by Richard Chidowore
After 22 years of strong-arm politics the people of Lesotho are calling for free and fair elections “now” to determine their future.
Elections had earlier been set for May, then July and again in November. Now the military junta, led by Major General Phitsoana Ramaema, has kept the people guessing by postponing elections to an unknown date in January 1993.
Seventeen political parties have registered and are busy selling themselves to the voters.
However, the main contest is likely to be between the two oldest and traditional rivals – Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) and Basotho National Party (BNP). The two parties have held national conferences and have chosen new leadership.
The veteran politician and leader of the BCP, Ntsu Mokhehle, was re-elected president. BCP, then called Basutoland African Congress, was formed in 1952 under the leadership of Mokbeble. The name was changed to BCP in 1959.
The candidate of BNP is its National Chairman, Evaristus Sekhonyana, who was finance minister in both civilian and military governments. BNP was founded in 1958 by the late Chief Leabua Jonathan together with some chiefs, Catholic teachers and church leaders. It was ousted from government after a coup led by General Metsing Lekhanya in January 1986.
According to political analysts, some high-ranking officers of the South African security establishment, have been meeting with a senior member of the BNP to urge the ousting of Sekhonyana. There are fears that if the BNP wins the elections, Sekhonyana, known to be close to the African National Congress (ANC) is likely to become prime minister because of his position in the party.
There is a women’s party, Kopanang Basotho (KBP), led by educationist Limakatso Ntakatsane, which demands more comprehensive social welfare measures.
“Why the interests of women should be looked into by men without consulting women?” asked Ntakatsane.
The November edition of Edicesa News, an ecumenical newsletter published in Harare, quotes the Chief Electoral Officer, Noel Lee, as saying the most likely date for the elections would be 23 or 30 January 1993. Other observers say the poll could be postponed yet again.
The November elections were postponed just a month before they were due. The reasons given included inexperience of computer operators, breakdown of computers for a month and the absence of constituency boundaries. The absence of a clearly defined method of transition to a future government after the elections is another problem.
“As the law requires a minimum of 30 days’ notice from nomination date to Election Day, elections could not be legally held before 8 to 10 January 1993,” Lee noted.
Lesotho has been under military rule since 1986, when Major-General Metsing Lekbanya overthrew Chief Leabua Jonathan, the then Prime Minister, who had ruled the country by decree for 16 years. Although Lekhanya promised at the time to govern the country temporarily, four years later be forced King Moshoeshoe II into exile in London.
The King was accused of misusing his power by “refusing to sign orders confirming the arrests of four military council officers”. But Moshoeshoe’s denies the charge saying he was expelled because he had called for a commission of inquiry into corruption in public affairs.
Lekhanya did not stay in power long after that as he was himself overthrown by fellow military officers led by Ramaema in 1991.
Lesotho’s ruling Military Council gave pre-conditions before they would allow Moshoeshoe’s return. These were that he must abandon his claim to the throne; let his son, King Letsie Ill, remain in power; not interfere with the democratisation process under way and not discuss his status with the present government.
Although Moshoeshoe did not accept these conditions he has since returned to Lesotho following negotiations facilitated by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
“The status of His Majesty is in the hands of the Basotho people,” says Mamello Morrison, a member of the Committee which organized Moshoeshoe’s return. “‘Ibey will make their views known in a traditional way.”
Political analysts suggest that the military government has promised elections not because they want demoaacy, but because of domestic and international pressure.
Some international donor agencies have withdrawn assistance to the country which is currently reeling from the effects of drought. They are demanding certain action from government in the form of accountability, respect for human rights and legitimacy.
Concerned citizens are suggesting that government officials should declare their property as they come into power and when they retire from power as a “-‘3Y of controlling abuse of public funds.
However, the period prior to the elections has been characterised by a number of problems. The continuing violence in the country seems to be out of control.
Recent press reports corning from Lesotho indicate that some families are planning to send their children to relatives in South Africa during the election period for safety. They cited reasons as mainly fear of an outbreak of violence during and after the elections.
Political observers have suggested that voter registration forms, which were donated by the South African government, have a dubious implication. They fear South Africa might tamper with these to give victory to a party which supports the Pretoria government.
Those who suspect further polarization claim that the post-election period might be characterised by violence and refusal to accept election results.
This has happened in Angola where the main opposition leader, Jonas Savimbi of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), refused to accept election results which were judged free and fair by international observers.
Violence is also widespread in Kenya, where parliamentary and presidential elections are expected to take place on 29 December. Opposition parties in this east African country accuse the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) of fanning tensions.
However, the military rulers in Maseru, Lesotho’s capital city, have assured the nation that their intentions of handing over power to civilians are genuine. They have promised that they will not contest the elections and have committed themselves to return to the barracks.
A code of conduct for political parties has been devised and more than 600 election enumerators trained and dispatched to the villages. By April, about 552,000 of the expected 892,000 voters had been registered out of an estimated population of 1,700,000. However, there has been some criticism that the code of conduct does not bring with it any serious penalty. It is only a moral document that says one should not do this and that.
What is needed, some argue, is an election monitoring commission constituted by the police, chiefs, NGOs and churches to oversee the elections to ensure that intimidation and violation of human rights do not occur.
Two Australian constitutional and electoral experts and the deputy chief justice of Zambia, Matthew Ngulube, have been sent by the Commonwealth Secretariat to advise the government and to monitor the elections. The Canadian government has delivered 3,000 ballot boxes.
Lesotho’s government has agreed that the state radio can be used by the political parties to put over their messages. Although the military junta has given assurances that the regime has no wish to contest the election, Ramaema and his Minister of Law, Order and Constitutional Affairs, Kelebone Maope, are accused of favouring BCP.
Charles Molefi, a fonner member of the BCP and now leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), told Ramaema and Maope that his leadership did not have confidence in them because of suspected bias. He said the government should promptly address the question of intimidation.
He argues that opposition could not campaign in the face of a party that has an army and, for protection, the UDP should be allowed to arm itself.
Molefi was referring to the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA), which was the military wing of the exiled BCP until it accepted an amnesty offer to return home three years ago and the LLA was declared dissolved. Dissatisfied with Leabua’s policy of including whites in strategic civil service posts, Molefi and other elements within BCP broke away to form the UDP in 1967.
Those who defend the government against charges of bias point to the government’s commitment to return the country to multi-party democracy and the fact that any step backward would be viewed with dissatisfaction by the international community.
“It is a rare phenomenon in military circles to volunteer to go back to the barracks and they need to be congratulated,” said Mokhehle, who spent fifteen years in exile.
Mokhehle won the 1970 general elections, which were nullified by Chief Leabua Jonathan when he realised his BNP had lost.
Mokhehle says if elected, a BCP government would continue to work with the army and civil service and “serve the interests of all the people regardless of their political affiliation”.
Hopefully the government to be elected in January will in future apply justice to every citizen of Lesotho regardless of status of that particular individual.
The Christian Council of Lesotho called on the party that wins the forthcoming elections to govern in such a way as to heal the divisions in the country by forming a government of national unity.
The new Lesotho government will face difficult challenges ahead. It will not only have to deal with more than 20 years of entrenched problems, but also attempt to address the economic and political challenges Of the present and the promises of the future. (SARDC)
