The validity of the House
of Assembly election in Swaziland / Eswatini has been called into question with
a newspaper report that nominations for candidates went ahead without a final
voters’ roll.
Without the list of who had
registered to vote it was impossible to check that voters were genuine and
names had not been invented or people ‘rented’ to a constituency to support a
candidate.
Ackel Zwane, a veteran
journalist in Swaziland, wrote in the Swazi
Observer on
Friday (27 July 2018) this was the first time in the history of Swaziland’s
elections that nominations took place without a published voters’ roll. Nominations
took place at the weekend (28 and 29 July 2018).
Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati
III as one of the world’s last absolute monarchs. In the Tinkhundla system political
parties are not allowed to stand in the election and the King appoints the
Prime Minister and government. The King also in effect owns the Observer newspaper.
Zwane wrote, ‘We had also
expected the list of nomination centres at dates to have been distributed
together with the final voters roll in order to allow for voters to scrutinise
and detect rented and non-qualifying candidates from being nominated in the
said centres.’
He also criticised the fact
that the days for nomination were not made public holidays. He said, ‘Since the
Tinkhundla system of governance allows for individual status at elections, not
group or party representation, all citizens should have been allowed at both
the nominations, primary and secondary elections the same level ground, by
declaring these days public holidays in order for all citizens to enjoy that
same status of being equal just this once.’
The Elections and
Boundaries Commission (EBC) has been under intense
scrutiny for the way it is running the election. Earlier in July
amid claims of corruption and vote rigging it reported
more than 90 percent of those it said were eligible had registered to vote.
Registration had been extended by 12 days at the end of June 2018.
EBC said 544,310 from 600,000 eligible registered. The
figures compare to 414,704 who registered at the last election in 2013. Of those,
251,278 people voted.
Zwane disputed the EBC
registration figures. Writing in the Swazi Observer, (6 July 2018) he said there had been ‘blatant
breaking of the electoral law’ and the EBC had deliberately ignored this.
He wrote, ‘The law
succinctly prescribes that there must be proof of residence at registration,
but the EBC has been inflating figures of registered voters in the country’s
malls and population centres without requiring proof of residence.’
He added, ‘The figures have
now been inflated with non-qualifying elements registering to vote, all because
there is no efficient system to prune out the frauds.’
Zwane wrote, ‘It is at these stages that an election loses
its credibility.’
He said election law
required people registering to vote in urban areas to produce evidence of their
Swazi citizenship or permanent residence. ‘Nothing of this requirement was met
at the registration points around the malls and shopping complexes throughout
the country.’
He added, ‘Now this has
opened floodgates to the elections mafia who are able to manipulate these
loopholes by registering as many foreigners as possible, especially
impoverished Mozambicans who freely roam Eswatini [Swaziland] without requiring
any papers to remain in the country.
Zwane said it would be
impossible to verify the electoral roll ahead of voting. ‘The individual
citizens do not possess the ability and resources to undertake the cumbersome
task of identifying each individual voter in a particular area whether
authentic or fraudulent. Even the EBC does not have the resources, skill and
time to do this, otherwise they would have prevented the crises at
registration.’
During the registration
period there were many
media reports of incompetence,
corruption and nepotism. When registration began equipment was not in place at
all centres and trained election personnel were not always available and there
were many reports of computer failures. A toll-free line available for people
to report grievances and challenges they met at registration centres failed to
work on MTN mobile phone numbers. Many people did not receive voter cards after
registering, leaving them in doubt that they would be able to cast their vote.
Reports of attempted bribery were rife across the
kingdom. At Maphungwane in the
Matsanjeni North Constituency football teams rejected a E10,000 (US$790)
sponsorship from an aspiring member of parliament. The Swazi Observer reported (18 May 2018) that the sponsorship was in
the form of prize money that would be paid at the end of the football season
and after the election had been held.
The newspaper reported the
clubs’ representatives questioned the timing of the sponsorship and rejected
the offer. One club boss told the Observer
that aspiring MPs had also tried to manipulate them in the past.
There was a report that police
in Swaziland were investigating
possible election corruption concerning a former government minister accused of
bribing people with promises of food parcels for their votes.
Poverty-stricken
textile workers said they sold their votes for cash
and chicken pieces. The Swazi Observer reported sitting members of parliament had sent their agents
into factories to buy up votes in the industrial town of Matsapha. People said
they were persuaded to register as residents of the surrounding areas as
opposed to their chiefdoms of origin.
Other textile workers in
Nhlangano said groups of 50 or 60 of them had been given free lunches by
sponsors of people keen to win seats in parliament. They also said transport
costs to and from work had been paid. The Swazi
Observer reported on Friday (15 June 2018) that some outgoing MPs were
involved.
Residents at Mbangweni complained
of nepotism when four
people selected to assist in the election were from the same family. The Swazi
Observer reported Inkhosatana Gelane, the acting KoNtshingila chief,
saying they were ‘loyal and respectful residents’.
Many residents in areas including Engwenyameni, Madadeni, and Lavumisa, said they would
boycott the election because
they were dissatisfied with how constituency boundaries had been drawn.
Days before registration
closed EBC Chair Chief Gija Dlamini told media that all persons nominated for
election would
be vetted by police.
See also
New Study Shows Why Swaziland Elections Are Not
Democratic
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-study-shows-why-swaziland-elections.html
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