MOZ FOLK IN ESWATINI GO TO THE POLLS

MANZINI - Superb! This word best describes the Mozambican diaspora’s voting exercise which was held at the Manzini Satellite Bus Rank yesterday.

The term diaspora  refers to  people who come from a particular nation, or whose ancestors came from it, but now live in many different parts of the world.
While their fellow countrymen were busy exercising their power to vote for the president of their own choice in Mozambique, Mozambicans living in Eswatini were not left out of such privilege as they exercised the same power as well and voted for the president of their choice.

A massive number of the Mozambican nationals were seen casting their votes without any coercion or extortion, as overseers came in numbers to ensure that there was order during the elections.

Elections

There was also no foul play witnessed during the elections as the voters were afforded a voting booth where they cast their votes in accordance with their personal preferences without anyone being in a position to influence them let alone knowing who they voted for.
The same atmosphere was withnessed in Mbabane.

The elections that took place yesterday at the Mozambique Embassy looked peaceful as people were seen in queues, confirming their names before joining the bigger queue to cast their votes.
The voters were given ballot papers with the people assisting showing them how they had to cast their votes, then moved to the voting booth to make their choices.

Officers from the Royal Eswatini Police Service were stationed at the voting areas to ensure that peace prevailed.
In an interview with a women who identified herself as Angela, who said she was the overseer of the whole elections in the country, she said the elections were a success as she would also frequently check the other stations situated in Nhlangano, two in Manzini, Siteki and Big Bend, among others.
“Everything went well except for a small standoff that took place in the morning and was sorted immediately,” she said.

Campaigning

Narrating about the standoff, Angela said there were delegates who came from Mozambique who were seemingly campaigning yet that was closed, to which police intervened and the matter was resolved.

Part of the Mozambique elections were for presidency, parliamentarians and provincial governors, in the fifth multiparty national elections and for the first time, there will be direct election of governors.

It was said a total of four candidates were contesting for the presidency among them being incumbent, Filipe Nyusi of the for Liberation of Mozambique Front (Frelimo), who has been president since 2014 and was seeking re-election for a second and last term as stipulated by the Constitution of Mozambique.

By the time of compiling this report, elections were already closed in the country as closing time was set for 6pm. Information sourced was that the votes were going to be escorted to Mozambique where the counting would take place. Worth noting is that there are three countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region who are preparing for elections in October and November, namely; Botswana, Mauritius and Namibia.

Botswana will hold its parliamentary and local government elections on October 23, while Mauritius and Namibia will go to the polls on November 7 and 27, respectively.

The elections, including the one for Mozambique, were reportedly to be observed by a number of local, regional and international organisations, including the SADC Electoral Observation Missions (SEOMs), which are later expected to issue statements on the conduct of each of the polls.

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