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YOU ARE STUCK WITH YOUR MP UNTIL 2023!

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MBABANE – You are stuck with your choice of Member of Parliament until his term ends!

The lack of legislation authorising the electorate to recall their Parliament representative renders the former powerless.  This is because members of the Seventh Parliament removed a clause which sought to give the electorate powers to recall them in the event they are not satisfied with their execution of duty in office.  The clause which was removed was called the ‘Power of recall’, which was in the Constitution Bill. As a result, only the King has powers to call for the prorogation or dissolution of Parliament and the electorate is ‘stuck’ with their representatives until 2023.  The call for the electorate to recall their MPs comes after the ongoing debate about how the late University of Eswatini Law student, Thabani Nkomonye, died with suspicions that the police may have had a hand in it.

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As a result, some members of the public, in particular on social media, took it upon themselves to call and send messages to ‘quiet’ MPs, in particular with regard to the silence on the #JusticeForThabani movement.  Some of the members of the public called for their MPs to step down because they were not doing anything for them in Parliament unlike Hosea MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Siphofaneni MP Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane, who were perceived to be the only vocal and active MPs. The ‘silent’ MPs have further been threatened with non-reelection come 2023, which is when the next national elections are expected to be held. A political recall is the process by which citizens can remove elected officials from office before the end of their term. This process typically includes the circulation of petitions by recall organisers, the evaluation of signatures by election officials, and a public vote if the petitions are deemed to have sufficient valid signatures.

According to a former member of the Seventh Parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the clause of the power of recall was viewed by the elected members as unfair to them. He said the power of recall had no room in a democratic situation. He said the removed clause gave voters the ability to terminate the term of a MP due to inability to represent them and replace that person with another representative. The former MP said he voted against the proposal and hoped that it would be opposed again should the Constitution be amended or such a clause be piloted again. He stated that the power of recall was directed at the then 55 (now 59) elected members of the House of Assembly and did not include appointees. He revealed that it was also quiet even on those 10 people appointed by the House of Assembly into Senate. 

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