Times Of Swaziland: ESTHER PRAISES KING FOR MPS APPOINTMENTS ESTHER PRAISES KING FOR MPS APPOINTMENTS ================================================================================ BY KWANELE DLAMINI on 07/10/2013 05:03:00 MBABANE – His Majesty King Mswati III has shown that he leads by example. This was evident when the king, through Elections and Boundaries (EBC) Chairman Chief Gija, announced the appointment of ten Members of Parliament (MPs) into the House of Assembly as per the Constitution, 30 per cent were women. Out of the ten appointed MPs His Majesty announced on Saturday, three are women. Among the king’s appointees was the incumbent head of government Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini. The electorate, on the other hand, managed to elect only one per cent, of the targeted 30 to 50 per cent, into Parliament, sparking a public outcry. Out of a possible 55 women MPs from the same number of constituencies, only one MP in Esther Dlamini of Mbabane East Constituency was elected in the country. In what could be viewed as an indictment on the electorate for its failure to meet the target of 30 per cent women elected into Parliament, there was 30 per cent of women in the king’s appointed MPs. These are former Minister of Housing and Urban Development Pastor Lindiwe Dlamini, former appointed MP Princess Ncengencenge and former Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Thuli Dladla. The country’s only elected woman MP in the 2013-2018 term, Mbabane East representative and former deputy Speaker Esther Dlamini commended the appointment of the three women into Parliament and expressed hope that in Senate there would be even more females appointed. “Even though the percentage (6 per cent) is still lower than our targeted 30 to 50 per cent, we nonetheless commend His Majesty for his effort. We are waiting to see how many women will be appointed to senate. We will appreciate any number the king will decide to appoint,” said Dlamini. Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini reportedly said it was not government’s baby that the electorate had managed to elect only one woman MP. Dlamini, however, said that there was a need to put in place mechanisms to ensure that more women were elected in the general national elections in 2018. The king is expected to appoint 20 more people into Senate. The 65 MPs will then elect 10 members of Senate.