OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Monday 10.30pm.
THE various political parties in the Lesotho dispute have agreed to take a Southern African development Community proposal for the formation of a transitional structure to their supporters.
The proposed structure — a committee — will comprise one or two members from each party taking part in the election, which is to be held within 15 to 18 months.
In terms of the proposal announced by SA Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi, who is chairman of the SADC-sponsored talks, the transitional committee will help create conditions conducive to the holding of free and fair elections for all parties, including a code of conduct.
The committee will also ensure equal treatment for all political parties by state-owned broadcasting and information services in the period leading up to the election.
It will take decisions on all electoral matters including the role of the police, military services, intelligence services, foreign affairs, and media, the statement said.
The committee will appoint a new Independent Electoral Commission to review Lesotho’s electoral system. The SADC-proposed committee will be passed by an ordinary Act of Parliament.
“We will take it to the people… and if they say yes to it we will also say yes,” opposition alliance spokesman Vincent Malebo said after a seven-hour meeting in Maseru.
He said if they do not get a mandate from their supporters, they will resort to other ways of overcoming the political impasse in the country. However he did not specify how that might be achieved.
The ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy’s deputy leader, Kelebone Maope, said his party did not in principle have problems with the proposal. “But there are a few issues in this document that we will have to look at, because it appears to be something taken from South Africa and brought to Lesotho, and we will have to contextualise it to suit conditions in our country,” he said.