Swaziland’s House of Assembly failed to elect a Speaker
on Thursday (17 October 2013) amid allegations that King Mswati III’s preferred
choice was not to be selected.
Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini adjourned the House before
a vote could take place.
The House had met for the first time since the national
election last month and first order of business was to swear in the new members
of parliament. This went without a problem, but the House fell into disarray
when it was asked to elect a Speaker of the House, before moving on to elect 10
members of the Senate House.
According to local media reports Ndvuna
Dlamini told the House that not all the paperwork relating to the election of
senators had been completed and this would delay the election, meaning that
both could not be completed in one day. Clerk Dlamini said this
would be unprocedural and after some confusion he adjourned the House.
Later, the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a South
African based group campaigning for
democratic reform in Swaziland, where King Mswati rules as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch, issued a statement saying the postponement of
the election of Speaker had been had been made to appease the king.
SSN said most of the new members of parliament wanted the
former Speaker of Parliament, Prince Guduza to be re-elected, but the king was
opposed to their choice, ‘as he has a personal vendetta against his
half-brother, stemming from their own family squabbles’.
The king’s preferred candidate for the position is a
former senator and minister, Themba Msibi, SSN said.
SSN said, ‘The clerk to parliament was ordered by the
king's henchmen to flee the parliament building in order to ensure that the
election process did not occur that afternoon [Thursday].
‘After he had fled, the parliamentarians were told that
the elections had been postponed till Monday due to the sudden and inexplicable
disappearance of the parliament clerk.
‘Mswati has since summoned his ten appointed members of
parliament to his palace where he issued orders that they use the next four
days to bribe, intimidate and blackmail the members of parliament to vote for
his preferred candidate, Themba Msibi. He has also issued his famous threat
that should Msibi not be elected as Speaker, he will not open parliament next
year. He has done this in the past when Marwick Khumalo was elected Speaker.’
See also
DISSIDENT STANDS AS HOUSE SPEAKER
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