BY MBONO MDLULI
MANZINI – Chiefs in the Manzini Region have welcomed the yearly registration that is about to be done by the elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC).
The chiefs expressed their readiness to work with the commission on that regard at The George Hotel in Manzini on March 3, 2025. The EBC had pleaded with the chiefs to cooperate with the commission when it went to chiefdoms to register residents for elections.
EBC Legal Advisor Mbuso Dlamini said this was in line with the Voter Registration (Amendment) Act of 2023 and the Elections (Amendment) Act of 2023. Concerning the first legislation, Dlamini said EBC would no longer wait for elections time to register voters, but would do so on yearly basis, according to Section 12 of the Act.
Dlamini said this provision also allowed voters to see if they were still properly registered for elections. The piece of registration also required EBC to give proof to a voter, upon registering. The Act has also changed to allow a person who has stayed for six months in an area to be eligible to vote. Previously, a person was allowed to stay in a place for three months to be eligible to vote.
The chiefs thanked the EBC for enlightening them on those issues. They expressed their readiness to work with EBC in making sure that the commission did its job seamlessly in chiefdoms. They also believed that such a move would make it easy for the elections to be credible, because everything would be done in time.
However, the chiefs had some issues that they wanted to be attended to. They expressed concerns about a situation where there would be two inner councils in one chiefdom, stating that such situations were not good and they could dent the elections. They also pleaded with the EBC to ensure that in its composition, there was a person who was well versed with customary laws.
The traditional leaders also pleaded with the nation to give them time when dealing with matters until they reached the conclusions, before such matters could be discussed on other platforms. They also pleaded with the EBC to consider employing community police during elections time to ensure the safety of voters.
In response, EBC Deputy Chairman Sipho Tembe expressed gratitude to the chiefs for giving them an opportunity to have such important discussions with them. Tembe said they were going to consider all the matters raised by the chiefs, especially those that were within the commission’s scope of work. Tembe said they were in the process of meeting chiefs from all over the country because they wanted to ask for permission from them to register residents in their chiefdoms for elections.
On top of that, Tembe said they wanted to give feedback to the chiefs on how the 2023 elections went, because since that time, they never went back to the traditional leaders to thank them for the cooperation they received from them. At the moment, the EBC has already met chiefs from Lubombo, Shiselweni, and Manzini. The commission is yet to meet chiefs from the Hhohho region.