MBABANE -- Swaziland's pro-democracy groups and banned political parties said on Monday they would urge voters to boycott October's parliamentary polls to protest against a system they say is simply a ‘mouthpiece’ for the king.

"Parliament is a rubber stamp for the king under the current system, and also under the new palace-written constitution," the banned People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) said in a statement. "To participate in the elections as voters or candidates would legitimize an illegitimate undertaking".

PUDEMO and other political organizations have been outlawed by royal decree since 1973, when the father of the current King Mswati III overturned the tiny African country's constitution and assumed ultimate judicial, executive and legislative power.

The ban on organized political opposition to royal rule will continue under a new constitution Mswati says he will ratify before the election. Opposition groups say the new constitution does not reflect the will of the country's one million people, Reuters reported.

Landlocked Swaziland -- sandwiched between South African and Mozambique -- has a Parliament, made up of a Senate and a House of Assembly. Currently, 10 of the Assembly's 65 MPs are appointed by Mswati, and the rest by popular vote.

Mswati also appoints 10 of the 30 senators, the rest of whom are elected by the House of Assembly. Under the new constitution the 35-year-old king, who also appoints the prime minister, will retain veto power over all acts of Parliament.

The young king, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, called Parliament an "advisory body" in an interview last week.

"Since the first Parliament at independence in 1968, not a single piece of legislation has originated from the Lower House of Assembly or the Senate," a source at the Swaziland Law Society said.

"Laws are decreed by the king, or presented to Parliament by cabinet, who are all royal appointees," the source added.

Pro-democracy groups boycotted the last elections in 1998.

The government responded by extending the voter registration deadline three times. Election day was declared a national holiday and voting was extended by one day.

Chief electoral officer Robert Thwala has extended this year's voter registration deadline twice, to August 3.