Eswatini police on Saturday clashed with a rural demonstration demanding democratic reforms in Africa’s last absolute monarchy.
About 500 young people gathered in a village in the kingdom’s Manzini Region, demanding the right to vote for the country’s prime minister, who is currently appointed by King Mswati III of Eswatini.
They burned tires, blocked roads and chanted political slogans as they marched through the village, calling on the king to lift a long-standing ban on political parties.
An Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene said that police fired stun grenades and live bullets at the protest — a rare event in rural areas, which tend to support the monarchy.
The angry crowd threw stones in response.
“We demand multiparty democracy now,” one protester, Melusi Dlamini, said. “The time for the royal system characterized by dictatorship is over.”
Political parties have been banned in the tiny southern African country since 1973.
A constitution introduced in 2005 forbade parties from running in national elections, handing the king absolute power.
“As youth we no longer want the present system of governance,” another protester, Noma Matsebula, said.
The king, crowned in 1986 when he was just 18 years old, has come under fire for his expensive tastes and spending when most inhabitants live below the poverty line.
Although protests remain rare in Eswatini, public resentment has grown over the past few years.
In 2019, the country was rocked by a series of strikes by civil servants who accused the monarch of draining public coffers at the expense of his subjects.
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