Limpho Sello
LESOTHO Red Cross Society (LRCS) action teams have reported fewer injuries during Saturday’s snap national elections compared to the last polls in 2015.
Lesotho Red Cross Society Disaster Management Coordinator, Maine Mukula this week told the Lesotho Times that 65 action teams of Red Cross volunteers were deployed all over the country to provide first aid to voters who encountered health problems during the elections.
Lesotho held snap elections last Saturday in the wake of the 1 March no confidence vote that was passed by the opposition on the seven parties’ coalition government that was headed by Pakalitha Mosisili.
The Thomas Thabane-headed All Basotho Convention (ABC) emerged the biggest winner, with 47 constituency seats and one proportional representation (PR) seat, bringing their total to 48. The ABC also won three constituencies in which the candidates died before the elections.
The constituency elections for the legislature candidates will be held after 90 days from the polls.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mosisili’s Democratic Congress obtained 26 constituency seats and four PR seats and outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Metsing’s Lesotho Congress for Democracy obtained one constituency seat and 10 PR seats.
And in the aftermath of the polls, Mr Mukula said the Red Cross teams reported minor health problems, adding the public were safer and healthier this time around.
He said the volunteers’ work was a success as they only reported one case of a person who injured her finger while closing the door of a vehicle.
“Besides that injury, the only problems people were raising were headaches while queueing to vote,” Mr Mukula said, adding, “we recommended home remedies such as drinking water and taking short breaks from the long lines”.
“There were no reports of people who fainted and I believe this was due to the fact that the elections were held in winter when temperatures were not too high.
“The 2015 elections were held in February and it was very hot and there were many cases of people who fainted in the long lines. This year we had no such cases because of the weather conditions,” Mr Mukula said.
He said every year they provide refresher courses to their volunteers before they went out to serve the public.
He expressed satisfaction with the reports by their action teams, adding, “We worked very hard to fulfil our mandate and we are very happy”.
