Even before the dust has settled on Swaziland’s elections, two of the organisations sent to observe them have issued critical reports.
Top of their concerns are the absence of political parties in Swaziland (they are banned by law) and failure by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to conduct a civic education exercise for voters in advance of the polls.
The Swazi Observer reports today (22 September 2008) on a press conference held by both the African Union (AU) and Pan-African Parliament (PAP) at which the two organisations urged the Swazi government ‘to open a window for political parties to participate in the elections process and further provide funding for candidates to campaign’.
The Observer reported that the Pan-African parliament noted that the restriction on political parties was an infringement on the rights of those citizens wishing to participate in elections through political parties and did not meet regional and international standards and principles for democratic elections.
However, according to the Observer, ‘the two groups noted that overall the elections process was free and fair’.
I suppose it will be this last remark that the Swazi government will latch onto in order to justify the legitimacy of the election, but if it does it will be fooling nobody.
As I noted yesterday the international media covering the election all highlighted the lack of democracy in Swaziland, in particular the banning of political parties, the lack of any real power in parliament and the fact that King Mswati III appoints the Prime Minister and cabinet.
The report from the AU and PAP is history repeating itself. After the last elections in 2003, the Commonwealth Expert Team reported ‘we do not regard the credibility of these National elections as an issue: no elections can be credible when they are for a Parliament which does not have power and when political parties are banned’.
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