By KWANELE SIBIYA | 2023-08-27

There was a standoff that lasted for a period of about one hour 30 minutes, resulting in the process of counting of votes being disrupted at Hillside High School Hall polling station under Manzini North Inkhundla yesterday, as the nominees frankly refused to proceed with the process without the provision of inmates and the Diaspora votes that were cast during the special voting on Tuesday.

In fact, the candidates argued that they have never seen the votes ever since the special voting process, which took place on Tuesday and felt it would be unfair for them to proceed with the process of counting yesterday's votes without having access to the inmates and Diaspora votes.

They pointed out there was a possibility that they were going to triumph during the counting of the primary elections votes, only to be later informed that they had lost the elections as a result of the inmates and diaspora votes, which they unfortunately never had access to.  

They, therefore, opined that they would rather consider the inmates and Diaspora votes null and void and proceed only with the counting of the primary elections votes.

Delivered
One of the nominees stated that procedurally speaking, they were supposed to have access to the votes on Tuesday during the especial voting process, which took place at Divine Healing Ministries Church in Manzini. However, the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) officials convinced them that the votes would be delivered the following day and they were lenient enough to heed their request.

However, according to the nominees, the results were never delivered to them on the fateful Wednesday, hence they came to the primary elections without knowing how they fared.

He mentioned that they were of the view that the results were going to be delivered at the polling station yesterday, so that they could be combined with the primary election votes, however, such never occurred hence they refused to continue with the process of counting of the votes without the provision of the inmates and Diaspora votes.

Duggested
Another nominee suggested that they would rather consider the inmates and Diaspora votes null and void and proceed with the counting of the primary elections votes, a suggestion that was not accepted by the presiding officer.

According to the presiding officer, that was beyond their control as such a decision lay solely with their authorities.

She suggested that the results would rather be sent to the nominees via an SMS, as they were already available.

However, this decision was not welcomed by the nominees, who insisted that the process of counting of the votes shall not proceed without the provision of the inmates and Diaspora votes.
The presiding officer informed the candidates that she was going to touch base with her authorities and she, therefore, pleaded with the nominees to afford her a period of 10 minutes, so that she could engage her superiors concerning the request.

After the 10 minutes period had elapsed, the presiding officer came back and told the nominees that her superiors had instructed her to besiege the nominees to proceed with the counting of votes on grounds that the inmates and Diaspora votes would be delivered to the polling station before the counting was concluded.

There were mixed reactions amongst the nominees with regards to such a request as others suggested that EBC officials should agree in writing that in the event the inmates and Diaspora votes were not delivered at the polling station by the time the counting was concluded, then they( inmates and Diaspora votes should be considered null and void, while others opined that the counting  of the votes should proceed without such an agreement, as EBC had given them their word that they shall be delivered.

At long last, the nominees managed to put their differences aside and they proceeded with the counting of the votes without the signing of the forms for any agreement.
 

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