Only four in ten of the people entitled to vote in Swaziland’s
national election did so. The percentage turnout was lower than the previous
election in 2008.
The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has just
released figures from the 2013 election, three years after the vote took place.
The ECB reported than 251,278 people voted from the 414,704 who
registered. In 2013, the ECB reported that about 600,000 Swazis were entitled
to register. That means that only 41.8 percent of those entitled to vote did so
in 2013.
The low turnout casts doubts on claims by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch, that his subjects support what he calls his
kingdom’s ‘unique democracy’.
Political parties are not allowed to take part in elections and most of
the political groupings in Swaziland that advocate for democracy have been
banned under the King’s Suppression of Terrorism Act.
The Swazi people are only allowed to select 55 of the 65 members of the
House of Assembly, the other 10 are appointed by the King. None of the 30
members of the Swaziland Senate are elected by the people: the King appoints 20
members and the other 10 are appointed by the House of Assembly.
Neither the House of Assembly nor the Senate are independent of the King,
who can, and does, overrule
decisions he does not like.
The people do not elect the government; the Prime Minister and Cabinet
ministers are handpicked
by the King.
Immediately before the national election in September 2013, King Mswati
announced that the political system in Swaziland that had until then been
called tinkhundla would in future be known as ‘Monarchical
Democracy.’ He said this would be a partnership between himself and the
people.
The supporters of King Mswati saw the election as a way for the Swazi
people to endorse the King’s version of democracy. At the same time
prodemocracy groups urged people to boycott the election.
The 2013 vote compares to the 47.4 percent of people entitled to vote in
the previous election in
2008 who actually did so. At that election 189,559 people of the 400,000
entitled to vote did so.
It is impossible to tell whether the low turnout in the 2013 election
was in support of the boycott call by prodemocracy advocates. It could easily
have been because ordinary Swazi people saw no point in voting as it would
change nothing in their lives.
The power wielded by King Mswati was criticised by two independent
international groups which observed the Swazi election in 2013. Both the African
Union and the Commonwealth Observer Mission suggested the kingdom’s
constitution should be reviewed to allow political parties to contest
elections.
The Commonwealth
Observer Mission added that, ‘The presence of the monarch in the structure
of everyday political life inevitably associates the institution of the
monarchy with politics, a situation that runs counter to the development that
the re-establishment of the Parliament and the devolution of executive
authority into the hands of elected officials.’
See also
PM TELLS
MPs THEIR DUTY IS TO KING
KING
APPOINTS SIX OF HIS FAMILY TO SENATE
AU WANTS
REVIEW OF SWAZI CONSTITUTION
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