AN ADDRESS BY
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE IEC, MR LESHELE THOAHLANE ON THE CLOSING
OF THE NATIONAL RESULT CENTRE WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY, 2007.
Lesotho went to the polls on February 17, 2007 with 19
political parties contesting both for Constituency and Party
Votes. The Constituency Votes were held in 79 electoral
constituencies in the country as a result of the death of a
candidate from the Makhaleng constituency # 45; and
according to the National Assembly Election Order, 1992, in
the event that a Nominated candidate will die following
Nomination, the election is declared a Failed Election in
the constituency in question, and a Fresh Election will be
prepared for.
It is evident, therefore, that the election result, when
converted into Parliamentary Seats, only reflects 119 of the
120 seats in the House of Assembly.
This was the situation at the close of the IEC Nerve Centre,
the 2007 National Assembly Result Centre.
The following are the highlights as were extracted from the
IEC Chairman’s closing remarks after the announcement of the
election result, on Wednesday February 21, 2007.
The Chairman indicated that there was a very low voter
turnout when one looked at the robust and aggressive
campaigning that took place in the preparation of the
election. This was a great challenge, the Chairman said,
both to the IEC and to the stakeholders, especially the
political parties. He also made a point that the equipment
as was used by the IEC was outdated, and appealed to the
donor community to come to the assistance of the IEC IT
department, so that Hi-tech equipment is acquired.
Mr. Thoahlane stated that the IEC was faced with a special
challenge – that of absorption of the temporary staff into
the labour market. He appealed to the corporate world, the
donor community and the business world, to assist the IEC
into making sure that those temporary staff is absorbed into
the labour market.
The Chairman thanked the corporating partners, especially
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for
creating and managing the basket funding that the IEC
utilized. He also thanked the following, and in no
particular order of importance:-
Leaders of
political parties and their followers for keeping the spirit
of peace, tranquility and tolerance;
-
Civic
organizations that assisted the IEC with Voter Education
and monitoring of the electoral process;
-
Journalists who
assisted positively towards information dissemination;
-
The electorate for
their concerns, most of which helped the IEC in the
execution of its duties;
-
The Observer
Missions who observed the electoral processes as they
unfolded;
-
The Election
Coordinating Committee who worked tirelessly with the
Commission in the announcement of the results;
-
The South African
Government for assisting with the helicopters, and also
the air wing of the Lesotho Defense Force who assisted in
the transportation of security materials to and from
various constituencies;
-
All IEC co-workers
and constitutions, districts and Headquarters for the work
well done;
-
Media Monitoring
Panel for organizing various workshops in preparing people
for the elections;
-
Fellow
Commissioners for the selfless dedication in the
announcement of the election result;
-
Arivia.kom for
assisting with the voters lists
-
ERIS for sending
in an IT Consultant in the person of David Mathieson;
-
ComNet for
networking and Internet connectivity;
-
CBS for website
construction, design and support;
-
TCL for telephones
and communication;
-
The Auditors who
worked with the IEC, both deployed by the IEC and some
political parties;
-
The electorate for
the maintenance of peace and tolerance during the
electoral processes.
The IEC Chairman concluded by stating that the 2007 National
Assembly Election was the last he was conducting, and
promptly thanked the electorate for the cooperation he
received from them. He said he learned a lot of things from
working together with the electorate, and he wished the
newly elected Members of Parliament well.
|
