Voters in Eswatini will go to the polls on Friday for parliamentary elections that will have little impact on the country’s political landscape, which is effectively controlled by Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III. Mswati has been ruling over the southern African kingdom of around 1.2 million people since 1986, following the death of his father, Sobhuza II.
Although political parties are banned, individual candidates are allowed to run for seats in the House of Assembly every five years. However, the elected politicians’ main power lies in making suggestions to the king, who has the freedom to ignore them. According to Louw Nel, a senior political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa, the upcoming election will be dominated by monarchists and candidates sympathetic to the ruler.
Nel notes that two former members of the parliament who supported the pro-democracy movement have been jailed, while a third has fled the country. Sivumelwano Nyembe, spokesperson for Eswatini’s Multi Stakeholder Forum, a pro-democracy activist group, dismisses the characterization of the event as an election, stating, “It is a misnomer to call what is happening in Eswatini elections.”
There has been growing anger against the governing system in Eswatini, and pro-democracy protests turned violent in 2021. Critics argue that King Mswati III has consistently avoided meaningful reforms that would lead Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, towards democracy. They also accuse him of using public funds to maintain an extravagant lifestyle shared with his 15 wives, while the majority of the population consists of struggling subsistence farmers.
Despite these allegations, the 55-year-old king denies being an autocrat and shows no remorse about his wealth. Eswatini is classified as “Not Free” by the U.S.-based organization Freedom House, which highlights that the king holds ultimate authority over all branches of the national government and effectively controls local governance through his influence over traditional chiefs.
In response to Eswatini’s invitation, the South African Development Community (SADC) has deployed an electoral observation mission to monitor the elections. A preliminary statement on the election will be released by SADC on Sunday.
Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Carien du Plessis; Editing by Tim Cocks and Peter Graff
Credit: The Star : News Feed
