Ngomuyayona Gamedze, a candidate for the vacant seat in the Swaziland (eSwatini)
Senate, has withdrawn from the race and says he was asked to pay bribes to
secure votes.
In Swaziland the people do not elect the 30 members of
the Senate; 20 are appointed by absolute monarch King Mswati III and the others
are elected by members of the House of Assembly.
This is not the first time allegations of bribery
during Senate elections have been made.
A seat became vacant after the death of Senator Mike Temple
last year. Gamedze, a former deputy Senate president, was one of five
candidates.
Gamedze wrote
to the Returning Officer, the Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini, saying ‘the
election is open to the highest bidder’.
He wrote, ‘I am of the opinion that the election will
consequently not be fair, just and in national interest. I therefore find
myself with no option but to hereby respectfully withdraw my candidacy for the
election of a senator.’
In an interview with
the Swaziland News, an online newspaper, Gamedze said he had been
asked to pay for votes. ‘Anyone who aspires to take over the Senate must be
prepared to pay not less than 15 MPs [members of the House of Assembly],
E20,000 each (US$1,200), minimum totalling E300,000.’
There
were many reports of alleged bribery during the last Senate election in
2018. Police were called after votes were said to have been sold for between
E20,000 and E40,000. The Times of
Swaziland reported at the time the bribery allegations came to light after one
unsuccessful Senate candidate whom it did not name demanded her money back from
members of the House of Assembly.
The Observer on
Sunday newspaper, which is in effect owned by King Mswati, said in an
editorial comment in October 2018, ‘It is now an open secret that the 10 seats
available for Senate, to be chosen by the MPs, are now sold to the highest
bidder.’
Vusi Kunene, a columnist for the Times of Swaziland, criticised Swaziland’s Elections and Boundaries
Commission for not taking action. He wrote,
‘That it is no longer a secret that there is a lot of vote buying and the
institution, which is supposed to guard against such, is silent, is worrying.’
The buying of Senate seats in Swaziland is common. In
the run-up to the election Ncumbi Maziya, a Commissioner at the EBC, told a
workshop for election candidates that members of parliament charged
E60,000 for their vote.
The Swazi Observer newspaper reported
in August 2018, ‘He said parliamentarians are the most corrupt people. He said
he has since gathered that parliamentarians are swindling money from people who
want to make it into Senate.’
It added, ‘Maziya said he learnt that people are made
to fork out money amounting to E60,000 if they want to get a vote to be elected
into Senate. “If you have no money you won’t make it into Senate,” Maziya
stated.’
The election for the vacant Senate seat was expected to
be concluded on Monday (27 July 2020).
See also
Swaziland
King appoints eight of his family to Senate amid reports of widespread vote
buying elsewhere
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