VOTERS SNUB SWAZI ELECTION

Only four in ten of the people entitled to vote in Swaziland’s national election did so. The percentage turnout was lower than the previous election in 2008.

The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has just released figures from the 2013 election, three years after the vote took place.

The ECB reported than 251,278 people voted from the 414,704 who registered. In 2013, the ECB reported that about 600,000 Swazis were entitled to register. That means that only 41.8 percent of those entitled to vote did so in 2013.

The low turnout casts doubts on claims by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, that his subjects support what he calls his kingdom’s ‘unique democracy’.

Political parties are not allowed to take part in elections and most of the political groupings in Swaziland that advocate for democracy have been banned under the King’s Suppression of Terrorism Act.

The Swazi people are only allowed to select 55 of the 65 members of the House of Assembly, the other 10 are appointed by the King. None of the 30 members of the Swaziland Senate are elected by the people: the King appoints 20 members and the other 10 are appointed by the House of Assembly.

Neither the House of Assembly nor the Senate are independent of the King, who can, and does, overrule decisions he does not like.

The people do not elect the government; the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers are handpicked by the King.

 

Immediately before the national election in September 2013, King Mswati announced that the political system in Swaziland that had until then been called tinkhundla would in future be known as ‘Monarchical Democracy.’ He said this would be a partnership between himself and the people. 

The supporters of King Mswati saw the election as a way for the Swazi people to endorse the King’s version of democracy. At the same time prodemocracy groups urged people to boycott the election.

The 2013 vote compares to the 47.4 percent of people entitled to vote in the previous election in 2008 who actually did so. At that election 189,559 people of the 400,000 entitled to vote did so.

It is impossible to tell whether the low turnout in the 2013 election was in support of the boycott call by prodemocracy advocates. It could easily have been because ordinary Swazi people saw no point in voting as it would change nothing in their lives.

The power wielded by King Mswati was criticised by two independent international groups which observed the Swazi election in 2013. Both the African Union and the Commonwealth Observer Mission suggested the kingdom’s constitution should be reviewed to allow political parties to contest elections.

The Commonwealth Observer Mission added that, ‘The presence of the monarch in the structure of everyday political life inevitably associates the institution of the monarchy with politics, a situation that runs counter to the development that the re-establishment of the Parliament and the devolution of executive authority into the hands of elected officials.’

See also

PM TELLS MPs THEIR DUTY IS TO KING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/11/pm-tells-mps-their-duty-is-to-king.html

 

KING APPOINTS SIX OF HIS FAMILY TO SENATE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/king-appoints-6-of-his-family-to-senate.html

AU WANTS REVIEW OF SWAZI CONSTITUTION

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/au-wants-review-of-swazi-constitution.html

LATEST UPDATE ON FREEDOM STRUGGLE

Swaziland: Striving For Freedom, Vol 3. March 2013

In this edition of Swaziland: Striving For Freedom, Swazi Media Commentary reveals that spending on defence equipment in Swaziland is set to rise by 50 times in the coming year. This was part of ‘defence’ spending that will take up 10 percent of the entire budget for the kingdom. Nobody at the Swazi Government would go on record to explain why this was needed, except to say the spending was necessary for ‘security’ and to ‘keep the peace’.

The vast spending on defence reminded Swaziland watchers that the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had in the recent past tried to buy arms worth millions of US from the United Kingdom, but that country’s government blocked the move, believing the weapons might be turned on the king’s subjects should they continue their protests for democracy.

Elsewhere this month, the government has been found out selling maize, donated by Japan as humanitarian food aid, on the open market. The money has been stashed in a special account at the Central Bank of Swaziland. The Swazi Government claims this action is legal, but Japan has made no public statement. We haven’t heard the last of this yet.

Elections are coming in Swaziland this year and King Mswati’s subjects are waiting for him to tell them when it will be. Only then, can electioneering begin. A campaign to boycott the election because political parties are banned from taking part is gathering momentum. This month a European Union delegation visited the kingdom and also told the king the ban on political parties should be lifted.

Police and state security forces broke up another prayer meeting (the second time in two months): this one was to mark the anniversary of the formation of the national labour federation, TUCOSWA. King Mswati’s courts banned TUCOSWA after it declared itself to be against the forthcoming election.

Swaziland: Striving For Freedom, which is available to download free-of-charge at scribd dot com. is the third volume of information, commentary and analysis on human rights taken from articles first published on the Swazi Media Commentary blogsite in March 2013. Each month throughout this year a digest of articles will be published bringing together in one place material that is rarely found elsewhere. 

Swazi Media Commentary has no physical base and is completely independent of any political faction and receives no income from any individual or organisation. People who contribute ideas or write for it do so as volunteers and receive no payment.

Swaziland Striving for Freedom Vol 3 Mar 2013

KING AND P.M. DON’T AGREE ON PEACE

They can’t both be right. This week we had King Mswati III writing that Swaziland is a peace loving kingdom and just a few days later Barnabas Dlamini, the man he illegally appointed Prime Minister, says there is a continuous terrorist threat.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) pointed this out in a response to Dlamini’s much publicised statement on the future direction of Swaziland.

SCCCO says in a statement, ‘The Government continues to hold on to the myth that there is a terrorist threat in Swaziland. We would like to remind them that terrorism is of a scale and degree far beyond the low levels of politically based violence that Swaziland has encountered in the last few years.

‘His Majesty, King Mswati III wrote in an international article this week that Swaziland is a peaceful and happy country. He actually says ‘As a peace loving nation, the Kingdom of Swaziland strongly believes in promoting dialogue to address national issues and challenges. It is for that reason that our country is known all over the world to be the oasis of peace.’

‘His Prime Minister singles out Terrorism as a “continuous threat”. All of the actions under the Suppression of Terrorism Act are against Swazis not foreigners – can both be true? Or is the reality that the Suppression of Terrorism Act is merely a vehicle for silencing legitimate dissent?’

SCCCO is also concerned that there is no structure in place for the Prime Minister’s statement to be questioned or debated.

The analysis covers a wide range of policy topics including law enforcement, political objectives, economic objectives, foreign policy objectives, independence of the judiciary and the duties of the citizen.

To read the statement in full, click here.