King Mswati III of Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, has announced the controversial elections to the House of Assembly in his kingdom will be held on 20 September.
The 'primary' elections will take place on 24 August 2013.
In Swaziland political parties are banned from taking part in the elections. Only 55 of the 65 members of the House are chosen by the electorate: the other 10 are selected by the king. No members of the Swazi Senate are elected: of 30 seats, 20 are appointed by the king and the other 10 are chosen by members of the House of Assembly.
Swaziland is broken up into 55 tinkhundla or administrative districts and each of these makes up one constituency in the House of Assembly. One Member of Parliament is elected from each inkhundla at the secondary election.
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