Agents Demand Payment to Watch over  Party Interests !

A rather surprising and worrying trend became evident during the Qhoali No.68 Constituency bye-elections on 16 October 2004, when party agents allegedly refused to take part because they were not going to be paid.

Returning Officer, Mrs. 'Malikae Mokhants'o told reporters who commented on the obvious non-participation by party agents representing the other parties contesting against the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), that in the interests of reconciliation, party agents in the 2002 general election had received some form of remuneration, which agents now demanded if they were to continue participating.

Spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Mr. Kotsi Mohau, said he believed it was the responsibility of the individual parties to ensure that they had representation.

According to IEC regulations, should party representatives not be present where they were expected to have been, their parties would then not be expected to complain of any unfairness at a later stage, he said.

Voters queuing to poll at the Qhoali by-election       Mrs. Mokhabi  (winner -LCD)

Mrs. Mokhants'o was however happy with the registration figures, believing that there had been no marked change in the number of people registered to vote in the two bye-elections, this and the previous one, which the late Mr. Tlokotsi Meshack Belebesi had won.

The bye-election was brought about by the death of  Member of Parliament, the late Mr Belebesi in May 2004.

The by-election has been won by the LCD which, in a trend that has seen an increasing number of women brought into Parliament, stood Mrs. 'Matanki Mokhabi against the Marematlou Freedom Party's (MFP) Mrs. 'Mankobo Sealela and Mr. Chabana Nakhele for the Popular Front for Democracy (PFD).

Mrs. Mokhabi polled 2 868 votes against 116 for the MFP's Mrs. Sealela and 106 for Mr. Nakhele of the PFD.

18 October 2004