Times Of Swaziland: Tinkhundla elections are democratic - SADC team

Tinkhundla elections are democratic - SADC team
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BY MUSA SIMELANE on 23/08/2013 02:26:00


MBABANE – The SADC-PF Pre-Election Technical Mission team has observed that
the Tinkhundla elections are democratic.
Dr. Esau Chiviya, Secretary General for the Southern African Development
Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), based this observation on the fact that
it was the people themselves through their votes, who determined who should
represent them in Parliament.
“This is one major positive thing I can highlight about Tinkhundla as far as
we have gathered since arriving in the country early this week. The system
promotes electoral democracy,” said Dr Chiviya.
He was speaking at a meeting between the team and the local media, which was
held at the Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS) offices
yesterday.  He was accompanied by his colleague Sheuneni Kurasha, Programme
Manager for Democracy and Governance.
The team is in the kingdom to consult with stakeholders and get their opinion on
the electoral process ahead of the poll and the count. It also assesses the
political environment leading to elections. They will also be monitoring
tomorrow’s Primary Elections process.
The SADC-PF will be observing Swazi elections for the first, so we are also here
to learn more, particularly about Tinkhundla. We’ve met the Minister of
Tinkhundla Administration and Development and we heard about the challenges
encountered by the system,” explained Chiviya.
He said the kingdom with its challenges associated with the system was no
exception, as other African countries experienced some too.
Furthermore, he said the Tinkhundla system really made Swaziland unique, saying
the elections nomination process was also democratic. Kurasha on the other hand
opined that the basic principle of democracy was based on a rule by the people
themselves through choosing their leaders. He said one of the reasons for
engaging stakeholders was to learn about their views and see how shortcomings,
if any, can be dealt with in future.
“Otherwise for the short term the SADC-PF will rule out whether the 2013
elections were free and fair,” said Kurasha.
Meanwhile, Chiviya, talking about the issue of whether academic qualifications
of nominees mattered, said this was a debate that has been going on for years,
but in  democracy everyone has a right to be voted for regardless of their
educational background.
He said what can perhaps compromise the performance of government was not
putting importance on the academic background of officials.