Voter education: Ekufinyeni folk shun political questions
MBABANE – Ekufinyeni residents under Lobamba Lomdzala who attended the EBC civic voter education exercise, shunned questions related to other political matters and stuck to the elections.
Inkhundla,
It is worth noting that since the commencement of the civic voter education exercise early last month, in some areas, the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) officials were often asked politically-related issues.
Questions asked in other chiefdoms included dates for dialogue and why the two Members of Parliament (MPs) in Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza of Hosea and Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi were incarcerated.
In other areas, residents asked if there was a point in them voting for people who would end up being jailed.
It is worth noting that in some areas, the civic voter education exercise was even disrupted, leading to EBC officials leaving before finishing the exercise. Areas where the exercise was disrupted include KaLiba under Hosea Inkhundla and Somntongo.
It was gathered that in another chiefdom under Hosea which is Hhohho
Emuva, the EBC officials did not show up for the voter education exercise.
It was reported that EBC was warned not to go to Hhohho Emuva.
In these areas, the EBC officials were asked to address the issue of arrested MP Mabuza and the dialogue. However, at
Ekufinyeni, things were not like that at all. In fact, there were no disruptions noted from the beginning to the end. The civic voter education, which was held at St Andrew’s Primary School, proceeded to the end, though there were low numbers of community members in attendance.
There were about 30 residents including some members of the inner council from Ekufinyeni chiefdom.
Due to the low attendance, the exercise, which was scheduled to start at 10am, ended up starting at 11:30am.
The EBC officials started educating the residents who were about 18 at first but as time went by, a few more residents joined in. A few police officers were also deployed to maintain peace and order. The exercise lasted until 1:30pm. EBC officials led by Tholakele Sihlongonyane started their assignment to educate the residents about the stages of elections. Sihlongonyane took the residents from registration phase, stating who was eligible and who was not eligible to vote. She educated the residents on the importance of registration and its benefits. Thereafter, the residents started posing questions. There were less than five questions posed and they all centred around the elections. One of the residents asked if people without money or wealth would be able to campaign for election.
Elected
Sabelo Zwane asked on how campaign officers (bogalajane) were elected and how they were allowed to operate. Meanwhile, on March 8, the EBC Chairperson, Prince Mhlabuhlangene Dlamini, warned those who intended to disrupt the upcoming elections to be ready to face the consequences and be better legally covered.
Dlamini stated that the election processes were legal. He said it was fundamentally important to underscore that every aspect of pre to post-elections was legally binding.
He stated that all processes and interruptions were also legally binding in the legal enforcement.