Limpho Sello

ALLIANCE of Democrats (AD) leader Monyane Moleleki has appealed to his supporters to forego their individual preferences and rally behind candidates chosen to represent the party in the forthcoming national elections.

The AD, which is a splinter party of the Democratic Congress (DC), was formed in December 2016 and will be contesting for the first time when the country goes for elections on 3 June 2017.

The elections were announced by King Letsie III in the aftermath of last month’s successful parliamentary no-confidence vote by the opposition bloc against the seven parties’ coalition government headed by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of the Democratic Congress (DC) party.

And, Mr Moleleki recently sought to rally the party faithful at Lithoteng Anglican Church Hall in the Abia constituency.

This followed reports that some of the supporters were not happy with the outcome of the AD primary elections where Thabelang Thants’i was elected to represent the party ahead of Mamosa Molapo.

Mr Moleleki implored the party supporters to put the interests of the party first and vote in large numbers since every vote was crucial to winning at least a Proportional Representation (PR) seat.

He said there were 40 PR seats and the AD hoped to win as many as possible through high voter turnout.

“We need them (PR seat) so it’s through every one of you that we can be able to get them,” Mr Moleleki said, adding, “But if you want to give up and boycott elections this means we won’t get as many PR seats in parliament as we need”.

“If you decide not to vote for a candidate you have also compromised our numbers as a party.

“If you love this party and know the reasons it exists do us a favour and use that vote and give it to the party. If you do not do that you are actually allowing the enemy to win. The enemy we ran away from. So, go and think clearly about whether that is what you want,” Mr Moleleki said.

Mr Moleleki reminded the supporters that the party was born out of the need to promote unity and put Basotho youth first.

“We do not want people who do not want the best for this country to win. Do we want that,” he asked rhetorically.

Speaking to the Sunday Express, Mr Moleleki said they would work on motivating supporters and educating them on the importance of voting for the party.

He expressed optimism that the AD would perform well in the elections, adding he had enormous respect for the All Basotho Convention with whom he entered into an alliance in parliament which resulted in the successful no confidence motion against the coalition government last month.