Bongiwe Zihlangu
MASERU — All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader Thomas Thabane on Thursday snubbed a meeting with Sadc troika to conclude mediation on the 2007 proportional representation dispute.
Thabane said he boycotted the meeting because the dialogue had not achieved anything tangible “even with intervention from Sadc”.
“My heart now hurts badly. How long have we been sitting around the table without attaining much even with external intervention from Sadc?” charged Thabane.
“I will keep saying that Sadc is a friend of the government. Their being here really does not add any value to my life.”
“I did not attend the Sadc meeting because it does not serve a purpose for me,” Thabane said.
Thabane added that the mediation had not provided solutions for the opposition regarding compensation for “the PR seats we lost”.
“There should have been compensation for those who were complaining, but things took a totally different route,” he said.
A statement by the Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL) which was the mediator in the dispute said the dialogue had led to the Sixth Amendment of the constitution and the National Assembly Electoral Bill 2011 which are still before the parliament.
The CCL said the idea behind the constitutional amendment and the new electoral law is to pave way for a free and fair election next year.
But the ABC leader said he does not see much coming out of these initiatives to reform the electoral laws.
He said he was disappointed that the government had tried to tweak the National Assembly Electoral Bill 2011 by removing key suggestions that the opposition parties had made on the new law.
The Bill that the government presented to parliament was “heavily edited” to exclude the opposition’s views, Thabane charged.