‘MADZE’ ENDS ESTHER’S 15 YEARS IN PARLY

MBABANE – All good things must come to an end. For Esther Deborah Dlamini, it had to end yesterday when her seemingly endless 15-year sway as Mbabane East Member of Parliament was brought to a screeching halt.
And who better to put brakes on her reign than likeable former national soccer team coach Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga, who recorded a landslide victory against her in the tightly-contested Primary Elections.

He amassed 1 494 votes to Dlamini’s 736.
The Ka-Boyce High School hall was the venue for this much-anticipated ‘derby’ clash as voters persevered throughout a vigil from Saturday until 11:30am yesterday when the vote count was concluded.
The atmosphere inside the hall soon became tense the moment the elections officials announced that collating and counting of votes for those contesting for the MP’s position was to get underway.
While the duo was part of a group of six candidates, there was no doubt that the winner would come from these two popular individuals.

Count

With Dlamini seated behind Bulunga and the four other contestants, one sensed that this was to be one excruciating vote count, especially for the two.
Although ‘Madze’s supporters were confident of pulling a major, albeit surprising victory, they were cognisant of the fact that two other election candidates forming part of Dlamini’s ‘slate’ had just scored resounding victories in their categories.
Those in her slate were Mefika Mavuso, who had just retained his position as Indvuna Yenkhundla and Zweli Mtetwa who had also been re-elected to the position of Bucopho (constituency executive committee member).

The apprehension from ‘Madze’s mostly youthful supporters was that all those who voted for Mavuso and Mtetwa would also vote for Dlamini. 
But others were hopeful that not all those who voted for these two were also in favour of Dlamini. And boy, were they right!
The tension was palpable as Dlamini sat in between Mavuso and Mefika, with her husband, children and other family members as well as supporters seated across from her.
Between her and Bulunga, it was the latter who was first to have his opening batch of votes counted and they tallied around 240.

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