RUSH TO BEAT REGISTRATION DEADLINE

MBABANE – Most registration centres were a hive of activity yesterday, as people took the opportunity to register with today being the last day to register for the general election.

As of Monday, by close of business, 446 118 emaSwati had registered. Of note is that during the 2018 General Elections, 540 000 emaSwati registered and about 60 per cent voted.
Businessman Walter Bennett is among those who did not miss the opportunity to register yesterday.Interviewed, Bennett said he kept forgetting to register despite diarising it as he was distracted by other things, including a critical court case that he would be attending today.“I knew that I was finally going to register and certainly would not defy the directive that the elections were on, as indicated by Umlisa,” stated Bennett.

Opportunity

He said registering was an opportunity for him as he would like to vote for a woman under the Mbabane East Constituency, although his experience with some of them in Parliament had not been too good.However, he said one swallow didn’t make a summer. The former senator stated that this was currently the time to find out the candidates who were interested in running for Parliament. He said anybody who had political issues needed to voice them out now and not as an afterthought by collecting petitions elsewhere. “This is the time to petition the principals (us), tell us what you are going to represent us in Parliament for and not misrepresent us later,” he said.

Bennett said he had been voting since the Pope was a boy and was currently 68 years old, adding that it was his obligation to do so, as it was his right. He said for those who did not register and would not vote they (voters) shall govern them.There were some members of the public who were keen to register. Thembinkosi Mavuso said he had challenges with his identity document, which he finally found, which delayed him to register. Mavuso said he was interested in registering as he would vote for his friend and was expecting nothing in return. Mvelo Maseko said he kept on postponing and got a wakeup call when he learnt through the media that the deadline was today. Reached for comment, the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Communications Officer, Mbonisi Bhembe, said it would not be fair to compare the numbers with the registration for the 2018 General Elections.Bhembe said the 2023 General Elections were different as there was a lot of misinformation that was put out to discourage the public from participating.

“This is a different ball game altogether and we cannot make comparison with the 2018 election numbers,” he said. He said not withstanding everything, the participation turnout was overwhelming and thanked the nation for coming out to register. Bhembe said they were excited with the numbers of emaSwati who had registered to vote in the 2023 General Elections. According to the communications officer, they were still looking forward to that even during the validation and nominations, the public would support.Bhembe said they were encouraging every liSwati, who was eligible to participate in the elections, to register.“Once emaSwati register, it means we have reached the target as EBC. We render the service to the people and if we were to be judged, it should be on whether we went out to the people to render the service,” he added.He said they were not looking out for numbers but ensuring that 100 per cent of emaSwati registered.Bhembe said they were seeing queues at the registration centres lately, which showed that most people were trying to beat the deadline.

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