MASERU — The Popular Front for Democracy (PFD) party will elect a new leadership at a three-day bi-annual conference that will start in Maseru tomorrow.
PFD leader Lekhetho Rakuoane yesterday told the Lesotho Times that the weekend conference will elect a new leader of the party as well as the national executive committee.
“We are going to elect new leadership of the party since the present leadership’s term has come to its end,” Rakuoane said.
The party constitution states that the executive committee and the leader of the party should serve for a two-year-term.
Rakuoane who has been the party leader for the past 10 years said although his position was open for contest he was not aware of anyone who had plans to challenge him.
“I have not heard of anyone proposing to challenge the leadership seat but anything can happen from the floor,” he said.
Apart from electing a new leadership the conference will also discuss the government’s local elections model.
The term of the local government councillors ends next year.
“Now that parliament has allocated M135 million for local government elections the conference will make recommendations on what is the stance of the party regarding the election model.
“Nothing has been done about the model yet we have passed the budget. That is why the conference will hammer a lot on local government issues.”
Rakuoane said the conference will also deal with the pending review of constituencies.
He said the constitution provides that the constituencies should be reviewed within a period of eight to 10 years.
“Lesotho’s constitution provides that the constituencies be reviewed within a period of eight to 10 years. This has not happened as the last review was made in 1998.”
PFD is one of the growing parties in terms of membership since its establishment in 1991.
The party obtained 900 votes in 1993 general election but did not win any seat in parliament. It obtained 3 500 votes during the 1998 general election but failed to get a seat in parliament.
PFD obtained 6 400 votes during the 2002 general election and managed to get a proportional representation seat in parliament. It obtained 15 500 votes during the 2007 general election and got one compensatory seat in the national assembly.
“The votes we obtained in the past elections are a clear indication that membership within our party is growing satisfactorily,” said Rakuoane.
However Rakuoane acknowledged that the party lacks strong structures at village level.
