Africa-Press – Eswatini. The nomination process for the 2023 national elections did not proceed smoothly in some Tinkhundla centres as there were threats of taking the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to court for flouting nominations procedures.
In Mbabane West at Mangwaneni Primary School, there were a lot of concerns from members of the public who had come for the nominations. First, there was the issue of delays as the EBC team did not arrive on time with the equipment which printed out the voter verification certificates.
The EBC officials profusely apologised for the delay, saying it was something that was beyond their control. The second issue was the venue where the nominations were supposed to take place as EBC officials wanted to conduct the process inside one of the classrooms at Mangwaneni Primary School while residents complained that the place was tiny.
Eventually, EBC succumbed to the demands of residents and the nominations were held outside the classroom. The last issue which led to some of those who attended the nominations threatening to take the case further to court was the manner in which EBC officials selected the people who were nominating individuals and also the number of nominees which were supposed to be selected.
Some felt that EBC officials were very selective in choosing those nominating candidates. Some felt they were left out without nominating their individuals who were to represent them at Bucopho level.
This was after the EBC officials announced that they were closing nominations for Bucopho while there were only nine people who were selected for the Bucopho position. This led to an uproar. A concerned member of the public went further to inform the EBC officials on how the law stipulates that there must be 20 nominated people for that certain category before they can stop nominations.
The residents stated that they will take the matter to court if EBC insisted on cutting before 20 people were chosen for Bucopho or residents were satisfied with the number they had.
They said they will contest to have the whole nominations process started afresh.
The reason given by EBC was that there were complaints that it was getting late and they were still at Bucopho stage. The residents heard none of that, stating that EBC was no longer following what they have been teaching.
Eventually, EBC heeded to the demands of the public and allowed the nominations to proceed as per the people’s wish.
However by the time some people were already leaving the area, as they complained that they waited for a very long time for the nominations to begin and they were dragging. There were some people who went back home after they were told that they were not appearing on the voter’s.
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