Swaziland voters begin registration amid boycott calls

Voters began registering for elections in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, on Monday with unions and the opposition calling for a boycott of what they dismiss as a "rubber stamp" poll.

 

Authorities expect some 600,000 eligible voters -- slightly more than half of the 1.1 million population -- to put their names down for the legislative elections, expected by October. But the country's opposition and unions have rubbished the vote as undemocratic and a mere rubber-stamping of the autocratic rule of King Mswati III. "We call on people not to register but if they can't ... we call on them to peacefully disrupt the vote," said Kenneth Kunene, secretary general of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS), one of  the leading opposition parties. 

 

Kunene, in exile in South Africa, alleged that police had been deployed to "intimidate" and coerce people to register to vote. Candidates in the election are shortlisted in their chiefdoms, whose leaders are directly appointed by the king. Political parties have been banned in Swaziland and last month at least three activists were arrested and charged with sedition during protests against the king's rule. Tensions have been running high especially since April 12, which marked the 40th anniversary of a royal decree that transformed Swaziland from a democracy into an absolute monarchy. 

 

The People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) said the parliamentary elections wont bring any change to the poverty-stricken and landlocked country wedged between Mozambique and South Africa. "Who has the power in Swaziland? The power rests with the king, no matter what you do. You can't do anything if it doesn't please the king," said Sikhumbuzo Phakathi, PUDEMO's general secretary. "It shows how useless the parliament is in Swaziland," added the general secretary.

 

-Sapa-AFP