BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– Eswatini Government has revealed they are more than ready and prepared for this year’s elections.
This was revealed by the Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg, during a follow up interview regarding the preparations of elections in the country.
Worth noting is that the first-ever elections in the country were held on June 1964 to elect members of the Legislative Council, while the last elections took place in 2018.
Meanwhile, Neal mentioned that despite the current economic slowdown, the government had budgeted in advance for the national elections which this country holds every after five years.
Minister Neal further allayed any fears of budgetary constraints and has assured the local electorate that in the next week or two government will make cash available in the amount of E50 million for the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) whose Chairman is Chief Prince Mhlabuhlangene.
“Furthermore, it looks like this year’s national elections will cost us an estimated E330 million with E50 million being released now and the E280 million after this year’s budget. We do not forsee any financial problems stalling them,” he said.
The national elections which were last held in 2018 are expected to be preceded by the local government elections whereby residents of local towns and cities are expected to hit the polls to vote for councilors and mayors.
Last week, this publication ran a story on how government is going to spend E8 million for the municipal elections.
The minister said a budget had already been drawn for the local government elections and it was presented to the ministry. He said the money would be made available for the municipal election as soon as possible.
Rijkenberg said the supplementary budget was passed through the ministry’s Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) and went through the Parliament Sessional Committee (PSC) for consideration and approval.
“The municipal elections also needed a supplementary budget to go ahead with elections and that was also passed by the same process as above. I assume that the money will be available to them soon. They asked for E8 million and it was approved by the committee,” he said. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was expected to start the registration process leading to the local government elections on today and will run until February 24, 2023.
