Eligible voters in Eswatini will be casting their ballots today, Friday, September 29, in a parliamentary election whose results will make little to no difference to the politics of the nation that is controlled by Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The monarch in question, King Mswati III has ruled the southern African kingdom, –with a populace of about 1.2 million people–, since 1986, when he took over the crown from his father, Sobhuza II.
Political parties are prohibited in the country, but individual candidates can contest for seats in the House of Assembly every five years.
The authority of the politicians elected in these polls includes primarily being able to make suggestions to the king, who is however, free to ignore them.
The election will be governed by monarchists and other candidates sympathetic to the ruler, according to Louw Nel, a senior political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa.
Two members of the past parliament who had supported the pro-democracy movement had been jailed, while the third individual had fled the country.
