Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment has he made of whether the eSwatini elections were free and fair.

The British High Commission in Pretoria deployed an informal election observation team to Eswatini in September. They, along with a number of official international observers, assessed the elections to be broadly free, fair and orderly. However, in line with the African Union's own election monitoring report, we note that the participation of political parties was prohibited and we recommend that Eswatini lift this restriction for future elections, so as to enable a more open and democratic system for its voters.