Billy Ntaote
THE four-party opposition bloc’s fight to block the holding of snap elections in the aftermath of last week’s vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s government has taken a new dimension, this time with the release of a strongly worded statement threatening criminal prosecution against public servants for expending public funds to facilitate the holding of elections without parliamentary approval.
The opposition comprising of the Alliance of Democrats (AD), All Basotho Convention (ABC), Basotho National Party (BNP) and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL) resoundingly won their vote of no confidence last week against the seven-party coalition government.
However, their plan for an immediate transfer of power was dealt a body blow when King Letsie III acceded to Dr Mosisili’s advice to dissolve parliament and call for polls. The
The opposition initially responded to this setback by announcing during a press conference on Tuesday that they would file a court challenge on the grounds that His Majesty’s decision had not been made in consultation with the Council of State as the constitution of Lesotho stipulates in section 83.
Section 83 (4)(b) states that “if the National Assembly passes a resolution of no confidence in the Government of Lesotho and the Prime Minister does not within three days thereafter either resign or advise a dissolution the King may, acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State, dissolve Parliament . . .”
However, the opposition yesterday performed an about turn, saying they would no longer be pursuing the legal route “for purposes of solely protecting the sanctity of the office of the King”.
And in an apparent change of strategy, they instead brought a new dimension to their fight to stop the elections by issuing a strongly worded warning to public servants against authorising the use of public funds for elections without parliamentary approval.
The statement circulated to the media last night bears the signature of AD leader, Monyane Moleleki on behalf of the opposition bloc whose other leaders are Thomas Thabane (ABC), Thesele ’Maseribane (BNP) and Keketso Rantšo (RCL).
The warning was directed mainly at the accountant-general and other senior officials, calling upon them to uphold their oath of office and the law, “and not allow their offices to be used for corrupt purposes by this regime”.
“We wish to remind all public officers to always observe the provisions of the Constitution and the Public Financial Management and Accountability Act, 2011 and to know that they will individually be liable to prosecution if they participate in illegal acts of spending public monies without proper authorisation,” Mr Moleleki said.
He said the opposition was “aware that the Prime Minister, his cabinet and the Attorney General, are on yet another mission to undermine the constitution of Lesotho and proceed to spend public monies beyond the current financial year without authorisation,” adding that this was expressly forbidden by Section 113 of the constitution which states that “no public monies for the preceding year shall be used unless an appropriation bill has been laid before the National Assembly”.
“The same section 113 stipulates further that no advance expenditure shall be authorised to meet any head of expenditure in a financial year if no sums had been voted to meet expenditure on that head in respect of the preceding financial year,” Mr Moleleki said.
The AD leader said the country’s 2016/2017 budget had not made provisions for general elections and it was therefore not legally permissible for government to make an advance expenditure for the polls.
“We wish to emphasise that the Prime Minister has throughout been aware of these constitutional provisions but since he was determined to undermine the Constitution and the interests of the nation, he proceeded to dissolve parliament.
“We remain resolute that under no circumstances whatsoever will we agree to allocation of public monies to the current outgoing government that has lost legitimacy. In the interest of the nation, we can never allow any allocation of public monies to a corrupt regime that has lost legitimacy to remain in power.”
Mr Moleleki said on the basis of the advice from their legal team, they were of the strong opinion that the Prime Minister and the Attorney General abused their respective offices in advising His Majesty to proceed to dissolve Parliament without referring the matter to the Council of State.
He said although they would not be challenging the dissolution of parliament and the call for polls, they would still approach the courts of law for an interpretation of the relevant constitutional provisions that relate to dissolution of Parliament.
“We understand that if the matter remains unattended, it may plunge the country to a similar crisis in the future,” Mr Moleleki stated.
Attempts to get comment from the Finance Minister Sekhamane were fruitless as he did not answer his mobile phone last night.
