Times Of Swaziland: FULL LIST OF CANDIDATES OUT

FULL LIST OF CANDIDATES OUT
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BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 29/08/2018 03:17:00


MBABANE – The ‘Vote For A Woman’ campaign is a big flop.  This is
according to the official Primary Elections results statistics released by
Chairperson of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), Chief Gija
yesterday.
The figures indicate that only 98 women qualify to be elected as either Indvuna
Yenkhundla (constituency headman) and Members of Parliament (MP).
In contrast, a total of 572 males will be competing against the 98 women come
September 21, 2018, which is the date set for the Secondary Elections.
The statistics reveal that of the 98 women, only 44 of them qualify to be MPs
while 287 men are part of the most wanted seat for the position of MP in the
coming 11th Parliament.
In total, 331 candidates are in the race for being MP. In percentage form, the
number of women against men stands at a very low 13.2 per cent, while the males
are at 87.8 per cent.
There are only 59 seats available in Parliament for elected MPs while 10 others
will be according to the Constitution, appointed by His Majesty King Mswati III.
According to the statistics, the Shiselweni II, Nkomiyahlaba and Ndzingeni
Chiefdoms recorded the highest numbers of women, which was at three in all the
aforementioned areas under the position of constituency headman.
Mahlangatsha Inkhundla had the highest number of women elected for the MP
position (four), followed closely by Siphocosini Inkhundla where three women
elected under the position of MP, were as three of them garnered enough votes to
enter the race under that constituency.
During the nomination stage, the total number of women who qualified for the
three positions was only 1 579 against 4 907 men.
The region with the highest female elected candidates for the positions of MP
and Indvuna Yenkhundla was the Shiselweni Region, which elected 31 women.
They were followed by the Manzini Region where 29 females successfully contested
the Primary Elections, then the Hhohho Region with 28 women.
Next
The least number of female elected candidates came from the Lubombo Region,
where only 10 made it to the next stage.
Some constituencies did not vote for any women into either position and these
included Mntfongwaneni, Manzini North and the new Inkhundla, Kumethula.
Meanwhile, Gege Inkhundla had the highest number of male MP hopefuls, where 11
of them will be contesting for the same position.
They were followed by the new Kumethula Constituency, which is also in the
Shiselweni Region,  where eight males will be battling out for the position of
MP.
The Vote for a Woman campaign according to the statistics has taken a big knock.
In 2013, only one female MP, Esther Dlamini managed to be elected at Mbabane
East Inkhundla, but unfortunately she crashed out of the race during the Primary
Elections last Saturday as she lost to former Sihlangu coach Harries ‘Madze’
Bulunga.
Should the women fail to make 30 per cent of parliamentarians during the first
sitting of the House of Assembly, then Section 86 of the Constitution of
Eswatini will apply.
The aforementioned clause states that the House shall then form itself into an
electoral college and elect not more than four women on a regional basis to the
House.
At a later stage, the MPs would then elect 10 senators, at least half of whom
shall be female,  according to the Constitution.