The race is over, the results are coming in thick and fast. Some of us have fainted for the umpteenth time whilst waiting for the results. Very soon it will be all over, we will know who the real winners are as opposed to the pretenders to the political office. The results may be viewed at www.iec.org.ls as they slowly tricle in.
22 comments:
Brace yourselves for another 5 years of incompetence, ineptness, corruption and political thuggery by the LCD-led government. It looks like Basotho are about to give the LCD a fresh mandate to continue from where they left off. What a shame....
I fail to understand why Basotho would vote LCD back into power, when: (1) They have been systematically marginalised and starved by the same people. (2)Their institutions have been plundered by the same lot. (3) Their coffers have been used for personal gain by the same crowd
(4) Their facilities are continuously misused by the same clique
....and so the list goes on.
When LCD is in back in power, blame it on yourselves you sorry lot...The thugs will rule the roost again, thanks to you.
nkokoto, we are so finished as the nation, this us so unbeelivable but it shows how generally short-sighted we are as a nation. It also shows that anybody who will really get to these masses especially the rural population has a mountain to climb.
lets' continue to wait and see if after this disaster there can be a better plan to save a drowning ship.
Hey guys, I' just ever on the internet looking at every result that coes in. Hey Nkokoto and Thope especially, I'm glad that so far Ntate TT is doing exceptionally well. This is the latest so far I have from the hood.
http://www.iec.org.ls/online/rshow_cResults.php?Cid=13
http://www.iec.org.ls/online/rshow_cResults.php?Cid=15
TT I said GoodLuck, boy..!!
ITF, let me dampen your spirits a little bit. A friend of mine who works for the CID has sent me an sms putting the final score as follows:
LCD - 45
ABC - 33
BNP - 1
another party - 1
This was sent at about 7:15pm, about 1 hour before your posting. I want to say at this stage that these figures are not yet official. However, the IEC confirmed at 8:00pm, on SABC Africa (one SA TV channel) that the results (final and confirmed) are trickling in slowly because they are going through some Audit process.
Secondly, TT was on SABC TV already disputing the electoral process and challenging the SADC Observer mission on their statement that the elections were free and fair.
Watch this space....
Ke bomalimabe bo t'sabehang ho hlokomela hore people are still so indocrinated and inclined to the ancient political beliefs that they don't realize the brutality brought by Mosisili and company to the nation. It sad to realize that some people (Mosisili et al) rejoice at the expense of the poor helpless people in the rural areas. The trend in which ABC has won the constituencies says all that mosisili keep the rural people poor to his benefit to blindfold them from the realization that they can do something themselves "ka ho ba foqa liphallelo".
I highly agree with you Nkokoto, lemo tse hlano tsa tlala, bofuma le bosholu ke tseo re tobane le tsona. The sad part of it is when you go into the world and people start asking you about Lesotho. Such a small population under such a devastating poverty while the country is on the map for its big diamonds, water is a disgrace that one become shameful to share with other people.
Ruri-ruri re tsietsing!!
nkokoto na motsoalle oa hau u ntse a tiea a re liphetho tsee li eme tjee kaha a ne a u tsitsilela?
I am beginning to get worried now, maybe it is too early to be.
Boemo, it looks like my friend got it wrong.
However, the message was clear that all parties were up for a serious drubbing by LCD. The situation is actually worse than what he had predicted. If my maths is correct, the numbers are as follows:
LCD - 62
ABC - 17
ACP - 1
Mmm..!! things is gettin' tough. God fordid. Why Mosisili again.
Baheso! ooee i wish i could leave this country right this minute...esale ke i koka pelo e bohloko but i'm back! anyway this is the latest from the Mountain Kingdom. Harvest FM, the only radio station which is fair and impartial in the country since that turncoat called Ramainoane stated calling ABC linoamali (and otehr unsavoury things ka mora hore boMosisili ba mofoqe chelete ekalo ka M1.500000) has been taken off the air hona maobane, moruti Lekhoaba has been arrested (for what i don't know except that he has dicumentation proving that ABC had won Kolonyama constituency a bile a tlatsoa ke Morena Lekhooana Jonathan hore ABC had won) and been served with a deportation "letter" from Lehohla. joale apparently LCD cheated in at least 4 Consituencies Kolonyama, Machache, Koro-Koro and Mafeteng ('me in these consituencies LC has "won" ka very tight margins and the party agents le batho ba buithatelo bo botle were calling Lekhoaba saying they had documentary evidence that these Constituencies have been won by ABC)
Anyway ABC is preparing a court case as we speak (and apparently the evidence is there) joale 'Mokose called Harvest pele e koaloa a rohakana. Ke hore ke tsona likatana tse ka rebusang tse? lekhale.
Le ha ho le joalo ABC did well for a three month old party in fact it made history and where we won (except Butha Buthe and Mokhotlong) we won very convincingly joale ke eletsa satane e bitsoang Mosisili (sorry for mahlapa but i can't find a better way to describe him) should go build a Parliament in Qacha because mona Maseru these guys are simply not welcome
Thope ngoana 'm'e bohloko boo u bo utloileng ke boo ke bo utloang 'me at the moment nna ke ntso ke so t'selisehe ho hang. Joale ha taba tsa mofuta o tjena li ntse li hlaha ke ipotsa hore naa etlare lilemo tse hlano etlabe ele batho ba bakae ba t'soaretsoeng ho boa nnete. Ke babakae ba tlabeng ba hanetsoe ka litokelo tsa bona, ke ba bakae ba tlabeng ba bolailoe ke tlala bitsong la ignorance ea 'muso oa Mosisili.
Joale ebe lere ke eona democracy eona ee ea batho ba tla tsamaea ba t'soareloa masooana a entsoeng ke 'muso ka boomo!
Ruri re tsietsing ele ka nnete!
Khoto khothala ngoana 'me o tla ts'eliseha ha nako e ntse e ea...Harvest ekaka e khutletse moeeng feela Lekhoaba mapolesa (ke ea kholoa hoba ba sympathetic) ba molokollotse and he left Lesotho immediately after being released. Ha ke ngola mona Moruti Lekhoaba is no longer in Lesotho and i guess he's no longer coming back.
Bohle we are asking ourselves hore na what is going to happen in the next 5 years. O tsebe bana ba maLCD ba joetsa ba ma ABC ka NUL hore they should forget about mesebetsi in the public service they are going to compile a list ea ma ABC to ensure that they do not get hired after graduation!!!!!!!
We shall overcome...the LCD is going to have a long five years with a strong opposition in Parliament and no support from the defence force, the police, the intelligence services, the working class, the intelligentsia, the youth, taxi drivers le tsona li conductors le batho banang le likelello ka kakaretso.
Don't worry Khoto oa tseba ha ho le tje ke ha ho loka. Re ea sebokeng ka Sontaha, i will update the forum (i.e. those who are outside the country) on this seboka.
So guys how is the situation now..!!??
Che ITF!!!!! esale ke lebella (you know what i'm referring to) anyway things seem to be normal...but there's a lot of tension and dissatisfaction. But in the final analysis we (i.e. ABC) will challenge those Constituencies which we rightfully won (Machache, Koro-Koro, Kolonyama and Mafeteng...there's documentary evidence that ABC won) but then again this is Lesotho i wonder if the High Court judges will intervene like they are supposed to...time will tell.
ABC will be having a seboka at Pope Square (Sethaleng) this very Sunday and i shall be there full-force. So all in all we will carry on as before.
Moruti Lekhoaba oa Harvest e se e le persona non grata Lesotho mona (the only independent radio station in the country at the moment, these guys are not scare to ruffle feathers and they are paying a heavy price for that...they were taken off the air yesterday but this morning they were back...now how's that for LCD muzzling freedom of speech even before they start ruling us for another bloody five years...the prognosis is not good.)
Can you tell us what is this documentary evidence that ABC has won those four districts?
Mainly liphephechana tsa li-final vote counts signed by the party agents and the IEC returning officer for the individual Constituency. Let me give you an example...which incidentally led to Harvest being taken off the air and Lekhoaba being taken off the air...in Kolonyama, the party agents and the returning officer had signed a final document relating to this constituency, and the ABC candidate had won by a few hundred votes...the same individuals including Lekhooana Jonathan were amazed ha sephetho se phatlalatsoa hore Mokose suddenly had 1700 votes or thereabouts. the same Mr. Jonathan then phoned Harvest and said i have proof and so do those involved that the results announced by IEC are not valid, Lekhoaba then obtained the same documents and broadcast these anomalies...then all hell broke loose. This is why Tom Thabane is going to take these cases to court. anonymous i hope this satisfies your curiousity? otherwise there's more where that
came from...re kopa mabatooa a rona ke phetho!!!!!
I wish there is tangible evidence on the issue of the constituencies in question. That way perhaps we will see how corrupt the judiciary system in the country is. But good people let us remember that everytime someone does not get to reach the goal the tendency is always to cry "Foul! Foul!" even where there is non at all.
What specifically do politicians want from a nation? This is the question that many avoid asking themselves individually. Former Minister Tom Thabane and PM Bethuel Mosisili. In May 2004, Tom Thabane, while Minister of Home Affairs and Public Safety, verbally threatened the editor of the Public Affairs programme Seboping on Radio Lesotho, Nthabeleng Sefako, on air. At the time Thabane said: “This woman Nthabeleng Sefako needs to be sorted out. She is a mere civil servant and yet she wants to dictate to me, a whole cabinet minister, how long my programme should be...we’ll keep a close eye on her”.
It was later the very mere civil servants who endured the wrath of LCD government in support of Tom party ABC when they were told not to make ABC party signs and were forced to attend LCD rallies being ferried using government vehicles which government secretary Mr. Sekhamane said it was the right thing to do.
Six months after this Nthabeleng Sefako incident Tom became minister of Telecommunication, Science and technology and that is where he “sorted” things out and the outstanding one was cutting of Moafrika (in Mafeteng) – at the moment some people get really angry when Moafrika’s reports are against Tom’s party ABC irrespective of the truth infront of them. But does Ramainoane have an alternative? As a minister Tom said there is no need for other radio stations to cover the whole of Lesotho because Radio Lesotho still does so (he argued that after all the other radio stations or media do not say good things about the government).
Today the LCD does exactly what he taught them to do. They persecute everybody in the media who tells the truth who they claim supports ABC (with life threats and deportation – just like Mugabe does) talking about things that are bad things that the government has done or is doing – yet they still argue this is democracy and there is freedom of press. The question is why are these people not sued in court rather than being threatened? Ntlo ena e nelang Tom Thabane o ikahetse eona just like Sekhobe Letsie a ile a ikahela Maximum prison. It is just that both did not know that they were doing this for themselves.
If Tom won the elections would the media be treated differently – I think as long as they told the truth about his government they would still be persecuted the same way that LCD is doing. In fact in Tom’s words they would be “sorted out” or “a close eye” would kept on them. What a pity! Tom Thabane perhaps being too optimistic expected his party to win elections throughout the country – Well I think they fought like veterans yet it is a four months old party. A day before elections Tom said his party was ready. During the day of elections, as he cast his vote he said “"I am confident that I will win the elections because of the people, They want change. Everybody wants change and we are the symbol of change," http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=nw20070217123757483C504927.
After elections he argues that there were irregularities in the registration and the counting was too slow. Does being slow and careful in counting mean being rigged somehow? I bet if the counting was fast he would have responded in an even harsher manner! On the issues of registration the fact is that in almost all the constituencies less than 50 percent of the voters went to the polls to cast their votes. Party leaders are really surprising! When they fail to mobilize registered people to go and vote they complain about those who had problems in registering. Let us face it, when a constituency has 9000 registered voters and only 4050 of these (which is 45 percent) go to vote, why would a party leader complain about the 50 people that failed to register when he lost elections by 1000 votes and he failed to convince 4950 voters to go to the polls? To me this sounds unrealistic! I really wish Tom says something more realistic to his followers during this weekend – especially convincing them to ACCEPT The RESULTS of the elections in HONOR.
After ABC was formed in parliament, in his speech in the same parliament PM Mosisli said “‘Na le bona re tla teana riteng sa moseeka, mabaleng koana, moo ho fahlanoang ka mokoetla.” Further stating that “etsoe ngoan’a ma-hana a joetsoa u utloa ka leqeba ho opa” and with regard to the candidates concerning the voters in the constituencies he said “mohlanka h’a moholo ho mong’a hae’” ka ha lentsoe la sechaba ke poho.
E le `nete ba kopana, tsa koebana lopoho veteran LCD and young ABC! After the elections, ABC won almost the entire Urban area and concerning this, honorable Mosisili said he was surprised that people who he thinks were beneficiaries of development, like those in urban areas, did not vote for the LCD. And further acknowledged that “this was a message to his party that people were not satisfied with the lack of delivery during their last term of office.” By so saying, atleast honorable Mosisili admitted that there was “lack of delivery” on his party’s site during this past 5 years – this is exactly the same reason Tom said he was forced leave LCD to form a knew party. Now PM Mosisili accepts lack of delivery despite refusing all these before the elections. His statement does not only accept lack of delivery he also accepted that what he considered as development targeted the urban areas – yet the people in the urban areas do not regard that as development and showed their dissatisfaction by voting against him. Now what about the rural area people who according to honorable PM Mosisili are not the beneficiaries of development? Well on this issues he says "On the other hand, people in the rural areas acted in faith... they are the ones who voted for us,". http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,144153,00.html
From this, according to PM Mosisili people in the rural areas voted them to power “in faith” or loyalty so to say, not because they were delivering and not because those people benefited from any development. But because they are the people who love their party, the people who would die for LCD even if it meant no development, unemployment, hunger and starvation. Well, any party that targets these people will have to work really hard. I think Basotho deserve more than this from their government or the ruling party – which is LCD in this case. Will there be an improvement? According to the speech made by PM Mosisili in parliament on the 19th October 2006 he said “phokojoe e sōla boea E SENG mekhoa!”. I wonder whether by this PM Mosisili meant another five years of lack of delivery and underdevelopment? As well as relying on the ‘faith’ of people in the rural areas?
thanks thope, i hope that gets public and there is more evidence than just what people saw.
have you guys seen this post, which goes into a much bigger issue of cheating.
Thabo oe! Thabo oe! U nkotlile botsekeng. You couldn't have said it any better.
Ntate Tom is now crying foul because this time around he is on the receiving end of the same dirty tactics he used during the 1998 elections. "O longoa ke nta tsa kobo ea hae". Ka bomalimabe it is the general populace which is suffering the most from all these political shenanigans.
Shortly after the floor-crossing in parliament, Mr. Mosisili said "le se ke be la lebala leoa lena kaha re ne re le betsa'moho..."
Mr. Mosisili and his party use a very simple, but tried-and-tested trick of keeping a captive support base (ea Basotho ba metseng). The trick is to keep them hungry and illiterate so that they are forever dependent on "liphallelo" and "thuto e sa lefelloeng". There is nothing new here, it is a centuries-old strategy that works, which has been used in its varying forms across the globe, examples: Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Afghanistan, North Korea, Ireland.... The list is endless.
Basotho ba ntse ba jelloa khoebeleng ka maqiti a khathetseng, a mehleng ea khale. Pelo ea ka e lutla mali ke bo-its'oaro bona ba bo-ralipolitiki ba Lesotho.
Thope, I really hope that Tom has seen the light, that he has abandoned his old ways. I hope he will be the present-day Saul who will preach and practice righteousness and good political ethics.
Ha e le mor'a Mosisili eena ke lahlile ts'epo ka eena le bo-mphato oa hae....
Nkokoto, what you have stated is indeed a tried-and-tested old trick that works. Keep them hungry - they will come to you for whatever little you offer; keep them illeterate so that they cannot question your judgement. Deprive them of media - so that they think life is worse than theirs in other parts of the world. The carrot and stick approach to elections - beat them with a stick, when they attempt running away show them a carrot so that they come back and when they get close, use a stick.
But my favorite is one chinese proverb which translates to: Give a man some fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to get fish and he feeds himself for a lifetime - And this is NOT GOOD FOR Business!
In any case, I have just read one interesting article about lesotho politics titled "Where it's glorious to be a politician" from the site http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=vn20070223103722898C570771
Thanks Thabo and Anonymous i read both the Maseru Observer Post (quite technicalbut i think i grasped the basics of it) and the Independent Online article on the glorious lives of Lesotho's Cabinet Ministers and PS's. Jah, i mean this is the rot we are living with on a daily basis and the majority of us seem not to mind one jot that their chosen one's commit these crimes with amazing regularity.
Nkokoto i for one can never apologise for Tom Thabane and some of the unfortunate decisions he made when he was still with the LCD. My only hope now is that he has seen the error of his ways and that indeed his motive for leaving LCD was primarily the fact that he couldn't handle their corrupt practices anymore (but i think we are more cynical than to believe that that was his sole motivation and who can blame us?)
Anonymous, the only point i do not understand about the Maseru Observer article is that the writer seems to have a problem with the alliances formed for purposes of PR. The same people who voted for ABC candidates for the Constituencies voted for the LWP (because this was the arrangement and a perfectly lawful one except that with the LCD Ntate Manyeli seems to have been hoodwinked by his own henchmen...shame on them) so i fail to see how this is an instance of election fraud...please explain someone!
As for the Independent Online article i'm glad that the various corrupt practices being carried out by the Lesotho govt. are slowly gaining international attention...albeit slowly and who would've thought that Zimbabwe and Lesotho could be mentioned in the same sentence? shame on Mosisili et al for so very blatantly manipulating the igonorant masses...personally ke bona the next five years li le telele hona hoo i don't think they will survive it especially now that there are strong rumours that Ramainoane of MoAfrika FM is going to be rewarded with his very own Ministry (the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting if this rumour is true then i give up...sies!)
With LCD/NIP, it may be legal but should not be - how can one individual run for one party in his constituency, but be on somebody else's party list? Which party is he with? But I do not know if it is against the law, even though it makes no sense. If nothing else, those NIP/LCD PR seats should not be allowed to cross the floor, as they were elected as NIP.
For ABC/LWP, they have still cheated the system, even though the party lists are separate. The idea of the mixed PR is that once your votes have been successful at electing the representative in your constituency, they have already been counted - so they should not be counted again in the PR component of the vote.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to make a legal case against ABC. But the PR is intended to make way for the small parties that win a percentage across the nation, but few constituencies, like the BNP or ACP. This is supposed to promote stability as those parties will not feel taken by the system. But the ABC/LWP and LCD/NIP alliances largely prevent that from happening...
I'd like to bring your attention to http://www.afro-pedia.com an online encyclopedia and collaboration platform for all Africa. There you can find information, collaborate with other participants in projects such as writing an online dictionary and proverbs book for your language as well as meet other Africans locally and abroad! Can anyone who is fluent in Sesotho add the language to http://www.afro-pedia.com .
Thank you, and God bless you!
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