MBABANE: A former Member of Parliament(MP) says the political parties who decided to boycott the Tinkhundla elections knew that if they contested, they would lose under the current political climate.
The ex-MP who preferred to remain anonymous told this Swaziland News that Tinkhundla elections were not won by political ideas, strategies and ideologies but anyone who provided food, could win a seat in Parliament.
“It will take years for political parties to win elections in this country if they speak about ideologies without providing food, people are hungry in the rural areas and they want food.You can teach them about politics and everything but at the end, they can betray you and vote for a candidate who gives them food, that\'s the nature of our politics for now and political parties cannot win under the current situation,” said the former MP.
The ex-MP said it was wrong for political parties to encourage people to boycott elections and further threaten those who want to contest as that was part of democracy.
“They have been boycotting and elections have been taking place and I can assure you, even this year, we will have elections,” he said.
Reached for comments, Wandile Dludlu, the Secretary General of the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) said it was unfortunate that there were people who bragged about taking advantage of the poor by giving them food during elections when they knew very well that politics was about long-term programs and changing lives of the people.
“PUDEMO is not boycotting elections but we don’t want to participate in elections that discriminate and ban political parties from participating. The current system wants only those who think like Tinkhundla to participate and once you demonstrate that you are progressive, you get attacked. Even Ben Zwane, the then Clerk to Parliament was dragged out of Parliament by the police because the regime had realized that someone progressive was inside that Parliament,” said the PUDEMO Secretary General.
Recently, the Ambassador of the Republic of China on Taiwan announced rice worth over R3million as a donation, it later emerged that the rice will assist pro-Tinkhundla Parliamentary candidates to win elections.
A donation from Taiwan.