has opened floodgates to the elections mafia who are
able to manipulate these loopholes by registering as many foreigners as
possible, especially impoverished Mozambicans who freely roam Eswatini
[Swaziland] without requiring any papers to remain in the country.
‘Similarly, the Asian community has joined the bandwagon to push up the
figures, not to mention the South Africans from porous borders in the north,
south and west, who come in and out as they wished to cast a vote in exchange
for a beer or two.’
Zwane said it would be impossible to verify the electoral roll ahead of
voting. ‘The individual citizens do not possess the ability and resources to
undertake the cumbersome task of identifying each individual voter in a
particular area whether authentic or fraudulent. Even the EBC does not have the
resources, skill and time to do this, otherwise they would have prevented the
crises at registration.’
During the registration period there were many
media reports of incompetence, corruption and
nepotism. When registration began equipment was not in place at all centres and
trained election personnel were not always available and there were many
reports of computer failures. A toll-free line available for people to report
grievances and challenges they met at registration centres failed to work on
MTN mobile phone numbers. Many people did not receive voter cards after registering,
leaving them in doubt that they would be able to cast their vote.
Reports of attempted bribery were rife across the
kingdom. At Maphungwane in the
Matsanjeni North Constituency football teams rejected a E10,000 (US$790)
sponsorship from an aspiring member of parliament. The Swazi Observer reported (18 May 2018) that the sponsorship was in
the form of prize money that would be paid at the end of the football season
and after the election had been held.
The newspaper reported the
clubs’ representatives questioned the timing of the sponsorship and rejected
the offer. One club boss told the Observer
that aspiring MPs had also tried to manipulate them in the past.
There was a report that police
in Swaziland were investigating possible election corruption
concerning a former government minister accused of bribing people with promises
of food parcels for their votes.
Poverty-stricken
textile workers said they sold their votes for cash
and chicken pieces. The Swazi
Observer reported sitting members
of parliament had sent their agents into factories to buy up votes in the
industrial town of Matsapha. People said they were persuaded to register as
residents of the surrounding areas as opposed to their chiefdoms of origin.
Other textile workers in
Nhlangano said groups of 50 or 60 of them had been given free lunches by
sponsors of people keen to win seats in parliament. They also said transport
costs to and from work had been paid. The Swazi
Observer reported on Friday (15 June 2018) that some outgoing MPs were
involved.
Residents at Mbangweni complained
of nepotism when four
people selected to assist in the election were from the same family. The Swazi
Observer reported Inkhosatana Gelane, the acting KoNtshingila chief,
saying they were ‘loyal and respectful residents’.
Many residents in areas including Engwenyameni, Madadeni, and Lavumisa, said they would
boycott the election because
they were dissatisfied with how constituency boundaries had been drawn.
Days before registration
closed EBC Chair Chief Gija Dlamini told media that all persons nominated
for election would
be vetted by police.
See also
DOUBTS
ELECTION BOARD IS COMPETENT
PEOPLE
NOT ELECTING THEIR GOVERNMENT
CHORUS
AGAINST UNDEMOCRATIC ELECTION GROWS
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