WHY ARE FULL POLL RESULTS NOT OUT?

Voters in Swaziland still do not know the full results of last week’s election – and it may be many days before they do.

The Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC) says the result might be available later this week or early next.

The lack of progress on releasing the details of the voting is leading to speculation that the turnout for the poll was so low; it will be an embarrassment to King Mswati III and his supporters.

The EBC was quick to announce the winners of the election in each of the 55 constituencies in the election for the House of Assembly after polls closed on Friday (20 September 2013).

Although it announced the winners and gave the number of votes cast for the victorious candidate, it did not publicise the number of votes cast for each of the losers.

In 10 of the 55 constituencies the EBC only announced the winner’s name but not the number of votes he received.

The EBC said privately this week it was still compiling the lists and would not be able to give details for some days.

But, if the EBC knows who won at each constituency, it also knows the number of votes each losing candidate got. From there it is a small step to adding up the total number of voters across the kingdom so we can know the total turnout in the election.

Either the EBC is being spectacularly incompetent or it is trying to keep back something from the Swazi people.