Some Swazi residents are threatening to boycott the national election, claiming they are undemocratic and their democratic right to freely choose their preferred Member of Parliament is being trampled upon.
Both Swaziland’s daily newspapers have been covering a dispute at the Ngudzeni constituency, which could be a small example of what is happening more generally in the kingdom.
The residents are angry because their preferred choice of candidate for MP was not allowed to register as a candidate.
The Times of Swaziland on Friday (15 August 2008) reported, ‘The voters feel that their democratic right to freely choose their preferred Member of Parliament is being trampled upon.
‘More than 150 Ngudzeni residents unanimously agreed that it is either Dumsani Ndlangamandla is allowed to join the election race or none amongst them will cast a vote for any other candidate.
‘“I will simply stay at home and not cast my vote because then I would be betraying my conscience knowing that I am voting for the wrong person,” Lindiwe Mamba said.
‘Her words were echoed by Bongi Dlamini who was adamant in stating that going to vote will not be an option for them as long as their candidate is not part of the nominees.
‘“It’s either Ndlangamandla or no vote for us,” Dlamini briefly said.’
‘Leader of the residents Senzo Mamba said: “the democratic right of the people is being blatantly violated and this needs to be corrected.”
‘“In order to avoid any violent situation, the elections team should allow the people to determine their candidate instead of a situation where it would seem candidates are imposed on the electorate,” Sibusiso Shongwe said.
‘Ndlangamandla was denied nomination by election officials after he failed to produce a letter from his employer giving him permission to take part in the elections.’
‘“We are tired of people who come home during elections and after they go to parliament they never think of us,” said a resident.
‘Ndlangamandla was nominated in Ndushulwini under Ngudzeni.’
The angry residents forced the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), the discredited organisation that is running the elections, to consider allowing Ndlangamandla to stand, but the Weekend Observer reported (16 August 2008) that the EBC ruled that the time for nominations were over so Ndlangamandla could not stand.
According to the Observer (15 August 2008), other candidates had been allowed to stand even though they had not completed the same formalities required of Ndlangamandla.
I was interested to see a reader left the following comment on the Times’ website. It demonstrates that not everybody in Swaziland believes that the Swazi elections are valid.
You will also note that the writer calls for King Mswati III ‘to get the hell out of politics’. Such criticism of the Swazi monarchy is not a viewpoint that newspapers in Swaziland are supposed to carry.
‘Protests against the undemocratic elections from different sectors of society point to the fact that elections in Swaziland are done as a routine than a way of exercising state power. People in this area who want to boycott the elections are right but for the wrong reasons. We must expose the elections as undemocratic and entrenching the status quo than to boycott based on logistical and operational issues. We must boycott the elections and demand a free and fair democratic elections held under a constitutional monarch not the cosmetic routine that is meant to keep up politically busy. We must demand a government of the people not a government of the king. Let the king get the hell out of politics and allow us to govern ourselves because clearly he has failed. At least for now we still revere and want him. There will come a time where we will say enough is enough he must go.’
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