Voters’ E600 charge for aspiring MPs
MBABANE – There are reports that aspiring MPs are being demanded to pay a maximum of E600 to each voter in this year’s national elections.
Even though the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has a hefty penalty of E20 000 for everyone found guilty of bribing the electorate to elect him/ her into the august House, voters have reportedly upped their demand to aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs) in several constituencies.
Eswatini News randomly spoke to some voters this week during their visit to voter registration sites.
It has been reliably learnt that some voters in several constituencies have allegedly demanded that aspiring MPs fork out E200 for a voters registration; E200 each for the primary and secondary elections, which brings the total to E600.
The aspirants are expected to part this amount through their campaign agents (bogalajane).
Some of the people, when asked by Eswatini News as to why they were demanding these hefty payments, said they were tired of people who made empty promises.
This new demand follows another one where some outgoing MPs disclosed to this publication that some campaign agents were now demanding that they be bought cars as payment for their services.
The MPs felt that this was an unreasonable demand from bogalajane as most of them pointed out that it was very difficult to recover in case you lost out in the national elections.
More than 10 lawmakers confirmed to Eswatini News that they were re-considering their participation in the upcoming elections because of such costly demands.
Our sister publication The Times of Eswatini ran a story on Wednesday, stating that the MPs wanted to be paid E100 000 from their gratuity for them to use during the campaigns.
This amount will be treated as a loan to the MPs who will make it back to Parliament, but to those who will not make it, will be deducted in their gratuity lump sum.
RIDIcULOUs
Some aspiring legislators said that they were not willing to spend this much for each voter.
“I have been approached and even called by some members of my constituency with these ridiculous demands and I pointed it out to them that this was unreasonable, at least I can afford E200 per voter and nothing more,” said one outgoing lawmaker.
Other outgoing MPs, when interviewed by Eswatini News, pointed it out that it was a suicidal move for someone to pay this much to voters as there was a lot of de-campaigning and betrayal whenever there was a national election.
Meanwhile, another outgoing august House member disclosed to this reporter that he was receiving numerous requests of over E200 each from the members of his constituency.
“Being an MP has become expensive for us considering the unfavourable economic situation, which was accelerated by the political unrest and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Come to think of it, where can I get E20 000 to share with the residents on a daily basis?” wondered the legislator.
Other outgoing MPs said they were currently looking for sponsors to assist them with funding for their upcoming campaigns. Voter registration began on May 10 and is expected to end on June 14, 2023. According to the EBC, over 90 000 voters have already registered for the Eswatini National Elections 2023, which are being held under the slogan ‘Ngete Ngasala Nasakha Live Letfu’. To be elected are the members of the bucopho, indvuna yenkhundla and lawmakers in the 59 constituencies which are geographically located in the four regions of the country.
The national elections are run under the Tinkhundla System of Government.
This year’s national elections are expected to attract the attention of the international media as it is the first after the country experienced a political unrest where civilians and security personnel were killed.