Lawmakers in Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, have adopted a new Constitution that maintains a ban on political parties and preserves King Mswati III’s sweeping powers.
With a show of hands, members of Parliament adopted the fundamental law late on Monday during a meeting held in Lobamba, about 15km outside of the capital Mbabane, ending nine years of discussion over constitutional reform in the kingdom.
”We would like to thank you for your unwavering support during the trying times,” Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Prince David Dlamini told the Swazi legislature after the vote.
”We all dedicated time and effort to take this task to completion … If there needs to be amendments to the document in the future, we have clauses that allow for such amendments as long as we agree on everything that we must do,” he said.
Mswati, who was in Qatar for a meeting of the Group of 77 and China, is to sign the document for it to become law.
Under the new Constitution, the king retains sweeping powers to dissolve Parliament and the cabinet, dismiss and appoint judges, and act as head of the police, the correctional services and the army.
Mswati (37) ascended to the throne of the mountainous nation at the age of 18, maintaining a ban on political parties that was imposed in 1978.
Opposition parties had urged Parliament to press for a repeal of the ban and reforms that would have turned Swaziland into a constitutional monarchy.
The king has been singled out for his lavish lifestyle as ruler of the Southern African kingdom, which has one of the world’s highest HIV/Aids infection rates and where more than 65%of the $1,2-million live on less than $1 a day. -Sapa-AFP