Times Of Swaziland: CHAOS MARS MBABANE ELECTIONS

CHAOS MARS MBABANE ELECTIONS
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BY WELCOME DLAMINI on 29/10/2017 01:18:00


MBABANE – Having braved yesterday’s rainy cold weather to partake in the
local government elections, residents of the capital city were met with a
chaotic situation when they reached polling stations to cast their votes.
The voters were turned back after being told that there were either no ballot
papers or there was shortage of ink.
This left voters seething as they were made to leave their designated polling
stations to travel to the Municipal Council of Mbabane offices, as an
alternative polling station, to cast their votes.
Other voters were made to wait at the polling stations after their names did not
appear in the voters roll while others had their names appearing alongside
photos that did not belong to them.
Because the elections were taking place on a Saturday, polling stations were
opened as early as 7am to allow those going to work to be able to vote.
However, the shortage of voting material resulted in some residents being denied
their right to vote as they had to rush to their workplaces.
Returning Officer Thabiso Masina was a busy man trying to sort out the confusion
and liaising with polling officers on how best to handle the situation.
He even had to drive some voters to the council offices to vote after they were
met by the problems that marred their polling stations. “There is material
that we did not get such as ink for about five or six stations but we are
sorting that.
“I think by about 10am we will be up and running in a majority of the six
stations where problems have been encountered. This has delayed voters and that
we acknowledge and we apologised even at the polling stations but were sorting
it; we are working on it. So there were problems, but unfortunately, it’s the
limited material that we got,” Masina said.
The polling stations that were affected were the Swaziland College of Technology
(SCOT), Makholokholo Soup Kitchen, Little School Primary School at Pine Valley
and St. Francis Primary School.
These polling stations are situated in Wards 6, 7, 8 and 10.