In the aftermath of the judgment related to allocation of seats in the National Assembly, the Minister of Communications has urged the media and the public not to be influenced by the politicians.

Addressing members of the media at the Lesotho Television Studios on Friday, Mr. Mothetjoa Metsing said politicians are seeking to take advantage to destabilise the ruling government by influencing the public not to have faith in the judiciary by distorting the facts to suit their agenda.

He said, ‘ we should regard courts' ruling as fair and just, and we should have faith in the judicial system in order to maintain a strong democratic culture.’

‘We should be aware of these perpetrators, who peddle wrong information to meet their ends and to achieve their personal aspirations,' he stressed.

The minister appealed to the media to exercise freedom of expression responsibly and avoid being used to incite the public. 'As much as the constitution advocates for freedom of expression but this expression must be guided by responsibilities which prohibits abusive language and blatant misinformation'.

The minister urged the media and indeed the public as well as politicians to interpret court decisions accurately and not to impugn that deliberations in courts of law are not independent.

As government spokesman, the minister was clarifying on rumours that are flying around that in the matter between Marematlou Freedom Party and IEC, a decision was deliberately made in favour of the latter.

The court had ruled that MFP as the political party had no standing in law to ask the court intervention in re-allocating proportional representation (PR) seats in the National Assembly, because, 'the Election Act states that IEC is the only entity which may do so'.

Source: LENA 18/07/2008