By Ntombi Mhlongo and Sifiso Sibandze
Despite a volatile environment and threats by detractors of the Tinkhundla System of Government, 583 428 emaSwati have registered to make their vote count in the upcoming elections.
The voter registration drive has been a resounding success with 90% of the eligible voters in the countries having turned up. Of the registrants recorded this year, 312 458 are female, 270 970 are male and 21 906 are people living with disabilities who all defied the Tinkhundla System of Government hecklers.
The EBC had set a target of registering about 650 000 eligible voters based on the latest Population Census. Remarkably, almost 90 per cent (583 428) of the target had registered on Sunday, June 18, which was the final day of registration. This showed a considerable increase of 6.2 per cent (36 002) from the 547 426 registered in 2018 which was about 84 per cent of the eligible voter population which has been by far the highest.
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The number of registrants has been on the rise since 2013 when 414 704 people were recorded, which was about 70 per cent of the eligible voter population. The EBC had projected bout 600 00 eligible voter population in accordance with statistics provided by the population census at the time.
In total, voter registration for the 2003 general elections had about 228 950 voters registered which reflected 57 per cent of the then 400 000 eligible voter population. It was by far the lowest voter registration figure which also had less than 200 000 women registering.
Manzini records the highest number of registrants
Comparatively, pertaining to registration in the different regions, statistics reflect that Manzini recorded the highest number of registrants with about 183 578 while Hhohho recorded 156 980.
The Shiselweni Region recorded about 117 213 while Lubombo Region collected about 116 976.
In an interview with EBC Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe, he stated that this may not be the final official figure as the entity was yet to make a final audit to ascertain if all the people who registered were entered into the system.
“We are yet to conduct an audit to determine if the voter registration picks tally with the voter registration server. There might be individuals who might have registered on flight mode and we have to ensure that they are captured in the system as well,” he said.
Bhembe said after the EBC has concluded the preliminary exercise, it will then present the official statistics after which a validation exercise will resume.
“We thank emaSwati for the commitment to register to vote. We discovered that even the elderly people were eager to register as one of them took the opportunity despite that she was fresh from the hospital. We wish her a speedy recovery so that she can vote. We encourage emaSwati to continue with the good spirit,” he said.
The registration exercise was extended from its initial deadline which was on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, and those who were left behind did the right thing by exercising their right to participate. During the last day of the registration exercise, most of the registration centres were busy for the better part of the day with emaSwati taking the last chance by flocking in to register.
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By 5:00 pm, emaSwati were still flocking to the different registration centres to ensure that they are not left behind in the nation-building exercise.
By the deadline, which was at 6:00 pm, about 583 428 emaSwati had registered to vote in the much-anticipated general elections. Over 57 000 people registered during the grace period which was from Thursday to Sunday.
The next stage in the election is the voter register inspection which will take place on June 22 until July 12 after which it will be the nominations that will be conducted on July 22 and July 23.
The primary elections will take place on August 26, 2023, and will be followed by the campaigning stage on the next day until September 27. The secondary elections will be on September 29 in different polling stations around 59 constituencies.
