BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– Community members from Lobamba and Ezulwini have fully expressed their interest in running for this year’s elections.
Speaking during an informal community meeting chaired by senior community members, a number of people spoke on how they wanted the privilege of having the person they want in Parliament.
“We have been through a lot as a country and Inkhundla I want to fully state that I will be participating in elections and I’m ready to cast my vote for the ideal candidate who is going to start us on a clean slate,” said Mandla Dlamini a community senior at Ezulwini Gelekeceni.
Another from Ezulwini Mlindazwe said: “We need an honest and resilient leader in our community and the King asked us to fully participate in choosing who we want in Parliament and I’m going to do that because I still believe in the system,”
In one voice the community members expressed they were really looking forward to selecting their candidate for parliament and making sure change is brought.
The urgent change they cited included more schools, bridges, fixed roads and flexible business schemes to be handled by the youth.
The country is gearing towards the 2023 national elections on a date to be announced where bucopho, Indvuna yenkhundla and members of parliament are expected to be elected under the Tinkhundla System of Government.
Elections were last held in 2018 where over 90 percent of emaSwati registered and eventually 60 percent made it to the ballot box to elect their ideal candidates. Some of the members of both chambers are elected, while the rest are appointed by the King of Eswatini. The election is by secret ballot in a first-past-the-post system of voting.
Members of both chambers serve five-year terms. All candidates run on a non-partisan basis, as political parties are banned. General elections were held in Eswatini in June 1964 to elect members of the Legislative Council but under the new constitution they were held in 2008. The commission delegated authority to recommend the recruitment of community registration clerks and competent witnesses to the traditional authorities.
The requirements for recruitment of registration clerks were computer literacy, completion of high school and experience in elections. Traditional authorities were advised to also consider gender balance in their selection.
Meanwhile, The EBC has projected over 7 000 temporal jobs during this year’s national elections. EBC stands for the Elections and Boundaries Commission and is responsible for the country’s national and local government elections. According to EBC’s Communications Officer, Mbonisi Bhembe, the 2018 national elections’ amount of personnel will be used as a benchmark this year.
