The Elections and
Boundaries Commission (EBC) in Swaziland has warned people it is illegal to
campaign for the national election until they have been given permission.
That means until King
Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, sets the date for
the poll. It will be sometime in 2018.
The warning came from EBC
officer Siboniso Nhleko at a voters’ education workshop at Khuphuka.
Political parties are
banned from taking part in elections and King Mswati’s subjects are only
allowed to pick 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 Swazi Senate are elected
by the people; the King appoints 20 members and the other 10 are appointed by
the House of Assembly.
The King choses the Prime
Minister and cabinet members. Only a man with the surname Dlamini
can, by tradition, be appointed as Prime Minister. The
King is a Dlamini.
He also choses senior civil
servants and top judges.
After Swaziland’s previous election
in 2013, the Commonwealth Observer Mission called for a review of the kingdom’s constitution.
It said members of parliament ‘continue to have severely limited powers’.
The Commonwealth observers
said there was ‘considerable room for improving the democratic system’.
They called for King
Mswati’s powers to be reduced. ‘The presence of the monarch in everyday
political life inevitably associates the institution of 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.’
The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati,
reported on Tuesday (21 March 2017) Nhleko stated that campaigning at this
point in time was illegal.
The newspaper reported, ‘In
fact, Nhleko said there was a specific period where elections candidates are
allowed to lobby for votes from the public. This is usually after the
nomination stage. Nhleko said anyone who would be found campaigning before this
stage would, therefore, be hauled before court and face a criminal offence.’
See also
KING’S BOGUS CLAIM ON DEMOCRACY
FALSE
CLAIM OVER SWAZI DEMOCRACY
THE
CASE FOR POLITICAL PARTIES
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-case-for-political-parties.html
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