No legal action has been taken against candidates at Swaziland’s national election who are alleged to have engaged in corrupt practices.
Last week the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) reported on a host of irregularities during the 2008 election, ranging from intimidation to bribery.
But it has emerged that even though the EBC had information about the identities of the accused, it did not contact the Swazi police or the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The controversial EBC chair Chief Gija Dlamini refused to discuss the matter with the Times Sunday,an independent newspaper in Swaziland, claiming that he couldn’t do so until the report had been discussed by parliament.
In typical fashion, Chief Gija, who was widely criticised for his lack of experience when he was appointed to the EBC chair (he is an electrician, not a judge), did not say why he had to wait until parliament deliberated.
If information that a crime has been committed is available it should be passed on to the ACC and the police for action to be taken.
Because of the chief’s complacency the guilty may be walking free.
There’s a lot of puzzlement surrounding the news this week that the Swaziland Constitution has to be suspended because there are too many members of parliament.
Chief Gija Dlamini, head of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), says that Swaziland cannot elect another four women to parliament to meet the requirements of the constitution – because parliament is full up.
What he means is that there are already 55 MPs in the House of Assembly and there are no vacancies.
You remember Gija, he’s the water board electrician who many people believe was illegally appointed to oversee the Swaziland nation elections last year (2008). The constitution said the chair of the EBC had to be an experienced lawyer and Gija is not.
Gija says he has discussed the problem with the Swaziland Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini (who was himself illegally appointed to his post) and parliamentary authorities but they haven’t yet come up with a solution.
Of course, the sensible thing is to increase the number of MPs to 59 to accommodate the women.
According to a report in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily news source, the Prime Minister wants to increase the number of MPs and hold elections to get the four women elected.
But here’s what’s puzzling. If he wants to do this and Chief Gija, head of the EBC, agrees it’s the right thing to do (which he does) why haven’t they done it?
Gija said his office was ready to fulfil the constitutional requirement and he was waiting for the ‘country’s authorities’ to give him the go ahead with the elections.
So which of the ‘country’s authorities’ are standing in the way? Isn’t the Prime Minister in charge of the government?
Oh of course: step forward King Mswati III,sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The king is no friend of the constitution and no friend of women’s equality (just ask his wives who number at least 13 or 14: we can’t be sure because this is information the Swazi people are not allowed to have).
Word in Swaziland is that the king is dragging his feet on this issue because he wants to pay backall those women who marched against him last August in protest at the 6 million US dollars eight of his wives spent on a worldwide shopping trip.
