Kenworthy News Media, 18 September 2018
Swaziland will hold national
elections on Friday (21 September 2018) amid waves of strikes and protests. A new
survey from Afrobarometer shows that few Swazis believe that they are free to
speak their mind or that Swaziland is a proper democracy, writes Kenworthy News Media.
Swaziland could be heading
for its lowest turn-out ever at a national election on Friday, with only a little over 25
percent of eligible voters voting in the first round of elections in
August.
The run-up to elections was
also marred by waves of strikes and protests from teachers, nurses and other
public employees who are demanding higher wages.
A new
survey published Monday by Pan-African research network Afrobarometer shows
that dissatisfaction with the political system and conditions generally in
Swaziland runs deep. The main problems for the 1200 people surveyed were
unemployment, bad management of the economy and poverty.
Not a real democracy
The Afrobarometer survey asked an array of questions on matters ranging from democracy and elections to food security and internet connections.
Only 4 percent believe that
conditions in Swaziland are very good and a further 17 percent that they are
fairly good. Perhaps because over half had gone without food and over two
thirds had experienced having no money during the last year in a country that
Oxfam called the most unequal in the world last year.
Regarding Swaziland’s
political system, where political parties are in effect banned and King Mswati
controls the economy and judiciary and appoints the Prime Minister and
government, only 7 percent believed that Swaziland is a full democracy and 21
percent that they are completely free to speak their mind.
After the last national
elections in Swaziland in 2013, reports from the Commonwealth Observer Mission
said that elections had shown “major democratic deficits” and the EU elections
Experts Mission that there were “fundamental problems [with] the system of
government”.
Be careful what you say
As for possible solutions to Swaziland’s democratic deficit, 49 percent of those surveyed by Afrobarometer believed that multi-party democracy is a pre-condition for political choice and 60 percent that they should be able to join any such organization of their choice.
Nevertheless, 61 percent
believed that the ban on political parties should be maintained and only 6
percent said that they had participated in a demonstration of protest in the
past year. 78 percent agreed that they would “never do this” and 48 percent
said that they trust King Msati “a lot” (only 20 percent showed the PM the same
curtesy).
Perhaps the reason for this
discrepancy is that nearly two thirds said that they believed that you have to
be careful what you say about politics in Swaziland (two thirds even thought
that you have to be careful how you vote in an election).
And because nearly half
mistakenly thought that the survey was carried out by the government.
See also
Swaziland Heading For Lowest Election Turnout as Ordinary People Support Democratic Change
Election
Observer Group From African Union to Examine Level of Political Rights in
Swaziland
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/election-observer-group-from-african.html Swaziland Heading For Lowest Election Turnout as Ordinary People Support Democratic Change
Swaziland
(Eswatini) Election 2018: Links to Information and Analysis From Swazi Media
Commentary
Organised
Certainty, Why elections in Swaziland are not democratic
https://www.scribd.com/document/384752084/Organised-Certainty-Why-Elections-in-Swaziland-Are-Not-Democratic
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