CAMPAIGNING FOR ELECTIONS DONE IN MANY FORMS - EBC’S BHEMBE

MBABANE – Aspirant parliamentarians have seemingly mastered the art of campaigning, such that it is difficult for the EBC to take legal action against them.

EBC is an abbreviation for the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
The EBC Communications Officer, Mbonisi Bhembe, said it was not easy to say a person was campaigning.

He said evidence was needed to prove that he or she was indeed campaigning, and added that in the event people suspected anything, they should notify the commission or the police so the matter could be addressed.

He added that people did not just donate but there were often motives behind that. Bhembe opined that had things been the EBC’s way, donations to the public would be made anonymously through chiefs.

He said this would be to ensure that people do not give gifts to people as a campaigning strategy but do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Bhembe said this during an interview yesterday.

There has been growing concern over the increasing number of people giving gifts to the less privileged and elderly ‘out of the goodness of their hearts’. What troubles most is that this coincidentally happens during the election year.
Bhembe said campaigning came in many forms and the public had to understand this.

He said there was also a need to find means of ending campaigning before time, as it was against the law. He said although it was difficult to pinpoint campaigning, it should be noted that people did not just give.

“There is usually a motive behind,” Bhembe said. Bhembe stated that people who would be found to be campaigning stood to be prosecuted and banned from participating in the upcoming elections.

He said such people would not be eligible to register or vote for two years, and added that they also stood to be fined about E10 000.
He said corruption bordering around elections were so deep that they happened even during elections.

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