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‘Reforms key to ensuring lasting govts’

Zambian President Edgar Lungu make some remarks during Prime Minister Tom Thabane’s inauguration on Friday

Staff Writers

A CALL by Zambian President Edgar Lungu for Lesotho to avoid two-year election cycles and channel the resources towards national development, highlights the need for the new government to prioritise reforms that bring lasting political stability.

This is the view of analysts who spoke to the Sunday Express following the inauguration of Prime Minister Thomas Thabane at Setsoto Stadium on Friday.

The analysts said the M237 million spent for the 28 February 2015 snap elections and M248 million spent on the 3 June 2017 polls could have been used to address the high youth unemployment rates and poor infrastructure among others.

Mr Lungu, who spoke on behalf of heads of states from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at the inauguration, urged Basotho to make their democracy “cheaper” by avoiding frequent elections.

“Lesotho and Basotho must decide on how best they can make democracy a bit cheaper so that they can channel their resources to other developmental issues,” he said.

Lesotho held its third parliamentary elections in five years on 3 June 2017 after a seven-party coalition government headed by former premier Pakalitha Mosisili lost a 1 March 2017 no-confidence vote in the National Assembly. The vote was engineered by Dr Thabane’s All Basotho Convention, Alliance of Democrats, Basotho National Party and Reformed Congress for Democracy.

The parties cobbled up the 63 seats they garnered in the polls to form the “4×4” government, as it is affectionately referred to by supporters.

Dr Thabane had also handed over power to Dr Mosisili 28 months ago, after the Democratic Congress (DC) leader cobbled together a governing alliance with six other parties following the 28 February 2015.

In his inauguration address on Friday, Dr Thabane committed to undertaking constitutional, political, security and public service reforms.

Prominent political analyst, Prof Mafa Sejanamane, said while Mr Lungu was not qualified to lecture Basotho on democratic best practices, “given his own dictatorial tendencies”, he raised a pertinent point on the need for governments in Lesotho to serve their full terms.

He said one of the reforms that was needed to ensure governments served their full terms was a proportional representation (PR) threshold — referring to the minimum level of support a party needs to gain seats in parliament.

Prof Sejanamane suggested a PR threshold of five percent akin to the one in place in New Zealand. He said raising the threshold to 10 percent, as is the case in Turkey, would disenfranchise the smaller parties

“The purpose of a threshold is to provide for an effective government without placing major hurdles in the way of emerging new political forces,” Prof Sejanamane noted.

“A threshold therefore gives smaller parties a reasonable chance of gaining seats in Parliament but limits the election of very small parties.

He added: “In a place where the threshold exists, the electoral body disregards the votes of any party that fails to reach a stated percentage of party vote threshold.

“Through the use of this threshold, new and small political parties are encouraged to participate in elections but must show that they represent a significant portion of the populace.”

Prof Sejanamane said the constitutional reforms also needed to incorporate the mechanisms for the formation of a coalition government.

“The crafters of the current constitution did not envisage the era of coalition governments that we live in. As a result, there are no laid out procedures for forming a government in the event of a hung parliament,” he said.

“For instance, there needs to be sufficient time for coalition negotiations to take place and not the current situation where governments have to be formed quickly after elections.

“Added to that, the laws should allow governments to be changed without the need for elections.”

An economic analyst who requested anonymity said Lesotho already had a starting point in coming up with reforms with the recommendations made in the New Zealand study tour report.

A 25-member delegation of Lesotho politicians, senior civil servants and civil society representatives visited New Zealand from 28 June to 5 July 2014 to study the country’s governance system.

After the tour, Commonwealth Expert Adviser to Lesotho, Dr Rajen Prasad compiled a report suggesting, among other issues, that Lesotho should depoliticise its civil service and undertake parliamentary reforms.

The analysts said Lesotho missed numerous opportunities to deepen democracy and enhance development by failing to implement the report’s recommendations.

“The failure to implement the recommendations has come at a high cost to the nation politically and economically,” he said.

“The perennial instability has put off potential investors because they can’t afford to gamble with their hard-earned money.”

The analyst said the combined M485 million spent in the 2015 and 2017 elections could have bankrolled projects to stem the youth high unemployment rate among other initiatives.

“The money could have eased the fiscal burden on the government by funding projects to boost economic development.

“The new government will need to stop the culture by politicians to look out for themselves and make sacrifices for the nation. A simple example is the M500 000 interest-free loans for legislators.”

Some of the New Zealand report recommendations at a glance:

  • Establishing an independent public service. The Lesotho public service should be reshaped as an independent, non-politicised, professional service delivering the policies set by ministers and approved by Cabinet.
  • Principal Secretaries should be more accountable to their ministers and that Parliament should hold both ministers and principal secretaries accountable through its various procedures.
    The international standard is for public servants to be appointed on the basis of their competence and experience, and that their political views will be kept private.
  • Coalition negotiations: During the coalition negotiation phase, different parties identify specific policies from their election manifesto that they want to see implemented by a coalition government.
  • Parties are willing to enter into these negotiations because they want to influence the direction of the country in particular areas in order to build a better society.
  • Coalitions always require compromise and negotiation to steer a successful pathway that meets the aspirations of the electorate which did not give any one party the mandate to rule on its own.
    All parties that agree to join in coalition need to have an agreement on where they are heading.

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