Swaziland’s Elections and
Boundaries Commission (EBC) Chair Chief Gija Dlamini says he is waiting for
King Mswati III’s command before opening the polls.
King Mswati rules Swaziland
as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Although elections are held every
five years international polling observers say they are bogus.
Political parties are not
allowed to take part in the election and the King choses the Prime Minister and
cabinet members. Only a man with the surname Dlamini can by
tradition be appointed as Prime Minister. The
King is a Dlamini.
The King is in control of Swaziland ahead of the 2018
election and he will be in control after it, regardless of which individuals
the people vote into the House of Assembly.
Political debate is
severely curtailed in the kingdom and advocates for multiparty democracy are
regularly arrested and charged under the Suppression of Terrorism Act or the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act.
Chief Gija Dlamini, himself
a member of the Swazi Royal Family, told the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, that
preparations were ready for the election. All he needed was the King’s command.
The Observer reported on Wednesday (18 April 2018), ‘He said once the
King had given the required command, they would announce the beginning of
registration for elections to the nation.’
It quoted him saying, ‘All
systems are ready for the commencement of the national duty, and we cannot just announce before we get
the King’s command, which will give
us the go ahead to announce dates for registration.’
The election process is
surrounded by misinformation. In February 2017 the Observer reported Dlamini speaking on behalf of the King. It quoted
him saying, ‘If any Swazi fails to register to vote for the upcoming 2018
national elections then they are abandoning their basic right of choosing their
own leader, thus hurting the whole kingdom in the process because they would be
silencing their own voice because voting unites the kingdom and gives all
people a voice and a chance to be counted, but most fundamentally of all,
Swazis through voting, have the right to choose who they feel will lead them to
the future.’
Dlamini made the comments
at a consultative meeting on civic education for traditional leaders at Pigg’s
Peak on 2 February 2017.
However, he misled his
audience and those who read his statement in the newspaper. The Swazi people
have no say in who their leaders are. They are only allowed to select 55 of the
65 members of the House of Assembly, the other 10 are appointed by the King.
None of the 30 members of the Swaziland Senate are elected by the people; the
King appoints 20 members and the other 10 are appointed by the House of
Assembly.
He also choses senior civil
servants and top judges. The elections have no real purpose other
than to give King Mswati a fig leaf of democracy. The Swazi Parliament has no
powers. King Mswati can, and does, overrule decisions he does not like. This
was the case in October 2012 when the King refused
to accept a vote of no confidence passed by the House of
Assembly on his government, even though he was obliged by the constitution
to do so.
After the last election in 2013 a number of groups that
had been official observers of the process reported the election was not free
and fair.
The official report of the Commonwealth Observer Mission called for a review of the kingdom’s constitution.
It said members of parliament ‘continue to have severely limited powers’ and
political parties are banned.
The Commonwealth observers
said there was ‘considerable room for improving the democratic system’.
They called for King
Mswati’s powers to be reduced. ‘The presence of the monarch in everyday
political life inevitably associates the institution of monarchy with politics,
a situation that runs counter to the development that the re-establishment of
the Parliament and the devolution of executive authority into the hands of
elected officials,’ it said.
The report said the
constitution needed to be revisited with an open debate on what changes were
necessary.
It added, ‘This should
ideally be carried out through a fully inclusive, consultative process with all
Swazi political organisations and civil society (if needed) with the help of
constitutional experts.’
The African
Union (AU) also urged Swaziland to review the Constitution,
especially in the areas of ‘freedoms of conscience, expression, peaceful
assembly, association and movement as well as international principles for free
and fair elections and participation in electoral process.’
The AU called on Swaziland to implement the African
Commission’s Resolution
on Swaziland in 2012 that called on the Government,
‘to respect, protect and fulfil the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of
association and freedom of assembly’.
Richard
Rooney
See also
EARLY
ELECTION CAMPAIGNING ILLEGAL
FALSE
CLAIM OVER SWAZI DEMOCRACY
THE
CASE FOR POLITICAL PARTIES
SWAZI
ELECTION ‘WILL BE A FRAUD’
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