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ELECTIONS OBSERVERS’ CUT AND PASTE PROJECT

01/10/2018 08:12:00 Vusi Sibisi

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As previously predicted on this very column on the eve of the elections, international observer missions had nothing new to write home about except to recycle reports from previous missions – cut and paste - since nothing had changed in the way elections are run under the Tinkhundla political system.

But perhaps of major importance, and therefore newsworthy, other than the outcomes preceded by crude jostling for votes among the competing candidates, which varied from feeding voters to gifting them cash and food parcels, is that the international observer missions still came when it was evident that nothing had changed on the political front from the last elections in 2013. Worse still was that those recommendations by these observer missions not just from the last but previous successive elections had not been acted upon by the Swati leadership.

Thus the question that is germane here is what did the Southern African Development Community (SADC), African Union (AU), European Union (EU) and Commonwealth of Nations observer missions come here to observe when their principal organisations are aware that recommendations from previous missions had not been considered, let alone implemented, by the Swati leadership? It seems to me all parties were only too happy to undertake all-expenses paid for holidays to these shores.

Be that as it may, we still await newly recycled reports from the EU and Commonwealth observer missions, while the continental based missions from SADC and AU issued their preliminary reports immediately after the elections. As expected and true to form, the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) was all too eager to please, patting on the back the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) for a job well done, while mildly pointing out that the inclusion of political parties would have been the icing on top. Perennially eager to please the regional political leadership, the mission somewhat without thinking applauded the kingdom for allowing inmates serving time in His Majesty’s Correctional Services facilities to participate in the elections, which in fact turns out to be a fatal flaw of the elections.

Initially premised from the fact that this country has a bad human rights track record, it did not worry the SADC observers why suddenly the leadership appeared to respect the rights of inmates – when it did not respect those of free men and women - if it was not for ulterior motives.Had they applied their minds on the issue the observers would have come to the conclusion that something was amiss and it surely was. Instead of interrogating how inmates were expected to vote for candidates they probably had never seen and who had not been introduced or even allowed to campaign to them –akin to being asked to give an opinion on the taste of a dish you haven’t eaten or tasted - SEOM appeared to be in a hurry to praise the championing of the rights of offenders by allowing them to participate in the elections.

The import of interrogating the participation of inmates has to be appreciated from the context that the EBC is reputed to influence outcomes of elections in instances where certain candidates’ participation is offensive to the senses of the ruling elite. In the event, it is these ballots and general special ballots that are used to influence outcomes in the targeted (t)inkhundla. The make-up of the EBC somewhat lends credence to these allegations with Chief Gija, a traditional leader who according to the Constitution, is a footstool of the system of governance, as well as close associates of royalty.

Therefore, Chief Gija and royalty’s close associates in the EBC can never be expected to be objective and imperil their livelihoods but would go to the extremes to defend the system and, therefore, their feeding trough by ensuring the right candidates are elected. Has it ever worried anyone why, for instance, no court case relating to elections has been successful? That arm of government too is now also under the thumb of footstools, relatives and loyalists of the ruling class. The question was raised during an interactive meeting between the EBC and nominees for southern Hhohho Region why special votes, of course this would now include ballots for inmates, were not counted the same day.

The EBC’s motor mouth Ncumbi Maziya was effusive without being coherent in his response to the extent he got his own tongue twisted, and probably never even understood himself. Understandably so, since counting the votes the same day would most likely rob them of a potent weapon with which to manipulate the outcomes of the elections in favour of candidates well disposed towards and loyalists of the obtaining political hegemony. The AU observer mission on its part, also belaboured the point of non-participation of political parties. Of course this was not new and will not be so in the next and the next and the next elections until they and the other organisations take a firm stand and censor the Kingdom of eSwatini for trampling on the rights and liberties of the people. Indeed for these organisations to remain relevant they ought to make it an offence for a member country, such as eSwatini, to sign up to and ratify conventions they in turn refuse to honour on the domestic front.

These organisations need to draw a line on the sand and whip the kingdom into compliance or eject it from the membership. As things stand, these organisations remain complicit in the violation of human rights and liberties of emaSwati. Perhaps as a start they ought to boycott and refuse to observer the next elections if political parties are still not allowed to participate and to become part of Swati polity. And if this does not work, consideration could then be made for the kingdom’s suspension from membership of these organisations. It is either that or these organisations shall remain paper tigers and, by extension, enemies of democracy.