Africa News
Lesotho: Scepticism about whether or not Parliament will open today─── SABRINA DEAN 07:12 Fri, 17 Oct 2014
Maseru - Lesotho’s King Letsie III is expected to reconvene the mountain kingdom’s parliament at 09:00 this morning after it was suspended in June this year.
However, there is a lot of scepticism about whether or not Parliament will actually be reopened. Ralechate Mokose, secretary general of the main opposition to the coalition government, the Democratic Congress, told OFM News he will believe it when he sees it.
The reopening was agreed upon by all three members of the current coalition government at the signing of the Maseru Facilitation Declaration agreement earlier this month. South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa served as SADC facilitator for the agreement and is in Maseru to attend today’s highly anticipated reopening.
The reopening was agreed upon by all three members of the current coalition government at the signing of the Maseru Facilitation Declaration agreement earlier this month. South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa served as SADC facilitator for the agreement and is in Maseru to attend today’s highly anticipated reopening.
The main purpose is to allow for budgeting and planning for the early elections in February 2015.
Mokose says his party welcomes the forthcoming elections.
The Democratic Congress, a breakaway party from the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, came in with the majority of votes during the previous elections in 2012. However, it did not attain a sufficient majority to rule the country as required by the Constitution, namely 61 seats.
Three other parties, the All Basotho Convention (ABC), The Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the Basotho National Party (BNP) then decided to form a coalition, thereby attaining the requisite number of seats and leaving the DC as the main opposition.
ABC Leader Thomas Thabane was appointed as Prime Minister, LCD leader Mothetjoa Metsing as Deputy Prime Minister and BNP leader Thesele Maseribane as a senior minister.
Cracks started to surface and Parliament was eventually suspended in June this year, allegedly to prevent a motion of no confidence being brought against Thabane.
The issue gained international attention in August this year following an alleged attempted coup by the Lesotho Defence Force. Thabane and Maseribane fled to South Africa, claiming their lives were in danger. There was a shootout between police and the army in the early hours of the morning of 30 August, as well as army raids on three police stations, including the police headquarters.
At least one police officer was killed and several more injured.
Controversial army chief Tlali Kamoli, who had earlier been fired by Thabane, has to date not stepped down. He did, however, deny there had been a coup attempt saying the army had merely been disarming police as they were allegedly planning to furnish pro-Thabane supporters with weapons.
Since then, there have been several high level SADC mediation initiatives, the latest culminating in the signing of the Maseru Facilitation Declaration on October 2.
Due to the fact that the coalition partners could not see a way to work together, it was decided that the 2017 elections would be brought forward to February 2015. Other provisions included the reopening of Parliament by King Letsie III on 17 October to discuss the budget and other matters related to the forthcoming elections.
It was also agreed that Parliament would be dissolved at the beginning of December to prepare for the elections.
Sabrina Dean/OFM News
Ralechate Mokose:
