EARLY ELECTION CAMPAIGNING ILLEGAL

Swaziland’s Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC) says that would-be members of parliament are breaking the law by campaigning for votes before they have been given permission.

EBC Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe said it could be difficult to prove that a candidate was campaigning. The Times of Swaziland on Wednesday (11 April 2018) reported Bhembe said people were donating gifts in their communities and this might be a campaigning strategy. He said campaigning was against the law and fines of E10,000 could be imposed.  

 

Elections are due later in 2018 at a date yet to be set by King Mswati III who rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. In the process nominations take place followed by primary and secondary elections. By law in Swaziland candidates cannot start to campaign until after the primary elections.

Nominations take place at Imiphakatsi (chiefdoms) where candidates are chosen to compete against one another in ‘primary’ elections. The winners of these become their chiefdom’s candidate in the ‘secondary’ elections where they compete against each other at the Inkhundla (constituency) level to be elected to the House of Assembly. 

Political parties are banned from taking part in the election: they are also in effect banned completely in Swaziland and no discussion on political policy is encouraged. Groups critical of the present political system in Swaziland have been branded ‘terrorists’ under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. 

According to the Swazi Constitution campaigning can only begin once the primary elections are over. This means that Swazi people are being asked to elect people at the primary without knowing what they stand for and what they will do if eventually elected to parliament. 

This makes the primary no better than a beauty competition, where the best you can hope to do is to elect the person you most like the look of.

What reasoning there is behind the law to deny people the right to hear their candidates speak and question them on why they should be elected is lost in history. One theory is that the candidates are members of the local community and people would already know who they are and what they think.

If this theory is true it puts the electorate on the level of schoolchildren electing their class captain.

A more sinister view is that by not allowing discussion, the chiefs, who are the local representatives of the King, are able to influence their subjects to vote for the chief’s choice. Chiefs have many powers over their subjects and those who disobey might find themselves banished from their homes or denied international food aid when it is distributed. 

Campaigning begins once the primary elections are over, but because political parties are banned it is impossible for voters to elect a government. Instead, they choose people on ‘individual merit’. And, it is this that King Mswati and those who benefit from his feudal regime say makes Swaziland’s democracy ‘unique’.

Members of parliament have no power as this rests with King Mswati, so candidates cannot in all honesty promise their electorates that they will achieve anything for them if elected. However, that does not stop them trying and in the run up to polling day candidates claim they will bring ‘development’ to their areas. This usually refers to basic amenities such as piped water and electricity.

If the previous elections are any guide, candidates will also use food, beer, blankets and cash to bribe people for their vote.

Once the secondary election is over King Mswati will appoint his government without reference to the people’s will and then determine its policies. In 2008 he appointed Barnabas Dlamini Prime Minister, even though he was never elected by the Swazi people. He remains PM today.

In the recent past the secondary elections were for 55 members of the 65-seat House of Assembly. The other 10 members were appointed by the king. No members of the 30-strong Swaziland Senate are elected by the people: the king appoints 20 members and the other 10 are elected by members of the House of Assembly. From this year the number of members of the House of Assembly increases by four and the public will select 59 of them.

Richard Rooney

See also

ELECTION LAW BROKEN ACROSS KINGDOM

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/election-law-broken-across-kingdom.html

 

SWAZI ELECTION ‘WILL BE A FRAUD’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/swazi-election-will-be-fraud.html

KING’S PAPER CRIES ELECTION ‘TREASON’

The chief editor of King Mswati III’s newspaper has accused Swaziland’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) of committing treason for its poor handling of the elections in the kingdom.

Writing in the Swazi Observer Mbongeni Mbingo said, ‘It is obvious that the EBC was never ready for this election, and when we consider that they have been in office for so long, it begs the question of what they have been doing all along. In fact, that’s being polite. What they have done is treasonable.’ 

 

He added the EBC could not be allowed to ruin the election.

The Swazi Observer is in effect owned by the king and widely recognised as a propaganda sheet for the monarchy.

The elections in Swaziland have been beset with problems. Registration of voters had to be extended by a week because computers and personnel were not ready; the nomination process for candidates was flawed as many people who wanted to be nominated were ignored by election presiding officers; illegal campaigning took place ahead of the primary elections and at the primaries themselves some polls were called off and others allowed to remain open beyond the official closing time.

Mbingo wrote it was ‘tempting to even suggest that the EBC intended for this chaos to happen’.

What the newspaper failed to report was that King Mswati appointed the EBC in 2008 and at the time many civil society organisations and pro-democracy campaigners criticised the choices because members were inexperienced. The Swazi Constitution demands that the EBC chair should be a qualified judge, but King Mswati appointed one of his half-brothers, Chief Gija Dlamini, who was variously described at the time as an electrician or electrical engineer, to the post, which he still holds today.

The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) shortly after the 2008 election reported, ‘Almost all the stakeholders regarded the members of the EBC as royal appointees.

‘Stakeholders did not regard the EBC as independent and believed that the EBC operated under the instruction of the King. Stakeholders also expressed the view that the EBC was not representative of society as a whole, but was drawn exclusively from government officials or members of the aristocracy.

‘Most believed that the Commissioners do not meet the qualifications laid down in the constitution in Article 90(6): “The chairperson, deputy chairperson and the other members of the Commission shall possess the qualifications of a Judge of the superior courts or be persons of high moral character, proven integrity, relevant experience and demonstrable competence in the conduct of public affairs”’.

Pro-Royalists in Swaziland have been trying to talk up the election which is due on 20 September 2013, to counter the international community’s view that it is worthless as the parliament that is elected has no powers. The power in Swaziland is in the hands of King Mswati who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are banned from taking part in the election.

See also

SWAZI PRIMARY ELECTION SHAMBLES

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/swazi-primary-election-shambles.html

 

NEW ELECTION BLUNDER IN SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-election-blunder-in-swaziland.html