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By ZWELETHU DLAMINI | 2018-05-27
As the race to parliament heats up, agents of aspirant MPs have started visiting textile workers with a mandate to buy votes.
This is despite several warnings by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and the Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo for people to desist from early campaigning.
People with the desire to go to parliament view the registration period as the right time to get votes, especially from the textile workers.
“Some of the current Members of Parliament have dispatched their agents to our firm in Nhlangano to buy votes for as little as E50 and chicken portions,’’ said one textile worker who was approached.
Information gathered is to the effect that the textile workers are persuaded to register as residents of the surrounding areas as opposed to their chiefdoms of origin.
This is possible since, according to the law, one has a right to elect and stand for elections in any constituency as long as they meet the entry requirements and registered.
Some of the entry requirements are that the person must be 18 years and above and must have stayed in the area for not less than three months.
Since most of the people working in the firms are now renting flats in the neighbouring constituencies, they are then targeted and persuaded to register to vote within their present residential areas.
Furthermore, the flexibility of the registration allowing people to register anywhere in the country as opposed to their constituencies or chiefdoms has opened up for others to abuse it by choosing to vote in other constituencies other than their own or those that they reside in. By so doing, they get financial gain from the aspirants who are willing to pay for their votes.
Several textile workers from different firms in Matsapha said they were willing to assist this journalist get some votes from their workmates, asking how much he was going to pay their colleagues thinking he was an agent or an aspirant politician.
EBC Chairman Chief Gija warned members of the public and the textile workers against registering to vote in constituencies where they are not known, saying such is a criminal offence and they may be prosecuted if caught. Chief Gija said these were most likely to be identified during the inspection of the voters roll after the registration period.
He, however, clarified that people only qualified to register to vote in their original constituencies or the place where they have stayed at least three months.
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