PARLIAMENT WORKING ON REGIONAL WOMEN MPS’ ELECTION LOGISTICS

MBABANE – The composition of Parliament is not yet complete.

This is because the representation of women in Parliament currently stands at 25 per cent yet the Constitution stipulates that it should at least be 30 per cent. It is for that reason that Parliament is currently working on logistics to have the regional women Members of Parliament (MPs) elected, as revealed by Clerk to Parliament Benedict Xaba. Section 86 of the Constitution depicts that where at the first meeting of the House after any general elections it appears that female members of Parliament will not constitute at least 30 per cent of the total membership of Parliament, then, and only then, the provisions of this section shall apply. “For the purposes of this section, the House shall form itself into an electoral college and elect not more than four women on a regional basis to the House in accordance with the provisions of Section 95(3),” reads the Section in the  Constitution. The House of Assembly has 12 women MPs, four of which were appointed by His Majesty King Mswati III and eight were elected from constituencies. The Senate has 13 women, eight of which were appointed by the King and five were elected, bringing the total number of women in Parliament to 25.

Representation

Parliament has 99 members, 69 coming from the House of Assembly, while 30 come from Senate and these figures bring the women representation to 25 per cent currently. Clerk to Parliament Xaba said they had been busy with the swearing-in of senators lately and the issue of regional women MPs would follow. “We are still going to sit down with key stakeholders and work out the logistics of the elections. No date has been set yet,” he said. It should be noted that the regional women MPs only qualify to be elected when they participated in the general elections, contesting for a seat in Parliament. The region women MPs were also elected in the 11th Parliament and two made it back to the House of Assembly. Nonhlanhla Dlamini, who was representing Shiselweni Region, attained victory on the elections replacing Mduduzi ‘Small Joe’ Dlamini as Maseyisini MP.  The other one is Lorraine Nxumalo, who represented the Lubombo Region and was elected back as a senator in the 12th Parliament. The Manzini Region was represented by former MP Busi Mavimbela while Hhohho was represented by former MP Nokunceda Bujela.

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