ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT - ISSUE/EDITION Nr 334 - 15/11/1997

ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE/EDITION Nr 334 - 15/11/1997

CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE


Lesotho

Voters lose trust in their politicians

by Chris Baxter, Africa Press Bureau, October 1997

THEME = ELECTIONS

INTRODUCTION

A prominent political scientist in Lesotho has predicted
a massive voter apathy in the country's parliamentary elections, expected to take place mid-1998.

In the first democratic elections in 1993, some 70% of the 800,000 eligible voters, voted in this African mountain kingdom (estimated population: nearly two million). The Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) made a clean sweep of all 65 parliamentary seats contested.

Sehoai Santho, a research scholar at the National University of Lesotho says the 1998 elections will be characterised by: a massive low voter turnout; disillusionment and confusion because voters have lost trust in their politicians whom they regard as being liars.

Voters have also lost trust in the mainstream parties - the Basotho National Party (BNP), which ran the government for 23 years, and the BCP, in charge from 1993 to June this year, when a newly-formed Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) took over the reigns of government. (There was a split in the ruling BCP, which lead Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle to form his new LCD, and to vest all the powers of government administration in the LCD). The electorate feels the mainstream parties have done nothing to alleviate poverty, which has reached intolerable levels. There is also spiralling unemployment and an increase in the crime rate. As well as this, the parties have done nothing to provide education within everyone's reach and very little to improve the economy. There is no access to ownership of land and water, and a general social decay. Voters are still committed to democracy and the electoral process, but they are disillusioned with the politicians and their political parties. Lesotho has 15 registered political parties, but many Basotho are so confused with this multiplicity of parties, they don't know which one to vote for!

Losing hope

"There is resentment against politicians, not against elections," Santho says. "There is low morale and disillusionment among voters, because many believe politicians are keeping neither to their election promises nor to their election manifestos. This is the biggest threat to voter turnout."

According to Santho, there is a big majority of voters who have lost hope for a better future in Lesotho, saying things will not be better in 1998.

Soon after the formation of the LCD in June, Santho and other social scientists, went around the country to test the population's voting temperature. The general feeling seems to be: "My vote will not make the slightest bit of difference because nobody is helping us. Elections, therefore, have no value. Promises have been made and broken, so why bother to vote?"

END

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