Africa-Press – Eswatini. A common comment was on transport crisis experienced during the primary elections.
This was raised during the orientation exercise for MP, indvuna yenkhundla primary elections winners from the Hhohho Region. The contention from some of the aspirants was that some of the public transport owners were also contesting candidates and their transport was part of those hired by the commission to ferry the electorate to polling stations, which then created a conflict of interest.
They submitted that the drivers of vehicles were employees of the candidates and the latter were allegedly influencing the drivers to transport voters going to the polling stations, where the owners were contesting. As such, they observed that the electorate from the other imiphakatsi, within the constituency, were left stranded with no transport to reach the polling stations.
“We have nothing against the transport owners getting the tender to transport the electorate but their transport should be deployed to other areas outside of their constituencies because there is conflict of interest,” submitted one candidate. Another candidate said he was contesting with a minister from another umphakatsi within his constituency and he observed that voters were struggling to get to the polling station at his umphakatsi but the transport was flowing on the other side.
Hhohho EBC Commissioner Chief Mawandla Gamedze disputed that ministers were getting preference because of their status. He explained that to them, all the candidates were the same and no one was getting any favours. On the suggestion that the transport should be deployed to other areas outside of the constituency where the owners were competing, Gamedze explained that the matter would be looked into.
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