The results of the House of Assembly election in
Swaziland / Eswatini have still not been published one month after the vote
took place.
It is further evidence that the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch is not a democracy.
It is further evidence that the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch is not a democracy.
The election took place on 21 September 2018. The
kingdom’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) promptly announced the
winners at the 59 constituencies (known as tinkhundla) but no break-down giving
the number of votes cast for each candidate has been released.
This is not new in Swaziland: the full results of the
previous election held in 2013 have never been published.
In Swaziland, political parties are banned from taking
part in elections and the people are only allowed to select 59 members of the House
of Assembly; the King appoints a further 10. No members of the 30-strong Swazi
Senate are elected by the people; the King appoints 20 members and the House of
Assembly elects 10. Following the election King Mswati appointed six
members of his Royal Family to the House of Assembly and eight
members to the Senate.
The EBC has not released the results of the House of
Assembly election, although they are known. The two national newspapers in
Swaziland published some results from individual tinkhundla as they were
announced on the night of the election.
The EBC has the capacity to publish the results. After
the first round of the election (known as the Primary Election) on 24 August
2018, the EBC uploaded on its website all the results. At
the time the Swazi
Media Commentary (SMC) blogsite analysed the data and found a total
of 156,973 people voted for members of the House of Assembly at the Primary
Election; 28.83 percent of those who had registered.
In June 2018 after revising the figure the EBC
announced that 544,310
people had registered to vote. It said earlier that 600,000 people
in the kingdom were eligible to register. This meant, according to EBC figures,
that 90.7 percent of eligible people had done so. The
EBC figure was questioned after allegations were made of election
law breaking. No copy of the national electoral roll was made public.
SMC reported that the
size of the turnout in the Primary Election was important as voting was the
only way people in Swaziland had of demonstrating their support (or lack of it)
for the political system. In 1973, King Sobhuza II tore up the constitution,
banned political parties and began
to rule by decree. Although a new
constitution came into effect in 2006, little has changed and King
Sobhuza’s son King Mswati III continues to rule as an absolute monarch. Political
opposition is banned in Swaziland and those who campaign for democracy are
charged under the Suppression
of Terrorism Act.
The voting figures for the
Primary Election suggested a lack of support for the political process. The
results of the primary Election have since been removed from the EBC website.
The final round of the
election (known as the Secondary Election) was marred by accusations of
bribery, vote-rigging and other malpractice. There were also outbreaks of
violence. Police
fired gunshots, stun grenades and rubber bullets as voters at Sigwe
protested against completed ballot papers being taken away from a polling
centre. In
Ndzingeni polling stations voters
were dispersed using teargas during counting as voters threatened to
enter the polling station where counting was taking place. APA news agency reported outbursts of violence
started as early
as noontime on election day and
intensified in the evening when the counting of votes was about to
resume.
Some journalists and official
independent election observers were
barred from entering voting counting centres and told they must sign
a declaration of secrecy form.
Following the election
official complaints were made to the EBC about malpractice. Residents at Ntfonjeni
said people were bussed in and allowed to vote after the election had closed.
At Ndzingeni residents complained of
vote-rigging.
See also
Swaziland
Police Fire Gunshots, Set Off Grenades and Rubber Bullets as Voters Protest
During Election
Violence, corruption, vote-buying reported in
Swaziland election. Journalists barred from entering counting centres
Swaziland
(Eswatini) Election 2018: Links to Information and Analysis From Swazi Media
Commentary
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/swaziland-eswatini-election-2018-links.html
Organised Certainty, Why elections in Swaziland are not democratic
https://www.scribd.com/document/384752084/Organised-Certainty-Why-Elections-in-Swaziland-Are-Not-Democratic
Organised Certainty, Why elections in Swaziland are not democratic
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