Swaziland Newsletter No. 792 – 1
September 2023
News from and about Swaziland, compiled by
Global Aktion, Denmark (www.globalaktion.dk)
in collaboration with Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com),
and sent to all with an interest in Swaziland - free of charge.
Primary Elections Special
Primary
elections took place in Swaziland on Saturday (26 August 2023). They followed
nominations for member of the House of Assembly (parliament), constituency executive
committees (Bucopho) and constituency headmen.
Swaziland is made up of constituencies
(known as tinkhundla) which are divided into chiefdoms. At the end of the
primary elections, there should be one candidate from each chiefdom for the
position of the Member of Parliament and one for the position of the
constituency headman who then contest elections at secondary level on 29
September.
People at chiefdom level elect the member
of the Bucopho for that chiefdom.
Swaziland is not a democracy; it is an
absolute monarchy. Political parties are banned from taking part in the
election and no members of the Swazi Senate are elected by the people.
The King chooses the Prime Minister and Government.
The people are only allowed to elect 59 members of the House of Assembly with
another 10 appointed by the King. No members of the Swazi Senate are elected by
the people.
Here is a selection of reports of the
events surrounding the primary election
Cabinet
ministers and MPs fall at first hurdle
Early reports suggested that two Cabinet ministers
and many sitting members of parliament were defeated at the primary
election. These included the Minister of
Education and Training and the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs.
Among the MPs who lost was former Cabinet minister Lutfo Dlamini. Read more here
and here.
‘Bribery’
and ‘irregularities’
Media reported a ‘stand-off’ at the Hillside
High School Hall polling station in Manzini North when candidates refused to
proceed with the count without first seeing the votes that had been cast
earlier in the week from absentee voters and prison inmates. They said there
was a possibility that they were going to win at the count of the primary
elections, only to be later informed that they had lost. More here.
Later, figures from the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) which runs the
election showed that some candidates
did score lower votes than those announced on polling day. EBC Chairperson
Prince Mhlabuhlangene said there was a possibility that the consolidated votes
might have changed due to human error. More here.
Ahead of the voting, some Manzini South
residents threatened textile workers with a whipping if they tried to vote in
the constituency if they did not live there. This was amid fears of voter
fraud, which they claimed had happened in previous elections. More here.
More than 400 residents in the Buseleni
Chiefdom under Nkwene Constituency, in the Shiselweni region, protested
cheating at the poll. Among claims were that one candidate was not eligible to
stand and an issue over the registration of voters. More here.
Kwaluseni Member of Parliament Sibusiso Mabhanisi Dlamini,
who lost the election, claimed irregularities in the counting of his votes and
bribery. More here
Ndzingeni
MP Lutfo Dlamini, who lost the election, claimed his supporters were
intimidated and threatened that their houses would be burned down if they voted
for him. More here.
Women’s participation
down
There was a significant drop in the number of female members of
Parliament candidates in the national elections compared to the 2018 elections.
In 2018, 59 females were elected. This year only 34 women made it through the
primary election. More here.
Ahead of the election there were claims that the ‘Vote for Women’
campaign had broken election law by campaigning before the date of the election
had been announced. More here.
Election boycotts
Political parties are banned from taking part in elections but that does
not stop individual party members from doing so. There has been much discussion
among pro-democracy activists about whether they should do so and some did. A
debate on South African television including members of outlawed parties and a
government spokesman became quite heated.
To contest or boycott? eSwatini election divides
pro-democracy activists
By Khulekani Neni,
Daily Maverick (South Africa), 28 August 2023
Political activists in
Eswatini are deeply divided over whether to contest or boycott parliamentary
elections in late September under an electoral system that bars political
parties.
The tiny landlocked kingdom,
which shares borders with South Africa and Mozambique, goes to the polls on 29
September to elect members of parliament two years after violent pro-democracy protests left dozens dead.
Since 1993, Eswatini (formerly
Swaziland) has held parliamentary elections every five years, but there is no
legislative framework enabling the participation of political parties. Instead,
aspiring parliamentarians can stand only as independents.
The nomination process takes
place in Royal Kraals under the watchful eye of traditional authorities
(chiefs), who can influence voters not to nominate candidates perceived to be
disloyal to the chief and those seen as anti-monarchy.
Elected legislators enjoy
parliamentary privilege – they can pass or block bills and they can also
pass a vote of no confidence in the cabinet. But they have no constitutional
powers to hold the monarch to account or to debate the royal budget.
The Eswatini legislature
comprises two houses: the lower house of Assembly and the upper house of
Senate. The electorate can elect only 59 of the 69 members of the lower house.
The remaining 10 members are appointed by King Mswati.
The people do not elect any
members of the upper house of the Senate.
Twenty senators are appointed
by the king while the remaining 10 are elected by members of the lower house of
Assembly. This, according to some activists, skews the composition of the
Eswatini parliament in favour of the monarch and renders the legislature a
rubber stamp with limited oversight.
As such, a larger section of
pro-democracy activists, led by the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), has
over the years boycotted elections, arguing that their participation would
legitimise the prevailing system of government they abhor.
However, newly established
political formations, including the Swaziland Liberation Movement (Swalimo), formed by
exiled former MP Mduduzi Simelane in 2021, believe in putting more voices
inside the Eswatini parliament to amplify calls for political reforms. As such,
Swalimo has mobilised its members to stand for elections and to elect
individuals who support political reforms.
The party’s high-ranking
officials, including Simelane’s wife, Nomalungelo, popularly known as
“LaZwide”, spokesperson Thandaza Silolo and deputy secretary general Paul
Matimela, have accepted nomination.
“Our main target is to echo the
call[s] for democracy inside the legislature. We take a leaf from the three
MPs; Mduduzi Simelane, Mduduzi Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube,” said Silolo.
Simelane is in exile in the UK,
while Mabuza and Dube have been found guilty of terrorism, among other charges.
The three legislators ruffled the feathers of those in the higher echelons of
power in 2021 when they courageously called for an elected prime minister with
executive powers.
The participation of some
activists in the parliamentary elections has deeply polarised the mass
democratic movement in Eswatini to such an extent that those contesting the
elections have been accused of being in bed with the regime.
Furthermore, the tense debate
on whether to boycott or contest the elections has weakened pro-democracy
organisations largely seen as a yoke holding together various political
formations with conflicting ideologies.
In early August, Swalimo and
the Swazi Democratic Party (Swadepa), withdrew from the Swaziland
Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF), an organisation comprising political parties and
civil society groups formed by the late human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko.
Both Swalimo and Swadepa
accused the MSF of “bullying” and of taking sides with groups calling for a
boycott of the elections.
In a statement issued on 2
August, Swalimo stated: “[…] within the MSF Swalimo has continuously been
criticised and victimised for its stance on its programs, including its
participation in the national elections. […] Swalimo is convinced that the MSF
has failed to be a unifier and to promote political tolerance within its
members and allowed the forum to degenerate into an unnecessary battlefield of
political ideas,” reads the statement in part.
Silolo, the Swalimo
spokesperson, acknowledged to Daily Maverick that
pro-democracy activists in Eswatini were currently not seeing eye to eye over
the elections. However, he expressed hope that they would iron out their
differences once the elections were over.
Meanwhile, Swadepa president
Barnes Dlamini, a renowned unionist and champion of workers’ rights, said
boycotting the elections had yielded no results in the past, hence his party
was contesting the poll.
“Every space must be viewed as
a place of struggle and, as such, parliament is no exception,” he said.
However, Pudemo president
Mlungisi Makhanya says contesting the parliamentary elections cannot bring
about change in Eswatini because the people elected under the current political
system “do not constitute a government”.
“Section 106(a) of the
(Eswatini) Constitution is clear that ‘the supreme legislative authority of
Swaziland vests in the King – in Parliament’. Subsection (b) of the very
section says ‘the King and Parliament may make laws for peace, order and good
government in Swaziland.
“The above two points
demonstrate how the King is not only clothed with executive authority, but he
also enjoys supreme legislative authority,” Makhanya said.
‘Meaningless ritual’
He said Pudemo had consistently
boycotted the elections because “they refuse to be an accomplice in fooling the
nation into participating in some five-year ritual which is meaningless and
impactless”.
Nonetheless, Makhanya said
Pudemo respected the autonomy of other political formations to participate in
the elections. He further expressed hope that the leaders of the
Multi-Stakeholder Forum would continue to engage political groups that had
pulled out of the MSF.
Meanwhile, reacting to
Swalimo’s decision to withdraw from the MSF, the organisation’s secretary
general, Sikelela Dlamini, wished Swalimo and Swadepa well “as they are
advancing their own course insofar as the struggle for the attainment of
multiparty democracy in Swaziland is concerned”.
“All organisations reserve the
right to join or not to join any organisations,” Dlamini said.
To read more of this report, click here
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