With voter registration underway Swaziland is once more saying people will vote for a government when
they will not.
King Mswati III rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are
banned from taking part in elections and the King will choose whoever he wishes
to be Prime Minister and to sit in the cabinet.
The Elections and
Boundaries Commission (EBC) announced on Friday (11 May 2018) that registration will continue until
17 June 2018. The King has
yet to announce the date of the election, but it is expected to be in
September.
The Observer on Saturday (12 May 2018), a newspaper in effect owned by
King Mswati, reported
EBC Commissioner Ncumbi Maziya saying
the vote would lead to elected legislators and the appointment of cabinet.
It is widely recognised
outside of Swaziland that the national election that takes place every five
years is not ‘free and fair’ because political parties are not allowed to take
part and the parliament has no powers as it is subservient to the wishes of the King.
In the past people only got
to select 55 of 65 members of the House of Assembly. The King chose the other
10. This time 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.
As in previous years, no
members of the Swazi Senate will be elected by the people; the King will choose
20 and the other 10 will be chosen by members of the House of Assembly.
After the most recent national election in 2013, the African
Union (AU) mission called for fundamental changes in the kingdom to ensure
people had freedom of speech and of assembly. The AU said the Swaziland
Constitution guaranteed ‘fundamental rights and freedoms including the rights
to freedom of association’, but in practice ‘rights with regard to political
assembly and association are not fully enjoyed’. The AU said this was because
political parties were not allowed to contest elections.
The AU 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’.
In its report
on the 2013 elections, Commonwealth observers recommended that
measures be put in place to ensure separation of powers between the government,
parliament and the courts so that Swaziland was in line with its international
commitments.
They also called on the Swaziland Constitution to be
‘revisited’.
The report stated, ‘This should ideally be carried out
through a fully inclusive, consultative process with all Swazi political
organisations and civil society (needed, with the help of constitutional
experts), to harmonise those provisions which are in conflict. The aim is to
ensure that Swaziland’s commitment to political pluralism is unequivocal.’
It also recommended that a law be passed to allow for
political parties to take part in elections, ‘so as to give full effect to the
letter and spirit of Section 25 of the Constitution, and in accordance with
Swaziland’s commitment to its regional and international commitments’.
In 2015, following a visit to Swaziland, a Commonwealth
mission renewed its call for the constitution to be reviewed
so the kingdom could move toward democracy.
Richard
Rooney
See also
KING
IN TOTAL CONTROL OF HIS KINGDOM
IN
PRAISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES
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