Swaziland's banned opposition yesterday said it will continue to bring pressure for democratic reform in the tiny African country, Africa's last absolute monarchy.

"We remain guided by the core principles of our struggle that the liberation of the people can only be an act of the people themselves," said the People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) president Mario Masuku.

"This liberation means the destruction of the Tinkhundla regime, its legacy and its replacement with the institutions of a democratic system," Masuku said in a statement issued in Mbabane.

Masuku added: "Never before has this country been buried in damp and dirty blankets of social crisis, political irrelevance, deep injustice, tension, economic decay and despicably bad government practices".

Pudemo said the Swazi government, headed by the king who has the final word in any decision, was "facing a permanent crisis forcing the royal regime to try cosmetic reforms and that the majority of Swazi have realised that the system lacked legitimacy".

The southern African country, roughly the size of Belgium, held elections in October last year but voters could only choose individual candidates because of a ban on political parties under a political system called Tinkhundla (seSwati for "meeting place).

Both Pudemo and the country's powerful trade union federation claimed victory in a campaign to get voters to stay away from the polls, but some observers said activists missed a chance to fight the country's complex political system from within. – Sapa-AFP.