OVER 400 VOTERS UNDER NKWENE CONSTITUENCY CRY FOUL, FILE COMPLAINT

BUSELENI – Some members of the electorate under Nkwene Constituency have reported alleged irregularities to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) regarding the voting in the primary elections held on Saturday.

They claimed that there was a lot of cheating that happened during the primary elections. Over 400 members of the electorate from Buseleni Chiefdom under Nkwene Constituency, in the Shiselweni Region, gathered at the umphakatsi to report to the royal kraal, EBC officials and police officers, alleged irregularities they witnessed on Saturday when the country was in the primary elections polls. The aggrieved electorate was made to fill in EBC’s complaint form, which required the commission to address their grievances within 14 days. Should any irregularities be proven, any person found guilty, if found he/she had won, may face disqualification, with elections starting afresh. The matter is being addressed as a matter of urgency as it needs to be resolved within 14 days. On another note, police recorded statements from some of those who voted at Mkhondvo Polling Station yet they were not residents of the chiefdom.

Outclassing

This follows the election results under this chiefdom, which saw former Member of Parliament (MP) Sikhumbuzo Dlamini who served during the 2013 to 2018 term in Parliament, outclassing outgoing MP Vulimpompi Nhleko and Siboniso Hlatshwayo, among the eight who were nominated by over 800 and 500 votes respectively. He outclassed them with 1 394 votes, while Hlatshwayo came second with 751 votes and Nhleko got the third spot with 572 votes. One of the complaints from the aggrieved electorate was that Sikhumbuzo was not eligible to participate in elections under the chiefdom (Buseleni) as they claimed he belonged to Nkwene Royal Kraal. Notably, in the past two general elections, he would participate as a subject of Nkwene Royal Kraal, though he has a family at Buseleni.

The electorate had first gathered at Buseleni Royal Kraal after spending a night at Hlatshwayo’s homestead, where they were attended to by officers from Hlatikhulu Police Station as well as the EBC officials led by Returning Officer Khonelikhosi Dlamini, where they accused the former MP of not belonging to Buseleni. “Why has he come this side to spoil our elections? He belongs to Nkwene and over the past election years, we have only met him in secondary elections,” one voter, who asked not to be named, said. It was gathered from EBC officials that of the about 2 500 registered voters from the area, about 20 took part in the validation, where they could have spotted any anomalies related to the voters roll. When the Returning Officer Khonelikhosi explained some of the stages relating to the general elections, most of which had passed, the electorate did not seem content. “We only thought that we were meant to check if our names appeared, not to check if we knew all the names appearing on the list. Even if that was thoroughly done, we cannot know everybody on the list as some have even different chief codes in their national identification cards,” another voter argued.

“This is just a mess and the voters roll must be revised before the secondary elections. There was a lot of foul play here,” another disgruntled electorate alleged. Some of the electorate claimed they witnessed cars on the day ferrying individuals from neighbouring communities such as Kholwane, Tri-Cash, Matsapha as well as Nhlangano, from the factory shells. Some even testified that they could even identify the individuals as they knew them being residents of Matsapha for over 10 years. I know one who has stayed in Matsapha for over 10 years but voted at Mkhondvo and some even went on to fight over some money they were allegedly paid by certain individuals. I have all the evidence since we captured them as they went on to even fight over the money and some disclosed who had bought them,” another aggrieved electorate claimed.

Notably, the voters whom the electorate complained about appeared in the voters roll, hence they were able to vote. Meanwhile, Hlatikhulu Station Commander Lucky Msibi invited the aggrieved electorate to record statements with the police on the matter. Msibi promised that police would investigate the matter and get advice if they could be brought before the law.
Some of the electorate flocked police vans which were at the umphakatsi to record statements as EBC recommended that only one individual must fill the form on behalf of the aggrieved residents.

Meanwhile, the MP candidate (Sikhumbuzo) said he would wait for the EBC process and together with his legal team, he was ready to respond to any allegations levelled against him, as some of these assertions were untruthful.

Residents

“My legal team and I are ready for any lies and evidence that some residents of Buseleni say they have against me, most of which are not true. However, people must know that in politics, there will always be one winner and they should accept results as they are,” he said. Sikhumbuzo went on to state that the accusations against him were all not true. “I won the primary elections on merit and we are happy to know that EBC will investigate this matter so that everyone can see that there was no foul play,” the former MP said. Meanwhile, Hlatshwayo, the Head of the Asphalt Department at Inyatsi, specialising in Civil Engineering, who was the favourite among some of the electorate and eventually came in second with 751 votes, said he didn’t want to sound like a sore loser. “I believe that EBC will investigate the matter,” he said briefly.

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