Lesotho’s 2007 General Election: Towards a Constructive Management of Post-Election Disputes

25 - 27 September
Maseru Sun, Maseru

Objectives

The primary goal of this conference is to promote regional dialogue on election related disputes and share experiences across countries in terms of best practice in managing them. Specifically, the main objectives of the conference are as follows:

  • To contribute to the on-going dialogue on the causes of and sustainable solutions to election disputes in Lesotho following its 2007 poll;
  • To provide a regional forum for a lessons-learning exercise on strategies and methodologies for managing election-related disputes constructively among a group of selected SADC member-states;
  • To explore the significance of the synergistic linkages (cooperation) between external and internal actors in the management of such conflicts;
  • To review the MMP system as it has been applied in Lesotho and use the lessons of the 2007 elections to inform ongoing electoral reforms in the region; and
  • To review the practice of party alliances and coalitions with a view to reducing intra-party and inter-party conflicts during elections in Lesotho and drawing lessons for other SADC countries.

This regional conference will aim to build on various earlier initiatives by extending the debate around Lesotho's electoral disputes and post-election political crisis to relevant stakeholders from selected Southern African countries (especially, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe).

Topics to be covered

  • Historical Background to Lesotho's Electoral Politics;
  • Conflict and Elections in Lesotho;
  • The legal and institutional framework for management of election-related disputes;
  • Electoral systems and Conflict: Regional experiences
  • Electoral system design and conflict management in Lesotho;
  • Voter Tabulation and allocation of parliamentary seats in Lesotho;
  • Election Observation and conflict management in Lesotho;
  • Political party alliances and party campaigns;
  • How the IEC managed the electoral process and the election-related disputes;
  • How the civil society organizations participated in the electoral processes and the management of election-related disputes;
  • How external actors (especially, South Africa, SADC & the Commonwealth) got involved in the management of election-related disputes;
  • How the media contributed to the electoral process and the management of the election-related disputes;
  • Gender equality through the electoral process;
  • The socio-economic costs of the post-election conflict;
  • The way forward.

Background

The 2002 general election was not characterized by tension and violent conflict. It is widely assumed that the 2002 election did not ignite tension and conflict primarily because of the electoral reform which resulted in the adoption of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system in place of the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) electoral model. The new MMP electoral model is reputed for its three main attributes namely (a) its fairness in that all votes count in the formation of parliament, (b) ensuring broad representation of key players in parliament; and (c) compensation for smaller parties without concentrated electoral support in specific constituencies. The 2002 election, therefore, went a long way in solidifying the foundations of Lesotho's multi-party democracy.

The pre-election landscape in Lesotho ahead of the 2007 poll was marked by disputes arising from dissatisfaction from various players regarding the field of play (particularly given that this was a snap election), including voter registration, submission of party lists, access to public media, and campaign funding. Primarily, the post-election landscape witnessed a conflict between the ruling party, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and a group of opposition parties, ostensibly under the leadership of the main opposition All-Basotho Convention (ABC)-Kobo-Tata. The electoral disputes rotated around two main issues, namely (a) the allocation of seats in parliament and (b) the regulation of pre-election party alliances. Concerns have been raised that the method used in calculating votes and translating them into parliamentary seats ran counter to the original spirit of the MMP and was thus illegal as it violated the Constitution and the Electoral Act. Linked to this point, there is also a feeling that lack of legal framework governing and regulating formation of party alliances and coalitions during elections and how this also plays out in the development of party lists has a great potential to undermine the spirit of the MMP, especially its compensatory mechanism.

Concerns have been raised about the likelihood of the positive gains brought by the electoral reform of 2002 being reversed by developments following the 2007 election, particularly if the post-election disputes are not managed constructively. Following this election, five opposition parties including ABC-Kobo Tata, Alliance of Congress Parties (ACP), Basotho National Party (BNP), National Independent Party (NIP) and Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) raised their misgivings regarding the allocation of parliamentary seats, staged a sit-in in parliament and subsequently organized a stay-away as part of their protest. All this developments prompted attempts by local actors especially the Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL) and the LCN to mediate this simmering conflict and bring about an amicable negotiated settlement. However, as these local initiatives towards a constructive resolution of this problem seemed unable to bear palatable fruits, external initiatives were also attempted. At the time of the stay-way, SADC had organized a meeting of the Ministerial Troika on Politics, Defence and Security in Maseru. And, opposition parties presented their grievances to this meeting through the Executive Secretary, Dr. Tomaz Augusto Salomao. The Chairperson of the Ministerial Troika of the Organ passed the issue of the Lesotho post-election political crisis to the higher echelons of the SADC structures and this led to the tabling of this matter during the SADC extra-ordinary Summit held in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania which decided to send "SADC delegation at Ministerial level to go and assess the situation as requested by the political parties".

Such a delegation was dispatched to Lesotho between 11-14 April 2007 to establish the facts around the grievances and report back to Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security. In its fact-finding report, the SADC ministerial committee found out the a number of problems had caused post-election tension and grievances in Lesotho including manipulation of the MMP electoral model by political parties, controversial political party alliances and the unfair allocation of parliamentary seats and lack of dialogue among political leaders. Following the submission of the fact-finding report to the Chairperson of the Organ, a meeting of Ministerial Troika of the Organ was convened in May 2007 in Dar-Es-Salaam to deliberate on its content. One of the decisions of the May meeting was that SADC should dispatch a High-Level team to Lesotho to facilitate a dialogue process aimed at resolving the post-election political impasse. To this end, Sir Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswana, was tasked with the responsibility of facilitating the Lesotho dialogue process. The dialogue process began in early June. Political actors have begun a dialogue process, while at the same time, political tension seems to be mounting and in many instances marked by political violence. For a sustainable resolution of the post-election conflict, dialogue should be given priority and a political and not military solution should be found.

 
 

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