Africa-Press – Eswatini. One of the Senate hopefuls, who crashed out early in the elections last Thursday, has been reportedly paid back his money by some politicians.
Sources claimed that the aspirant politician, who crashed out on the Senate race, supposedly recovered all his money he had used during the lobbying. It was unclear on how much he had spent as he requested not to engage much on the matter when reached for comment. The aspirant politician is said to have contacted those who had taken his money and supposedly emphasised that they did not want to see his other side as they had taken him for a fool. While the said aspirant politician is said to have received all his money, another contacted by this publication was livid as he said only five out of 15 had paid him back his money.
Crash
*Ismail supposed that following his crash in the Senate elections, out of the 15 politicians who reportedly took his cash with a commitment to offer him an original vote (one), only five had paid him back. Even so, Ismail alleged that some of them had offered a lesser amount and committed to settling the difference at a later date. He purported that some of the MPs who did not vote for him yet took his money were no longer answering his phone calls, which was something that he said would end in tears. He supposed that he had spent about E900 000 in lobbying 15 legislators to offer him an original vote during the elections. The hopeful politician alleged that he had engaged the legislators with various proposals and many had requested to be assisted with recovering from the losses incurred during the recent general elections.
He claimed that the said legislators, who ended up getting over E60 000 apiece, had claimed that they needed financial assistance in adjusting to the parliamentary life and this entailed having fuel money to attend to Parliament business and also getting a number of suites. “In exchange for my assistance, the 15 committed to affording me an original vote apiece during the elections. Many of them did not, and to me, it is a breach of contract because I had offered the help they needed while they did not play their part,” he said. The aspirant politician said leading to the Senate elections, he had engaged and met almost all the politicians at various locations where they engaged on his quest, while they also lamented about their challenges.
He claimed to have given the politicians E40 000 each and later added E20 000 to what they had received, which tallied E60 000 per politician. However, on the day of the Senate elections, the nominee said that some of the legislators he supposedly had agreements with started ‘bidding’ for more money.
According to the Senate nominee, some of the politicians started name dropping and supposing that prominent individuals had offered more money for their votes. “Others would say so and so offered them E90 000 and if you can’t offer anything better, they would then insinuate that they would give it to the person offering more based on their needs,” he said. Meanwhile, another individual who lost his bid to be a senator said those who were acting all innocent now should recall that there was electronic evidence in everything a person did as long as they had a mobile phone. Also, he said the legislators who took his money should also look at the meeting places and thereat, would realise that there were security cameras which captured the meetings and exchange of money with some of them.
Statement
It is worth noting that this publication last Friday reported that a statement by Mbabane East Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Welcome Dlamini caused commotion in the House of Assembly when some of the members of Parliament could not agree on the method of casting their votes during the Senate elections. It was reported that Dlamini said: “Nangabe udle imali yemuntfu wamtsembisa lo-one ungasifaki tsine.” This was when the Clerk to Parliament, Benedict Xaba, who was the returning officer during the elections, explained the voting process. He told the MPs that they would not mark the ballot papers from their seats, but would use the voting booths for their votes to remain a secret.
On Saturday, Eswatini News reported that the integrity of the Senate elections was put into question after reports that at least two of Senate hopefuls allegedly spent approximately E500 000 apiece on lobbying for votes. However, the pair, it was reported, ended up on the losing side. Even more astonishingly, it was alleged that one of the Senate winners had to part with around E1 million just to win a seat in the upper chamber.
Source: times
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