‘Marafaele Mohloboli
THE Southern African Development Community Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) says the reforms process is just as important as the outcome of last Saturday’s elections, urging the incoming government to prioritise their implementation upon assuming power.
SEOM has also urged the incoming government to comply with a March 2017 SADC Double Troika Summit decision for Lesotho to under-take time-bound constitutional, judicial, legislative, security sector, public sector and media sector reforms to depoliticise and stabilise the new administration.
Head of mission and Tanzanian Foreign Minister, Augustine Phillip Mahiga, said this while presenting the preliminary report on last Saturday’s National Assembly elections this week.
Lesotho held its third elections in five years after the outgoing Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili-led government failed to last the five-year distance due to a parliamentary no-confidence vote on 1 March 2017.
Dr Mosisili was inaugurated on 17 March 2015 amid promises he would superintend over a reformist government that would “deepen democracy and respect for human rights”.
However, the seven party government’s tenure was characterised by bouts of instability culminating in the 25 June 2015 fatal shooting of former army commander, Maaparankoe Mahao, by his erstwhile colleagues.
After the killing, Dr Mosisili asked SADC to help establish the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, resulting in a Commission of Inquiry led by Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi of Botswana. The 10-member commission carried out its investigations between 31 August and 23 October 2015 and recommended, among other things, that government should investigate the killing and prosecute those found to be responsible.
The commission also recommended a slew of constitutional, legislative and security sector reforms among others to stem the perennial instability in the Mountain Kingdom.
In keeping with the regional bloc’s reforms thrust, an extra-ordinary summit for heads of state and government held on 18 March 2017 in Swaziland directed Lesotho to implement sweeping reforms.
However, Dr Mosisili had complained to SADC in April 2017 that Lesotho’s sovereignty had been impinged by some of the regional bloc’s decisions. The complaint was met with a firm response by the regional bloc’s chairperson, King Mswati III of Swaziland, who told Maseru to continue implementing summit decisions and cooperate with all relevant structures assigned to the Kingdom of Lesotho by SADC.
Dr Mahiga said SADC expected the incoming Thomas Thabane-led government to undertake the reforms immediately after assuming power.
“In the immediate post-election period, the new government is urged to comply with the Decision of the Double Troika Summit of March 2017 and under-take time-bound wide Constitutional, Judicial, Legislative, Security Sector, Public Sector and Media Sector reforms in order to depoliticise and stabilise the forthcoming government,” he said.
Among the constitutional reforms SEOM recommended were a time-frame within which a government must be formed after an election, a provision for caretaker governing arrangements and for specific modalities for possible coalition governments.
The mission also recommended a review of the electoral model to regulate parliamentary floor crossing and to stabilise the political system.
“Political party campaign funding should be reviewed to increase the threshold of paid-up members so that only political parties with a reasonable national representation are eligible for campaign funding.”
Currently, a political party just needs a minimum of 500 paid up members to qualify for registration at the Independent Electoral Commission.
SEOM also called for the separation of the roles of the army and police. Members of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) and Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) provided security at polling stations during last Saturday’s polls.
However, opposition parties and the IEC said the presence of LDF members at polling stations had a chilling effect on voters.
For their part, the LMPS and LDF maintained there was nothing untoward about the army’s presence at polling stations, adding that the country’s laws explicitly stipulate that the LDF can assist the police and vice versa.
“It is recommended that Section 5 of the Lesotho Defence Force Act be reviewed to ensure clear separation of powers and responsibility, and to ensure their accountability to the civilian government,” said Dr Mahiga.
“This is because Section 5 of the LDF Act permits the military to venture into ordinary law enforcement that is not specifically limited to emergencies. This can be misconstrued as military interference, which may be unfortunate in a competitive multiparty context.”
He said many stakeholders expressed fears that the military would influence the conduct of the election and perhaps not even accept its outcomes.
“However, the mission has been assured by the Strategic High Command of the LDF that they will support whichever party wins the 3 June elections and that the defence forces will operate within the confines of the law as provided for in the Constitution. Our long-term observers will continue to observe this situation very closely,” added Dr Mahiga.
