Why Comrades should register for 2023 Eswatini National Elections

1. You need to register to vote for a Prime Minister

1. You need to register to vote for a Prime Minister

In 2021, the most clear issue that was proposed by “the three MP’s” was that the country should consider having a Prime Minister who is elected, instead of being appointed by the King. The three members of parliament would go to be key inciters of unprecedented riots which occurred in 2021. However, by the time the riots happened, the issue of the Prime Minister had been lumped in with numerous other agendas by political parties who are against the Eswatini Government. At the end of everything, two MP’s were jailed and one ran away, while the issue of the elected Prime Minister has fallen to the wayside as an agenda for “pro-democracy activists”.

However, what we all seem to forget is that His Majesty King Mswati III has always been a reformer, and was already in the process of changing how the Prime Minister gets into position. The last Prime Minister to be appointed by the King during a normal time for changing government leaders was Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini. The late PM was appointed by the King following an uprecedented consultation with the public during a Sibaya National Dialogue session. Any member of the public was invited to submit their suggestions on who the next Prime Minister should be. As the saying goes, “Mlomo longacali manga”, the King made his decision having taken into account the people’s views and wishes about the kinds of characters they wanted to have in their Prime Minister.

Madvulo Dlamini

All of this to say, His Majesty King Mswati III listens to his people, and reforms accordingly. Following the National Sibaya Dialogue, it is not inconceivable that the King resolves to establish an elected Prime Minister, if that is what the majority of Emaswati say they want during the dialogue. In such a scenario, only registered individuals would be allowed to excersize their right to vote — where will you be with your #Asiyi anti-democratic elections propaganda then?

2. Elections Do Not Replace Dialogue

As one European diplomat has told Emaswati via the mainstream news, elections do not take place instead of a political dialogue, and vice versa. This point has had to be repeated because politically ignorant ‘comrades’ have been demanding that elections not take place until the national dialogue has been had. They say this in reference to the political dialogue which was called by the King following a social unrest which was fueled by politics. Instead of making the effective decision to elect the representatives they want to have making policies for them, most political parties in Eswatin have resolved to boycott the elections until the dialogue happes — which is a display of incredible political adolescence on their part. Ask PUDEMO how boycotting elections over the last 2 decades has helped them or Emaswati at large.

All that said, Eswatini is a free country where everyone has the right to be a citizen who takes their democratic duty seriously by participating governance in elections and interfacing with their local government. This also means people are free to do what most ‘comrades’ are doing — throw away their rights.