Times Of Swaziland: EBC’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE! EBC’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE! ================================================================================ The Editor on 11/06/2018 08:13:00 Sir, Now that all eyes are set on the upcoming national elections, I want to remind the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) of the challenge I made to them through this column in August 2017. I challenged the EBC team to give us a truly democratically elected Parliament come 2018. There should be no one making it to Parliament without them having won by a majority of the votes cast at least in each and every polling station throughout the country. The EBC should not declare a candidate without amassing the largest number of votes as a winning candidate without taking into consideration the ratio of the votes of that particular individual to the total number of voters cast in that particular constituency. Mr Editor, allow me to repeat the simple illustration that I made in my letter last year. Suppose in a certain constituency, three candidates entered the elections race and the results were as follows; Candidate S=four votes Candidate B= three votes Candidate C= five votes In the above example, the candidate who would be declared a winner would be C simply because he or she amassed the highest number of votes and yet the above example has yielded no outright democratic winner because none of the three candidates received a simple majority of the votes cast. The above example shows that 12 candidates cast their votes. Five votes compared to 12 clearly shows that five falls below a simple majority of the total votes cast. So, my point is that those handling the process should desist from casting wool over the eyes of the nation. It is a pity that our Tinkhundla System is abound with insolent characters, who refuse to do a thorough homework on the national task entrusted on them, only to run around like headless chickens when things blow up in their faces. Hopefully the EBC remembers the noise that followed after the announcement of the results in 2013. My plea to those concerned is that we be given a truly democratic election so to avoid the management by crisis debacle, which is so prevalent in our government system. Another plea I would like to make is that may the media, print in particular, give the nation full and comprehensive results of the elections and not just select a few constituencies as has been the case in the past. This would go a long way in ensuring that citizens make informed decisions in judging the whole elections process. Lastly, I am pleading to the international observer team that will come to observe our elections to do so with absolute honesty and do just that even in their final report by declaring an honest analysis of the whole process. Edward M. Hlatjwayo