|
|
 |
HISTORY OF LESOTHO AND BACKGROUND TO THE ELECTIONS |
|
Lesotho’s path to democracy has often been difficult and
uncertain. The country gained independence from Great
Britain in 1966 and adopted not only a constitutional
monarchy, but also – as most other former British colonies -
a First-Past-The Post (FPTP) electoral system. The first
democratic election was held in 1965. Although the general
administration of the electoral process did not encounter
serious hiccups, the election outcome delivered a minority
government, for the Basotho National Party (BNP) has won
only 42 per cent of the total valid vote, while the
Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), the Marematlou Freedom
Party (MFP), and some independent candidates secured a total
of 58 per cent of the vote. The BCP felt cheated by the
electoral system. The opposition parties contested the
election outcome alleging that the BNP had rigged the
process with tacit collaboration of the British colonial
administration. This was followed by violet conflicts
wherein not only human life was lost, but also the image of
the monarch was tarnished (Matlosa, 1997).
Democratic rule ended in 1970 when the then Prime Minister
and the leader of BNP Chief Leabua Jonathan in agreement
with the then leader of BCP Mr. Ntsu Mokhehle nullified the
first post-independence election results. Therefore Chief
Jonathan kept power for the 16 years until he was toppled in
a military coup in 1986. |
|
|
THE EARLY 90'S |
|
During the 1990’s a new attempt at introducing civil and
democratic rule was attempted. In 1991 another military coup
replaced the military leadership, the ban of political
activity was lifted, a new constitution was adopted and
elections were held in 1993.
As with previous elections, the 1993 elections was well
administered with only the usual hurdles of late opening of
polling stations or limited supplies of material, which
cannot cast doubt of the outcome. The outcome was a
landslide victory for the BCP (Matlosa, 1999:11). The BNP
challenged the election result and alleged that numerous
instances of electoral fraud had occurred.
The BCP government encountered difficulties in 1994, as it
could not maintain its authority over the army and police.
The King dismissed the government, but due to public
pressure he was forced to restore the elected government.
As it was evident that the electioneering process put a
single political party in National Assembly in 1993 General
elections, a National Dialogue was held in September 1995.
The conference was aimed at facilitating some dialogue with
those groups, which the parliamentary process had excluded,
and those, which were otherwise instrumental in the
management of the affairs of Lesotho as a pluralist society. |
|
|
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE IEC |
|
Among the recommendations passed by the conference was the
establishment of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)
to manage the electoral process. Consequently, the
Constitution of Lesotho was amended (Second Amendment to the
Constitution Act 1997) to provide for the abolition of the
office of Chief Electoral Officer (as it then was) as well
as the Constituency Delimitation Commission, and for the
establishment of the IEC, which was to assume the functions
of those two offices.
The birth of the IEC came along with heavy amendments to
both the Lesotho Constitution and the National Assembly
Election Order of 1992. The most important amendments were
firstly the franchising of the 18 year olds. Up until the
law was thus amended the voting age was from the age of 21
upward. Secondly, the Constitution stipulated that Lesotho
was to be divided into 80 constituencies, which meant an
addition of fifteen constituencies to the 65 constituencies
in the 1993 general election.
In 1995 the BCP was split internally in a fight between two
rival factions and in January 1997 the then leader Dr. Ntsu
Mokhehle left the BCP with most of the members of Parliament
and the whole cabinet forming a new party, the Lesotho
Congress for Democracy (LCD). |
|
|
|
