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MBABANE – The calls to boycott the upcoming general elections continue as there are plans for door-to-door campaigns to lobby people not to participate in the elections.

It has been gathered that an organisation called the Community Organisers has resolved to implement the anti-elections campaign by introducing door-to-door strategies, to lobby people not to participate in the elections.

The Community Organisers are a sector of the mass democratic movement (MDM) and are affiliated to the Multi-Stakeholders Forum (MSF).

The anti-elections campaign was launched by the late MSF Chairperson, Thulani Maseko, during the funeral service of the late Swazis First Democratic Front (SFDF) member, Muzi Mmemam on January 8, 2023.

Another resolution purported to have been taken by the Community Organisers was to introduce activities for the youth that would be executed during the elections’ date.

The aim of the activities is reported to be keeping the youth busy during the elections dates and not go to the polling stations and vote.

According to the WhatsApp message which details about the resolutions, the activities would include games that the youth may play during the elections date.

The message was shared to this publication by one of the executive members of the Community Organisers. It was also detailed that there were plans to revive community dialogues, which were commonly conducted by the MSF.

When sought for comment yesterday, MSF Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini said the Community Organisers were an independent organisation although they were working hand-in-hand with the MSF.

Dlamini said as the MSF secretariat they would not discuss this with anyone before they got a briefing from the Community Organisers.

Provided

“Answers to your questions can be provided after our meeting with them,” said Dlamini.

Chairperson of the Community Organisers Siboniso Mkhabela denied knowledge of the message carrying the resolutions.

Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe said the plans to disrupt the elections were targeting the most vulnerable groups, which were less knowledgeable about importance of partaking in the elections.

Bhembe said such plans were unfortunately meant to shift the focus of the masses from the elections to something else.

He said this was painful because those behind the calls to disrupt the elections were calling themselves agents of democracy but what they were doing was totally undemocratic.

He said one principle of democracy was allowing people to participate not only in elections but also in the running of their country.

Bhembe said such was enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 21 and the country’s Constitution in Section 79 also speaks about allowing people to participate in the daily running of the country.

He said then if there was someone against the above it was painful and militating against democracy. He said those people were anti-democratic.

The communications officer said another principle of democracy was political tolerance, which called for the respect of other people’s political views.

He said democracy also spoke about respecting the rule of law.

“If it is enshrined in the constitution of the country that people should participate in the elections, then who are we to militate against it?” wondered Bhembe.

He pleaded with emaSwati to do an introspection in order to realise what they really wanted for their country than allowing people to abuse them.

“Democracy is about self-determination,” he said.