by Chris Baxter, Africa Press Bureau, October 1997
THEME = ELECTIONS
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!
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