Lesotho: Party registration (continued)

Registration qualifications and conditions

To qualify for registration party membership must be open to all citizens, regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, national of social origin, birth or other status (National Assembly Election Order 1992, 36(1)(a)). A parties is disqualified from registration if it promotes sectional religious or ethnic interests, advocates the use of force or violence to attain political goals or fails to elect its leadership in periodic, democratic, elections (National Assembly Election Order 1992, 36(1)(b)).

The IEC is prohibited from registering a party if the party's name or insignia (National Assembly Election Order 1992, 36(2)):

  • Resembles that of another registered party so that it may confuse, mislead or deceive.
  • Propagates violence or hatred, or may cause serious offence.
  • Uses or resembles national insignia, the insignia of the royal family or the insignia of a public body.
  • That is obscene, offensive or likely to bring the electoral system into disrepute.

To facilitate this and avoid insignia confusion, parties may register their insignia with the Director of Elections and the Director must keep a register of these official symbols (National Assembly Election Order 1992, 41-45).

Parties and candidates are enjoined to promote the rights of women by facilitating women's equal political participation, ensuring their access to public meetings, respecting their rights to communicate with parties and respecting their rights to freedom of political action and conscience without being subject to coercion (National Assembly Election (No 1) (Amendment) Act 2001, 3(1)(a)-(d)). They are further urged to facilitate the political empowerment of the disabled and the youth (National Assembly Election (No 1) (Amendment) Act 2001, 3(1)(e),(f)). As Letuka et al (2004) point out, that these provisions, at least as regards women, are disregarded by the parties and not enforced by the IEC.

Registration cancellation and appeals

The registration of a party may be cancelled if, after proper enquiry, the IEC is satisfied that the party has ceased to exist or if the party notifies the IEC that it has dissolved or if the party is in breach of the terms of its registration (see "Registration qualifications and conditions" above; National Assembly Election Order 1992, 37).

A party that is aggrieved by a decision of the IEC to reject its application for registration, or to cancel its registration, may appeal to the High Court within three days of notification of the decision and the High Court must hand down its ruling on the matter within three days of the appeal being lodged (National Assembly Elections (Amendment) Act 2001, 18).

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References

LETUKA, P, MAPETLA, M & MATASHANE-MARITE, K 2004 "Gender and Elections in Lesotho: Perspectives on the 2002 elections", EISA Research Report No 4, 61, [PDF document].

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION ORDER 1992, Military Council and Council of Ministers of Lesotho.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2001, [www] http://aceproject.org/ regions-en/eisa/LS/National%20Assembly%20Amendment%20Act%20%281997%29.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 2 Jun 2008).

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION (No 1) (AMENDMENT) ACT 2001, Lesotho Government Gazette Extraordinary, 46(105), 31 December.