MABHANISI MAKES BRIBERY CLAIMS, LODGES COMPLAINT

MBABANE – Outgoing Kwaluseni Member of Parliament (MP) Sibusiso Mabhanisi Dlamini, has alleged that the votes from His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) were tampered with.

Dlamini wrote a letter to the EBC, where he appealed for the commission’s response to this allegation, including that bribery was allegedly at play during the elections. He further alleged that after voting, the ballot boxes were kept at the Correctional Services, instead of the EBC premises. He said: “We are very much interested in being engaged by the EBC on the matter and we appeal that this shall happen in seven days after getting this letter.”

Elections

On Saturday, Dlamini lost the primary elections by 125 votes to Sifiso Shongwe. Two days after the elections were held, Dlamini filed a letter of complaint with the EBC and demanded the commission to respond within seven days. According to the contents of the letter, Dlamini complained about the manner in which the EBC conducted the special voting exercise which he said was not properly handled, according to the law. “I am concerned with why the special voting boxes were not submitted to where there was a count of ballot papers. Why were they not presented to the centre where candidates and agents were present at Divine Healing Ministries in Manzini?” he wondered. Dlamini mentioned that according to the law, the results from the special voting were supposed to be presented on the day they were to be counted to ensure a fair election process.

Moreover, the outgoing MP highlighted that he would like to know who counted, the ballot papers from the Correctional facilities, which included Bhalekane, Nhlangano, Big Bend, Mbabane, Matsapha and Pigg’s Peak Correctional centres. “We would like to know who counted the ballot boxes from all the Correctional Services facilities and we are interested in knowing the law that governs that to happen,” he said. Furthermore, the outgoing MP disclosed that there were a number of people from Kwaluseni who were jailed in various prisons in the country yet he only got five votes in total. In an interview, he said this would not have been possible as he said: “There are about 40 inmates from Kwaluseni who are at the Nhlangano Prison, while those awaiting trial are 73 in other Correctional facilities. I had campaign managers inside the prisons yet I only got five votes.”

The counting of votes was delayed by over three hours at Kwaluseni Central Primary School Polling Station. This was after the MP and indvuna yenkhundla nominees demanded the results from all the Correctional Services facilities, so they would know how many votes they garnered. When one of the EBC officials told the nominees that it would be a futile exercise given the time they demanded the results from the prisons, it angered the nominees to an extent that tempers flared. Some of the nominees said: “As EBC proclaims that it conducts free and fair elections, we feel it is not fair if the prison results are not provided before today’s votes are counted. We do not want to celebrate prematurely based on today’s results when we do not know how many votes we got from the prisons. We are prepared to wait the whole night until the results are given to us,” said one of the nominees.

Unacceptable

An explanation from the EBC officials seemed unacceptable as they tried to explain why the results were not made public at the time. A back and forth ensued but almost four hours later, the results were eventually released. Sifiso Shongwe got the highest number of votes from the HMCS, which were 25 while Dlamini got five. The counting of votes was eventually completed at 6am. When responding to the opening of a ballot box, which Dlamini alleged was opened at the Matsapha Correctional Centre, EBC Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe rhetorically asked, “How then could the ballot papers be counted if they were not opened?” Bhembe said Dlamini ought to have known the law governing how elections were conducted, given that he was the Parliament Portfolio Committee Chairperson for the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. He mentioned that he received the letter and the commission would look into the complaints but could not pre-empt whether there would be a response to the allegations.

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