. . . as recruitment of new Commissioners stalls
. . . blames voter apathy on “unclean” voters’ roll
THE outgoing Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Mphasa Mokhochane, has lamented the power vacuum created at the Commission by a court application by two aspirant commissioners’ challenging the current recruitment process of new commissioners.
Mr Mokhochane, whose five-year term along with his fellow commissioners, Dr Karabo Mokobocho-Mohlakoana and Mr TŠoeu Petlane ends this month, describes any absence of commissioners at the IEC as “a grave mistake that should not be repeated”.
He said when his team assumed office in 2020, the IEC was in disarray because it had not had commissioners for two years.
WHY DID IT NOT HAVE COMMISSIONERS THEN?
The IEC was now in the process of recruiting new commissioners, following the end of Mr Mokochochane and his fellow commissioners’ term, when the process was stalled by a court application by Peshoane Tsikoane and Attorney Tumisang Mosotho, two aggrieved candidates who believe they are entitled to replace the outgoing commissioners.
The duo lost at the Constitutional Court and has since appealed the ruling at the Court of Appeal, further stalling the recruitment of new commissioners until the apex court hands down its verdict.
Mr Mokhochane (MM) THIS IS RIDICULOUS TO ABBREVIATE A PERSON’s NAME AS IEC…..PLEASE PUT HIS NAME AND REMOVE ALL REFERENCES TO IEC in the story sat down in an exclusive exit interview with Lesotho Times (LT) Senior Reporter, Mohloai Mpesi.
Below are excerpts from the interview:
LT: You have been in office since 2020, Basotho believe that the IEC was in disarray before you were appointed, how was the situation when you assumed office and how have you turned things around?
Mokhochane: The five years at the IEC have been a long journey that one will not forget, with both challenges and good learning experiences.
When we joined the IEC, we found an unfortunate situation where there were no Commissioners or a Director of Elections for about two years. Instead, the principal secretary for law was appointed to take an oversight responsibility on the day-to-day operations of the IEC.
That situation needs to be avoided because it derails any positive progress made at the IEC. When we arrived, we found that there was a strike looming, where field staff were not satisfied with their salaries and working conditions.
So, our first assignment was to visit all the district offices and meet with staff. There was an outcry from the field staff who were underpaid and complained about poor working conditions. The Commission was bound to improve the working conditions and upgrade the salary structure for field staff.
The employment of the Director of Elections and the introduction of the director’s performance appraisal and the development of the HR Management Policy were among our top priorities. We attended to them.
LT: You led the Commission into the October 2022 general elections. What are the lessons you took from those elections?
MM: First, the lesson that we took from the 2022 general elections is that for the Commission to succeed in its assignment, stakeholder engagements like meetings with political party committees should be maintained and always improved.
Second, the Commission should regularly update voters about the progress of the coming elections. Well informed voters make a wise choice.
Third, another lesson learned was that most political parties register with IEC late in the year of holding general elections.
LT: Post elections, the Commission was accused of incompetence, especially because of the miscalculation of Proportional Representation (PR) seats and constituency demarcations. Would you classify this as incompetence? If not, what is your excuse?
MM: The error that happened in the calculation of PR seats, was not due to incompetence at all. One should ask the question: What would have happened if the Commission had not come out openly when they realised that there was an error in the calculation of PR seats? “Mosotho o re ‘nete ke tutulu ha e patoe.” CAN WE EXPLAIN THIS IN ENGLISH IN BRACKETS
In other words, if the Commission did not come out after realising that there had been a miscalculation of PR seats, that would have been the worst mistake and lack of integrity on the part of the Commission. This means the Commission did a good thing to come out and correct the error.
About the constituency demarcation issue, I remember that in one meeting of political party leaders with the Commission there were two groups which were opposing each other.
The first group was saying that if the Commission was going to use the old constituencies in the elections, they would take the Commission to court, while the other group was saying if the Commission was going to use the new constituencies, they would also take it to court.
The Commission took a bold decision and declared that new constituencies would be used in the 2022 general elections. In the end the court ruled in the Commission’s favour.
LT: In your tenure as commissioners of the IEC, what other challenges did you come across and how did you overcome them?
MM: I can recall, for instance, that we submitted a budget to the ministry of finance to prepare for the holding of a by-election in one constituency. The ministry of finance did not release those funds for holding the by-elections, instead, we were told to forget about that and start preparations for the 2022 general elections. This was a terrible decision that we faced in our tenure at the IEC.
Also, experience has shown that the absence of commissioners at the IEC is a grave mistake.
When we arrived at the IEC in December 2020, we found that it had been two years since our predecessors had left the office.
In that period the IEC had been treated like any other government department in terms of funding. Prior to that period, the IEC was allowed to keep unspent funds which it carried forward into the next financial year.
However, such a good practice was changed during the period when there were no commissioners in office, so the IEC lost its critical financial independence. To address that challenge the Commission has drafted the Independent Electoral Commission Bill which is aimed at providing for financial independence and appropriate public accounting systems.
LT: What are the achievements that you have made since heading the Commission?
MM: There are several achievements made by this Commission and the list will include the following: Acquisition of IEC sites and buildings is one area we are proud of. As our term comes to an end, we have managed to purchase the IEC headquarters, commonly known as the Election House. We have the legal documents for the IEC warehouse, and we have also established a data disaster recovery facility off-site.
The Commission has also managed to acquire a new elector management system. With this system, political parties will be able to print their own voters’ roll, while voters are able to register themselves wherever they are in the comfort of their homes.
The Commission has also rejuvenated the use of the Geographical Information System (GIS) – a platform meant to improve evidence-based decision-making on national issues and governance – which had been underutilised and has also moved into digital publication of election results…..
The IEC has also purchased its own fleet, moving away from a practice where the Commission was using only rental vehicles.
LT: Voter apathy continues to worsen with each general election, what do you think needs to be done, what’s the remedy for this situation?
MM: Low voter turn-out is caused by an unclean voters’ roll. In our voters’ roll, we have 1.4 million voters, and that is too high. For a population of about two million people, you can’t have 1.4 million people eligible to vote. It means the voters roll is not clean.
When we want to see how many people voted, we divide the population of the country by 1.4 million, and it is always going to go down when the voters roll is not clean. Hence, we decided to start registration afresh.
We started on 1 August last year and up to now we only have close to 600 000 people. We are expecting to register around 800 000 people, for the voters’ roll to be clean.
The Commission took a bold decision to start fresh registration of voters using national IDs. This is a move that is aimed to improve the quality of our voter register.
LT: Do you think the IEC is funded sufficiently to prepare for elections, including civic and voter education?
MM: Funding is never sufficient to cover all that is needed but if there is a shortage, the Commission must engage the donor community for fundraising.
LT: The Commission has deregistered 12 political parties this year, can you please share more about that exercise.
MM: The Commission has now ensured that all political parties adhere to the requirements of the National Assembly Electoral Act, 2011. Under this Act political parties are expected to annually submit their paid-up membership, failure to do so, the law stipulates that they should be deregistered.
LT: The IEC Lesotho is now ranked among the top four electoral management bodies in Africa for electoral integrity. What did you do to achieve such high recognition?
MM: The Commission has been transparent and open in its actions. That has shown a high level of maturity and integrity.
LT: Do you think there are issues that you have not fully addressed as Commissioners that you would have wanted to complete if you had the chance to continue in office?
MM: There are issues that have not been fully addressed but that would not necessitate that this Commission should continue holding office. It must be stated clearly that this Commission was given a five-year contract and that term has come to an end. The issues that need to be finalised by the coming Commission include the development of legal instruments to:
(a) Introduce voting by the Lesotho diaspora.
(b) Use of National IDs for voting.
(c) Development of the political parties’ bill.
(d) Enact the IEC bill which is aimed to improve the independence of the Commission.
