SA blamed for Lesotho poll delay

Lesotho’s all-party Interim Political Authority has accused South Africa and the region of not putting enough pressure on the government to agree to speedy polls, news reports said on Wednesday.

“It is the fault of SADC (the Southern African Development Community), and that of South Africa most of all, that this process has been dragging on so long,” IPA co-chair Bereng Sekhonyana was quoted as said. He said that the government was reluctant to hold elections because members of parliament wished to serve their full five-year terms of office, which were initially supposed to come to an end in 2003. Meanwhile, Lesotho Foreign Minister Tom Thabane was quoted as saying that the setting of an election date was not the responsibility of the government, but a joint decision to be taken by all political parties.