Police will vet all candidates in the forthcoming
national election in Swaziland / Eswatini.
The kingdom is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are banned from taking part
in the election and people may only stand as individuals.
The Swazi
Observer reported on Friday (15 June 2018) that Chief Gija Dlamini,
Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) chair, confirmed, ‘that all persons
who will be nominated would be vetted before the next stage of the elections’.
In an interview he said the vetting would be at police
headquarters in Mbabane where the fingerprints of all candidates would be
checked.
‘All nominated candidates will be required to go to
police headquarters to be vetted and a record will then be forwarded to us,’ he
told the newspaper.
The paper added, ‘When asked to state the purpose of
the vetting process, Chief Gija was not clear saying that was an issue for the
courts.’
Nominations are due to take place on 28 and 29 July
2018 ahead of a final election on 21 September 2018.
According to the EBC,
nominations take place at the chiefdoms. On the day of nomination, the name of
the nominee is raised by a show of hand and the nominee is given an opportunity
to indicate whether he or she accepts the nomination. If he or she accepts it,
he or she must be supported by at least ten members of that chiefdom. The
minimum number of nominees is three and the maximum is twenty. The nomination
process takes place in the open, persons are nominated by a show of hand and
the nomination is done by the community. Those nominated then contest elections
at primary level.
Elections in Swaziland are widely
recognised outside of the kingdom as undemocratic. Parliament has no
powers as these are vested in the King. After the election, the King will chose
the Prime Minister, government ministers and the top civil servants and judges.
At past elections people only got to select 55 of
65 members of the House of Assembly. The King chose the other 10. At the
forthcoming election there will be an additional four seats for people to vote
for. It has not been announced how many members the King will choose but the
Swaziland Constitution allows him to pick up to ten.
As in previous years, none
of the 30 members of the Swazi Senate will be elected by the people; the King
will choose 20 and the other 10 will be chosen by members of the House of
Assembly.
See also
ELECTION
WILL ENTRENCH KING’S POWER
ELECTION
VOTES SOLD FOR CHICKEN PIECES
CONFUSION
OVER VOTER NUMBERS
POLICE
PROBE ELECTION “CORRUPTION’
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