PRAISE FOR SWAZI ELECTION CONDUCT

Southern African News Features

Harare, Zimbabwe

Swaziland: Polls 'Peaceful, Transparent, Credible'

9 October 2008

Regional election observers to the recent parliamentary polls in Swaziland have praised the conduct of the elections and the high voter turnout.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission (SEOM) described the 19 September elections as "free, peaceful, transparent and credible."

SEOM praised the "high turnout and gender equity in the electoral process," adding that there was a peaceful atmosphere and a high level of political tolerance.

The SEOM, headed by Mozambique's Minister for Diplomatic Affairs, Francisco Madeira, said that the elections reflected the will of the Swazi people.

"The mission is . pleased to congratulate the people of the Kingdom of Swaziland for the lesson of civility, good behaviour, mutual tolerance and, above all, for the tremendous efforts to reach the perfection as they embark on their gradual and challenging road for the entrenchment of democracy," Madeira said.

The SEOM praised the new Constitution (enacted in 2005) and other laws and regulations governing the electoral process in Swaziland, saying these fully comply with SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

The regional mission made some observations about Swaziland's unique electoral system, noting that the electoral system is "unique in the sense that it is based on a community censored individual merit and unfolds in two tiers, the first of which SADC was not involved in because it was regarded as primary, and the second and final which SADC has just witnessed."

The SEOM added, "The voter's roll is also unique as it uses the Optimum Mark Recognition (OMR). This prevents potential double voting and non-existent voters."

The OMR is a system used during voter registration, where a voter identification card bearing a unique voter identification number is issued as proof of registration. The unique identifier can be used to facilitate future updates to the register.

The SEOM was dispatched on the leadership of Mozambique as current Deputy Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. Swaziland chairs the Organ.

SADC sent a 30-member observer mission which was deployed a week before the elections and covered all provinces.

The mission noted that the vote counting was transparent as the candidates and their agents, foreign and local observers, witnessed the process.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) observer team said the elections were carried out within the legal framework of elections in Swaziland.

Candidates and voters were able to participate in the election in an atmosphere of peace and calm. The presence of police officers at polling centres was commendable as they kept law and order without any intimidation, according to a statement by PAP.

Head of PAP mission, Mary Mugyeny, who is also a Ugandan legislator, congratulated all stakeholders for their respective roles in the process.

"On election day, voting stations opened on time and the mission observed that operations within the stations were carried out efficiently and professionally by a sufficient number of polling staff," Mugyeny said.

She said in the areas covered by PAP observers, there were no incidences of "party agents disagreeing with the outcome of the counting and verification of the ballots and number of votes."

Mugyeny said the PAP findings were that the elections were conducted efficiently in a secure environment, and hailed the Swazi government for ensuring a 30 percent representation of women in the parliament.

PAP commended the use of the electronic voter's card and photographs in the voter's roll, which it said promoted transparency.

"Overall, the elections were free and fair," said the PAP mission, citing "a few small problems that need to be rectified in future elections."

PAP noted the problem of political parties, which were not permitted to contest in the elections. The Mission said these problems infringed on the rights of those citizens wishing to participate in elections through political parties and does not meet regional and international standards and principles for democratic elections.

Both missions urged all political parties and individuals to respect the will of the people and reminded that all concerns should be addressed in line with the laws of the country.

"The PAP Observer Mission would like to call upon all political stakeholders and peace-loving Swazis to accept and respect the outcome of the elections, since they are a culmination of the democratic process which is a reflection of the political will of the Swazi people," said the PAP statement.

The polls in Swaziland marked the third parliamentary elections in the region this year following those in Zimbabwe in March and Angola in September.

Link http://allafrica.com/stories/200810090545.html

WERE ELECTIONS FREE AND FAIR?

Times of Swaziland

7 October 2008

Comment

SD elections vs SADC rules

By Mbho Shongwe

What can be said of the country’s 2008 general elections in terms of the Rules and Regulations as adopted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU) ? The chairman of the Zimbabwean Elections Commission (ZEC) was here to observe the secondary elections on September 19, 2008.

One wonders what he learnt from the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and the elections process. Swazis must not be fooled by the Draft Observer Mission statement and some declarations that the elections were free and fair. In fact, this statement is now misused to say there was no violence. At the same time, these observers are aware that they are in the country courtesy of the ruling elite, hence careful what they release, while still in the conutry.

Therefore, Swazis must read the observer mission statement not drafts. Then, to declare elections free and fair, one must know many issues and processes, including registration, campaigning, polling conditions/stations, voting times, polling officers, campaigning, polling stationery/security, atmosphere, counting of votes, etc. It must be noted that on September 19, five (5) Tinkhundla centres did not vote because of the Court judgement. In fact, more than 10 areas had challenged the nominations and primary elections citing irregularities. Although the constitution came into operation in July, 2005, the EBC was only appointed early in 2008 to prepare and run the elections the same year.

Why the authourities waited that long to act on the appointment of EBC, God knows. The EBC was ill-prepared to run the elections, hence the so many problems and court hearings connected with the elections. The legality of the EBC is questionable to date. The registration was reported to be in excess of 350 000 and those who cast their votes for the eventual winners, the MPs, are about 80 000, indicating that it will be less that 100 000 when all Tinkhundla centres have cast their votes. It was reported that in some areas, people registered more than once, under 18 years registered and wrong people registered. Were the observers aware of these anomalies? What was the role of poverty in the voting by the electorate?

Trauma

It appears the campaigning was based on the politics of the stomach and not on the ideology and philosophy of governance. The would-be voters were literally given money, groceries and foodstuff, promised Heaven and Earth for voting that individual candidate. Many candidates, if not all, used these unorthodox ways of campaigning. Some of these candidates used these wrong campaigning ways due to ignorance of the law governing the running of elections. There are those who spent more than their initial budgets because they thought these were the right approaches of campaigning. The trauma and suffering caused by this to these candidates are a result of an ineffective EBC. Both the Attorney General’s office and EBC did not reprimand the wrong doers or protect these poverty stricken voters. It is surprising that both offices are now shedding crocodile tears about the illegal campaigning. How can they retrack the wrong created at campaigning and eventually doing something to the winning candidates? These problems will be with the 9th Parliament and hope that EBC and Attorney General Offices will in future be proactive, thus discouraging the wrong being done from the very beginning. The reputation of the 9th Parliament has been put to test by the so many bribing for votes, as reported. Does this pressure of wanting to be a Member of Parliament calling for killing people and or sacrificing so much?

Both the Elections Order 1992 and the Constitution 2005 are against these ways of campaigning for a political office. What is the main purpose of being a Member of Parliament, legislation or employment? So much has been said about voting people to go to Parliament to form our government. At least, this is, what the Swazis are told by those who care or employed to encourage other Swazis to register and vote or being voted for. Others used the television and radio talkshows supported by EBC, all preaching the gospel of voting to form our government. In other words, to usher in the people’s government. Interestingly, when does this government formed by our elected MPs become the king’s government?

Is it when climbing up Malangwane or going down this hill? Why don’t we mention this from the very beginning that the elections are about helping the king form his government? In fact, I have never seen any document talking about the government of the people of Swaziland. Therefore, the talk- shows and slogans have been misleading and painting a false picture about our elected MPs.

However, in order for elections to be observed there are certain laws that must be in place. These are the Rules, Regulations and Principles which are supported by the constitution itself within the framework, in our case, of SADC and AU Rules, Regulations and Principles. The constitution of the country must have the Bill of Rights, thus allowing Freedom of Association, including political association and activities. Therefore, elections by their nature are contested by both individuals and associations. In Swaziland, this is restricted to individuals only (Clause 79 of the Constitution) and thus limiting the said Freedom of Association as enshrined in the constitution. Furthermore, at the appointment of the EBC, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was not constitutionally constituted. JSC is responsible for advice to the appointment of EBC. The composition of EBC, is not constitutional constituted. Even though, EBC had this axe hanging over its head, continued to conduct the 2008 general elections. This also shows that the elections, were run under unconjusive conditions and observers’ deliberately ignored this.

Wrongs

On the elections date, I privately observed four Tinkhundlas. Before this, it must be noted that the voter registration had numerous problems; children below 18 registered, duplicate and multi registration by certain individuals, registering where people do not reside, etc. Nomination carried without checked voters roll, others nominated even though still public officers, voter cards at times never checked, etc. Primary elections faced by many problems and candidates went to Court for some of the problems.

Returning, presiding and polling officers were not properly trained for conducting the elections, hence the so many wrongs in the elections process. Five Tinkhundla secondary elections were not run on September 19, 2008 because of court rulings. All these happenings are suggesting that the elections fell short of being called free and fair. On the polling date, I went to two Tinkhundla centers from the rural and two urban areas. The conduct of the polling; one opened at 7:50am instead of 7am, pictures of the voters in the voters roll not clear, no signs leading to polling room, one still displayed campaign pictures of candidates outside the gate, some polling officers seem not sure of their duties, no uniformity of operations, etc. The polling atmosphere; presence of police officers was adequate not intimidating, some still asked would be voters to vote for their choice in the lines or towards the polling room, other polling stations did not have adequate lights or lighting system, etc. Participating at polls; only saw one with long lines in the rural areas, government provided some transport, some candidates transported would be their supporters with the pictures on these vehicles, etc. Generally, there were no disturbing incidencies in the polling stations, I visited. Because of the absence of many items in the elections, it is very difficult to say that they were free and fair according to known principles of running elections in a modern society, of which mother Swaziland claims to be one. While still waiting for the full tabulation of the elections, one can conclude that many people showed up in the primary elections and shunned the secondary ones. What could have been the reasons for this trend?

This would probably be a challenge to EBC and the authorities of the country that something must be done to enhance the purpose and Rationale of conducting the elections. Now that the elections campaigns have been contaminated by non-Tinkhundla philosophy - ‘vote for me’, thus suppressing Tinkhundla’s ‘quiet campaign’, what is left of its value? Has money become the only tool to make one win the elections? If so, how will the 69 percent of our society ever be MPs?

This practice needs to be arrested in order to avoid untold stories. In a multi party system, campaign funds are controlled and monitored. If the Tinkhundla operation is not careful, it will soon create classes of voters and candidates. Because the candidates will be associated with lots of money to provide to the voters all sorts of handouts, including free groceries, foodstuff, alcohol, T-shirts, hard cash, plots, building houses, cars, etc. It must be noted that this society has been schooled into believing in handouts by the state and uncontrolled fund-raising is the way of getting money, even from the very poor ones. Tinkhundla operation will continue to have problems because it fails to provide benchmarks of whatever it wants to do or propose to implement. Anyway, my congratulations to those who lost or won but did not engage the unorthodox ways of campaigning. It takes one or two to set the record straight. Your action will not go unnoticed.

Link http://www.times.co.sz/index.php?news=1998

SWAZI ELECTION 'FREE AND FAIR'

Botswana Press Agency

2 October 2008

Swaziland conducts free and fair poll

GABORONE – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) electoral observer mission has commended Swaziland for holding free, peaceful, transparent and credible elections.

The mission was invited to observe the elections held in Swaziland recently.

The mission, which was led by the Deputy Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, Mr Armando Guebuza, comprised 60 members who were deployed in all four regions of the kingdom.

A statement from the mission says the elections reflected the will of the people of Swaziland and congratulated them for the lesson of civility, good behaviour and mutual tolerance.

With regard to the voting process, the mission noted that polling stations were located in neutral places such as schools, churches and civic centres.

The mission noted that polling stations opened and closed at the prescribed time and the proceedings unfolded in an orderly manner. It said both electoral officials and voters behaved in a civic way that characterised the true African spirit.

The electoral officials, it says, performed their duties in a competent, professional, efficient and effective manner and no sign of anxiety or tension could be observed.

To improve the electoral system in the future, the SADC observer mission recommended the extension of the period between the primary and the secondary elections to ensure the conclusion of possible court cases before the final stage.

Improvement of civic education and voting procedures especially to cater for the senior and physically challenged citizens were also called for.

In carrying out their activities, the members of the mission acquainted themselves with the constitution and other laws and regulations governing the electoral process in Swaziland.

The members and the leader of the mission are said to have interacted with civil society, the news media, the electoral and boundaries mission, the law enforcement agents, international missions and various communities.

BOPA

Link http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20081002&i=Swaziland_conducts_free_and_fair_poll

POLL DRIVEN BY STOMACH POLITICS

Times of Swaziland

1 October 2008

Comment

Elections driven by stomach politics

By Vusi Sibisi

A coterie of grovellers, knee-bending sycophants and blind loyalists of the obtaining political hegemony are apt to criticise multi-party democracy as divisive and, therefore, not suited for a homogeneous society like the Kingdom of Eswatini.

As I see it, these supporters and loyalists would rather sing or manufacture non-existent virtues of the oppressive Tinkhundla Political System.

Yet when it comes to the nitty-gritty nothing could be further from the truth as mirrored by the recent legislative elections.

What is emerging from the recent legislative elections is the blinding clarity that the Tinkhundla is neither a political ideology nor a political vehicle through which to spur the political transformation and development of the country but a feedlot for those who excel in the art of praise singing and grovelling.

The new children on the block in the form of elected lawmakers have taken this much further by making the entire exercise one of poverty alleviation at a personal and not at national level.

For as I see it the desperation to get to Parliament is no more driven by a political desire to transform the Swazi polity by enacting laws that would be conducive to speeding the economic development of this country than to get out of the vicious cycle of abject poverty visiting the majority of Swazis even if it is just for five years, which is the term of office of the lawmakers.

That is what emerged when I lobotomised the legislative elections. Is it any wonder a good many cases ended up in court?

As I see it, the face of poverty manifested itself either way - in respect of the contesting candidates as well as the electorate. For the majority of the contesting candidates it did not matter much that they displayed a shocking display of intellectual and political malnutrition when it came to real issues that should be the bread and butter issues of a Parliament but were content on shelling out largesse, including financial payments, to buy the votes of the electorate.

And driven by hunger and poverty, the voters were predictable. They voted for those who paid, fed and promised to extricate them from the vicious cycle of poverty that has been bequeathed them by a largely corrupt political system once they are in Parliament. Which brings me to the question if the Tinkhundla political system can compete with the worst system elsewhere because there can be no worse system than this system.

As I see it, those grovellers, knee-bending sycophants and blind loyalists given to damning multi-party democracy even without any empirical evidence that it is the worst form of democracy, do so to ingratiate themselves to the ruling class.

After all, there are still many vacancies that need to be filled in government starting from the legislature itself up to Cabinet level.

So everyone of the soulless unprincipled and spineless individuals given to praise-singing and grovelling are positioning themselves to be easily visible to government so that they are considered for the vacant positions. Invariably this is irrespective of whether they have the skills, experience and most of all requisite qualifications for the positions they aspire to be appointed into.

After all in Tinkhundla territory if a donkey comes begging for a position it would certainly get it only if it has mastered the art of praise singing, grovelling and occasionally lying about some people.

Marwick you’re made for the task

I have grown to respect veteran lawmaker Marwick Thandukukhanya Khumalo as a matured and astute politician. He has in the recent past surprised many when he openly declared that Tinkhundla had failed and now was the time the country considered taking a new political path without as much as saying in as many words.

He capped his growing stature as head of the African Union Pan African Parliament observer mission during Zimbabwe’s general elections at the end of March.

While the Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission prematurely declared those elections free and fair, Marwick and his team were much more objective in their assessment and pronounced them to having not been free and fair, especially after it took a whole month to release results for the presidential elections. By breaking ranks, Marwick departed from the African tradition of hiding the truth behind a façade of unity.

As I see it, Marwick represents a new political breed, a generation that was going to transform Africa and just take it by the scruff of the neck and boot her into the 21st century, as Wole Soyinka rightly articulated, on whose shoulders we can safely entrust the future of this country. But to achieve such a milestone needed a million Marwicks to do this on a continental scale.

As I see it, we need about 30 or so Marwicks in the legislature of this the Kingdom of Eswatini to start the political transformation that he and similarly minded individuals would want to see happen here in order to extricate this country from the many man-made disasters it is in.

This is a challenge to Marwick as an old horse in Parliament to lead from both the front and the back to achieve this most desired political transformation to get this country out of the current rot.

The bones will speak on next PM

The Swazi News, the sister newspaper to this one, last Saturday threw down the gauntlet to anyone who cared to help His Majesty King Mswati III to appoint the new Prime Minister and Cabinet of ministers.

As I see it, that might be a little bit premature. This I have surmised from the fact that we are still awaiting the king to first appoint 10 lawmakers to the House of Assembly and 20 to Senate. Then perhaps can we knuckle down to the job of selecting who is who for whatever position?

Adding to this dilemma, as I see it of course, is the fact that only after the lawmakers have been appointed can we get down to the onerous task of consulting the bones on who should occupy the position of the PM first and foremost.

And it is not an easy task considering that often there are five names in the hat contesting for the position, four of which need to be eliminated from the race by day-break.

And this can take the whole night for the bone throwers to accomplish. Perhaps the Swazi News Editor will extend the time period during which we, the public, can assist in the appointment of the PM and make-up of the Cabinet. After all the PM consults with the king on the composition of the Cabinet.

In the meantime, yours truly can be gathering the best bone throwers for the night of the bones when the new PM would be selected.

Link http://www.times.co.sz/index.php?news=1832