General elections were held in

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

between 16 and 17 May 1972 to elect members of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

. The result was a third successive victory for the royalist

Imbokodvo National Movement Imbokodvo National Movement (INM) was a political party in Swaziland (since 2018 renamed to Eswatini) that existed from 1964 until 1973 when political parties were banned. The party was formed by the Swazi National Council, which was the advisory ...

, which won 78% of the vote and 21 of the 24 seats, based on a voter turnout of 74.0%. The

Ngwane National Liberatory Congress The Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) is a political party in Eswatini. It was founded on 12 April 1963 as a breakaway party from the Swaziland Progressive Party (SPP) led by Dr. J. J. Nquku. History It was launched on 24 February ...

won three seats, but five days after the election one of its successful candidates was served with a deportation order as an "undesirable alien". Although he subsequently won a High Court ruling against the order, in November the parliament created a tribunal through which his citizenship was revoked. The Appeal Court declared the act unconstitutional, and on 12 April 1973 the parliament passed a motion that "called on the king to devise ways and means of dealing with the crisis". The result was that King

Sobhuza II Sobhuza II, (; also known as Nkhotfotjeni, Mona; 22 July 1899 – 21 August 1982) was the Paramount Chief and later Ngwenyama of Swaziland for 82 years and 254 days, the longest verifiable reign of any monarch in recorded history. Sobhuza was ...

suspended the constitution, dismissed Parliament, banned all political parties and became an

absolute monarch Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism (European history), Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute pow ...

.Swaziland: Demise of democracy and the consolidation of autocracy (1968–1986)
EISA

Results

References

{{Swazi elections Elections in Eswatini

Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

Election and referendum articles with incomplete results