Critical election begins in kingdom

Despite some minor hiccups, the first votes in Lesotho's general election will be cast on Thursday. It will be the first since the disputed poll of 1998 that forced a Southern African Development Community (SADC) military intervention. Advance voters will be the first to choose their representatives in the mountain kingdom on Thursday, the rest of the country's registered voters will vote on Saturday 25 May. Among those who qualified to be advance voters were staff members of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), police, national security services, health services and government officials who would be on duty or out of the country on election day. The May 1998 election results, in which the ruling Lesotho Congress Party (LCD) won 79 out of 80 seats in parliament, were rejected by the three main opposition parties who alleged the polls were rigged. Hundreds of people demonstrated for weeks outside King Letsie III's palace, demanding that the government step down and hold new elections. Widespread arson and looting turned the capital, Maseru, into a ghost town amid a rebellion by members of the armed forces. The Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, called for a SADC (Southern African Development Community) military intervention to restore law and order. Lesotho's first past the post (FPTP) electoral system meant that a significant portion of people who voted for opposition parties were left with just one representative in parliament. An Interim Political Authority (IPA) was established, with representatives from all the 12 parties that contested the 1998 election, and a new electoral system was devised. Voters will now be asked to cast two ballots for a party and a constituency candidate in a mix of the proportional representation and the FPTP systems. The number of seats in parliament have been increased to 120. IEC spokesman Rethabile Pholo told IRIN that it was "all systems go" for the advance voters and election day. There are fears that cold and wet weather, which hit the country on Wednesday, could continue and hamper the process on Saturday. Lesotho has a vast number of rural voters living in isolated parts of the mountainous country. Pholo said: "We have contingency plans in place in case of unfavourable weather conditions, I would think the measures we have taken are sufficient." Nineteen parties are contesting the election. Lesotho's population is just over two million people, and about 920 000 citizens are registered to vote. The ruling LCD, led by Mosisili, and the Basotho National Party (BNP) led by Justine Metsing Lekhanya appear to be the main contestants for this election. Other parties that are set to figure prominently are the Lesotho People's Congress, led by Kelebone Maope, and the Basotho Congress Party, led by Tseliso Makhakhe, IPA executive secretary Malefetsane Nkhale told IRIN on Wednesday. "On Sunday the political parties held their final rallies and the LCD and BNP rallies were by far the biggest rallies," he said. Nkhahle said unemployment was one of the main issues of the election. According to official statistics, half the population lives in poverty, although a UN Development Programme paper states that independent estimates range as high as 70 percent. Official unemployment figures vary, ranging from 30 percent to 45 percent. HIV/AIDS is a major concern and the country is still in the early stages of responding to the pandemic. Unemployment, the devaluation of the country's currency (the loti) and low agricultural production, due to a number of factors including the lack of arable land, have conspired to force the Prime Minister to declare a state of famine in the country and appeal for urgent food aid. Despite hitches with the printing of ballots, and some cloak and dagger machinations regarding their distribution, prepa rations have been relatively smooth. Pholo explained: "Some politicians were not happy with the mode of transportation [a seemingly dilapidated one tonne truck], from Durban to Maseru, of ballots for advance voters. They said the truck was ready to fall apart [and therefore not a fit and proper mode of transport]. It was only later discovered that the truck was very strong [mechanically sound] but had to be used as decoy to lose some people in Durban who claimed to be party agents and wanted access to the printing plant to view the ballots. "It was discovered that no party had sent people to Durban and the printing company used the vehicle as a decoy [as nobody would suspect it carried such precious cargo]. This was established afterwards, otherwise the rest of the consignment came in on Thursday." But the brouhaha over ballots was not over. "We later discovered that the ballots of 24 constituencies had mistakes on them, these had to be reprinted and arrived in the country this morning [Wednesday] and are presently being distributed," Pholo said. None of the parties had raised any further objections. Said Nkhahle: "It certainly looks like its going to be a smooth election, there does not seem to be anything that will trigger the sort of problems we saw in 1998. The IEC has gone out of its way to be as transparent as possible, so there does not seem to be anything that could cause substantial dissatisfaction on the part of contesting parties. However, one cannot be 100 percent sure." Political parties had "gone out of their way to be much more aggressive in terms of their campaigning" this year. Nkhahle said: "With the assistance of the Japanese [embassy in Pretoria] the IPA was able to purchase campaigning equipment for the parties, loudhailers and PA [public address] systems for vehicles. The Irish consulate financed the printing of election manifestos and the IEC also provided funding towards making up posters and the like. So parties had a range of income sources, even the smaller parties, for their campaigns."