GOL DEFENDS ELECTORAL PROCEDURES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 MASERU 000176

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR AF/S

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/22/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PINR PHUM SADC ZI LT
SUBJECT: GOL DEFENDS ELECTORAL PROCEDURES

REF: (A) MASERU 161

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CLASSIFIED BY: June Carter Perry, Ambassador, EXEC , STATE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



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Summary
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1. (C) The Government of Lesotho (GOL) called an emergency
donors meeting on March 21 to discuss its views of the tactics
used by the opposition parties, particularly by the All Basotho
Convention (ABC) party led by Thomas Thabane. The meeting was
convened by the Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Dr.
Motloheloa Phooko, who was accompanied by the new Ministers of
Trade, Mr. Popane Lebesa, and Justice, Mrs. Mpeo Mahase Moiloa.
Speaking on behalf of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD),
Dr. Phooko wanted to present his party's view of the
opposition's actions during the opening of Parliament on March
15 and its call for a paralyzing strike March 19-21. The
Minister went through the legal bases for raising of complaints
such as the ABC's call for an over-turn of the outcome of the
February 17 national elections in Lesotho. The donors accepted
the government's explanation of the legal foundations and
procedures which guide both the election and parliamentary
processes. Major development partners emphasized neutrality in
terms of internal politics, but also indicated that we felt it
was important to hear the views of all parties. We emphasized
that the LCD had also received a request to attend a donor
roundtable before the elections to explain any concerns they may
have had. The U.S. Ambassador specifically addressed the
importance of post election dialogue, the need for the
government in power to speak to the people and explain its
position on a variety of issues, and reiterated the importance
of peace, stability and security for our own citizens and staff
working both in the capital of Maseru as well as the many PCVs
and health workers serving in the rural districts. We
acknowledged the right and responsibility of government to
maintain order should the opposition or any other group hinder
day-to-day activities of citizens through threats, intimidation
or violence. This point was reiterated by all donors, in
particular, the health representative from the United Nations.
We believe the government's request for this meeting was based
on the fact that we, the development partners, had felt it
necessary to hear all sides and to apprise the SADC Executive
Secretary Tomaz Salomao of our views since opposition members

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had asked for assistance in establishing a dialogue with the
government. We note that the government denied it had ever
received such a request from the members of the opposition. In
a country of less than 2,000,000 people, it struck us as
somewhat bureaucratic that the government would demand a formal
request from its own citizens in order to meet with them. The
Prime Minister has had to make a public statement addressing
these matters. Post continues to keep Amcits aware of security
issues as needed. End Summary.

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Hearing the Ruling Party's Side
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2. (C) Minister Phooko asked the development partners to meet
with him and the Ministers of Justice and Trade in the
Conference Room of the UN House to hear what he described as the
government's "side of the story" regarding the demands of the
opposition party that the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system
had been abused by the LCD, the subsequent statement to
parliament to that effect, and the call for a "stay-away" March
19-21 to cease transport across the country. Dr. Phooko
presented specific points as follows: The issues around the
elections are "non-issues" since international observers had
declared the February 17 polling elections as free, fair,
peaceful and transparent. He added that Lesotho holds elections
every five years and these have been carried out successfully,
particularly in 2002, despite the military and civil unrest that
had ensued in 1998. He reviewed the history of late 2006 when
former LCD Minister of Communications Thomas Thabane had
"crossed the aisle" with 17 members of the LCD to form the ABC
party. As a result of this action he continued, the government
requested the King to address Parliament. There had been much
political movement around political parties and alliances.
Minister Phooko felt it was important to emphasize this since
the ABC had accused the LCD of illegally establishing an
alliance with the National Independent Party (NIP). In fact, he
added, the ABC itself had established an alliance with the
Basotho workers party (BWP) and the social democratic parties.
The alliances and the lists that are produced by the various
parties had been endorsed by the various members of said
parties. The list of party members are then presented to the
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Following their
presentation and acceptance by the IEC, the elderly president of

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the NIP had gone to court contesting the alliance which he
charged had been made by his deputy and other members of his
party. He won his case there. The Appeals Court had
subsequently overturned the decision on his case. Phooko
recounted that the LCD had won 61 votes, the new ABC and its
allies had won 17, and one member of the ACP party had died
during the electoral process. Thus, there were 79 of the 80
seats filled. In terms of proportional seats under the MMP
process, the ruling LCD had received 24, the ABC 10, and the ACP
2 for a total of 12. It was noted that in the previous
political results from the 2002 election, the opposition parties
had 10 seats. Thus, in 2007 they had obtained two additional
representatives.


3. (C) Dr. Phooko then returned to incidents around the March
15 opening of Parliament. He began by saying that the dispute
on the alliances as well as proportionality had begun with Mr.
Manyeli and the NIP party. During the official opening of
Parliament by King Letsie III, the leader of the ABC, on a point
of order, said that he did not approve of the swearing-in of new
members since it did not include Dr. Manyeli. The NIP leader
had filed a list of eight people (who all lost) and Mr. Thabane
believed that all of them should have been on the accepted list
of the IEC. He then stated on the floor that he would hold a
"stay-away" until the grievances were addressed. At that
juncture, the Speaker of the House called him on the point of
order. Following the adjournment of Parliament, the ABC leader
issued instructions to his members and all of the opposition
party leaders, including the highly volatile monarchist party,
to remain inside the Parliament for the rest of the day and into
the night. The police, according to Minister Phooko, had gone
late in the night (around 10:00 or 11:00 p.m.) to Minister
Thabane and the Basotho National Party (BNP) leader General
Lekhanya to ask them to please leave the premises. When they
did not do so, the Speaker of the House issued instructions to
have them evicted. The eviction was carried out by the Lesotho
Defense Force (LDF). According to the Minister, up until
Thabane's declaration in Parliament, the GOL had not received
any communication from Thabane. Concerning his problems with
the MMP process and allocation of seats, he asserted that there
had been no communication, even up until the time that we met on
March 21, from the ABC party that they wanted to meet the
government, nor that it had specific grievances they wished to
discuss with the GOL concerning the NIP situation. Minister
Phooko said Thabane's outburst in Parliament and call for the
strike "took the GOL by surprise."

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The Legal/Constitutional Arguments
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4. (C) Doctor Phooko's presentation was followed by that of the
newly appointed Minister of Trade, Mr. Popane Lebesa, who
re-emphasized the points made by the first speaker. In his
opinion, the ABC seems to see "everything wrong" with the
alliances of the LCD and NIP and nothing wrong with their own
(the ABC party) alliances. Lebesa explained that the parties'
conference of 2006 had endorsed the various national committees
to sign for all alliances made by the various parties. Such
confirmation of alliances could not even be overturned by the
supreme leader of any political party in Lesotho; no one in the
party has the right to challenge the conferences decisions.
Thus, he argued, the national executive leadership had acted
constitutionally in signing off on its agreement with the NIP.
He went further to say that the High Court was not a court of
disputes and was within its constitutional rights to make
decisions. He explained that a Court of Disputes involved three
judges and Mr. Manyeli's case had been heard by the regular High
Court although the election results still stood..


5. (C) Minister Lebesa turned next to the issue of the ABC's
leader using Parliament to hear the results of Mr. Manyeli's
case and to try to use the national assembly as a court. This
indicated that the ABC had not accepted the results of the
elections and wanted to amend those results after the elections
had been declared free, fair and peaceful by the international
observer teams. Concerning Mr. Manyeli, the ABC's request that
he be sworn-in indicated again that the opposition wanted the
entire electoral process and outcome to be overturned. The
Minister of Trade proceeded to indicate that normally, if
parties sought to discuss these matters, they would have made
communication to the existing government in an effort to resolve
any differences that may exist. Echoing Minister Phooko's
position, Lebesa said that the ABC leader Thabane never wrote to
the NIP or the LCD Executive Secretaries, nor to the Prime
Minister to say they had an issue to discuss with any of the
parties mentioned. Additionally, the ABC did not handle the
issues properly since a member can only do so as a "motion to
debate" within Parliament and not introduce these issues as a
point of order. Thus, it was not accurate for the ABC leader to
bring these matters to Parliament. Legally, therefore, in his

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opinion, the ABC never introduced this motion. Importantly,
Minister Phooko interrupted Lebesa to say that even before
Parliament had opened, the ABC had planned the "stay-away" and
had no valid intent to pursue a real debate, but had used the
Parliament as a format to call for the highly disruptive strike,
which paralyzed Maseru. The ABC leader had therefore taken
drastic steps without ever saying he had the grievances which
should have been raised with the NIP and LCD party executive
secretaries. Phooko highlighted the constraint the GOL had

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shown in simply removing violators, such as tire burners, and
not showing massive force.


6. (C) Lebesa then raised the point of separation of powers
citing the fact that the High Court's decision stood separately
from Parliamentary actions in accordance with difference
branches of government. It was inappropriate for the
opposition, he continued to go to the national assembly.
Finally, Lebesa accused Thabane of saying late on March 20 that
he "was suspending" the stay-away after the opposition had met
with the SADC Executive Secretary on March 19, 20 and 21. The
SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao had also met with the LCD
Executive Secretary, former Trade Minister Malie, who remains in
his party position, as well as with current Minister of Trade
Lebesa. The LCD told SADC that the opposition had no approached
them; they did not know of the dispute, Thabane had not
attempted to contact the Prime Minister; and the Executive
Secretary advised SADC that the ABC should have requested a

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dialogue with the ruling party. (Comment: The SADC Executive
Secretary told us March 22 that at Thabane's request, they had

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drafted a statement of SADC's role as facilitator. Both the ABC
leader and SADC official were to sign the statement late on
March 22.)

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Minster of Justice and Donor Comments
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7. (C) Minister of Justice Mrs. Mahase at that point was
invited by Minister Phooko to comment. She said that she had
nothing to add. She felt that the legal and political positions
had been fully covered by her colleagues.


8. (C) The People's Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador Qiu (Dip
Corps Dean) said he wanted to note that one of the radio
stations "had lied" by saying in a broadcast on March 21 that
his Embassy had closed the textile factories. He said the
factories were closed because workers could not travel to the
factories, they could not open because of the oppositions
stay-away, thus causing millions of dollars in losses to the
producers. (Comment: The closure of the factory will also have
a deleterious affect on U.S. firms such as the GAP and
Levi-Strauss who purchased nearly 500 million dollars worth of
items made in Lesotho over the past year. End Comment.) The
PRC Ambassador stated that China has had a fruitful relationship
with Lesotho, that they had pursued major infrastructure
projects and are ready to move forward in development in an
atmosphere of peace and stability. Just prior to the PRC
Ambassador's comments, Ambassador Perry thanked the Ministers
(as did UN Resident Representative Hodan Haji Mohamud) for
meeting with the development partners. She referred to
acceptance of the results of the elections and used, as an
example, the United States own 2000 elections which had been
contested, but whose results had been accepted by the public.
Political parties of all types are then able to move forward
with their agenda or, if elected, to move forward with their
programs as the new U.S. Administration. She emphasized that
peace, security and good governance are essential to achieve the
development goals of Lesotho, and echoed the neutral manner in
which the diplomatic corps had heard from all sides of the
Basotho political class. The Ambassador observed that since
independence, the U.S. had been deeply dedicated to involvement
in the development of Lesotho. She pointed out that for 40
years, thousands of PCVs have served as teachers, health
advisors and/or agricultural experts in Lesotho. She added that
major Programs had been initiated over the past three years to
include the President's initiatives such as the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and negotiations for the
Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Also, the overall U.S.
Mission in support of education and health programs such as the
Ambassador's Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP) and the
establishment of staff for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
have expanded; additional staff are expected in the near future
to provide support needed for the presidential initiatives.


9. (C) Finally, the Ambassador stated that its is the right and
responsibility of all governments to maintain order and
simultaneously to establish and encourage dialogue with all
parties. She emphasized the importance of reaching Out to the
populace by the leaders and encouraged the leaders of Lesotho to
follow the example of other leaders such as the late U.S.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, through his fire-side

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chats, had maintained ongoing communication with the American
people at all level of society during the more difficult periods
of the depression and World War II. His communication had been
followed similarly by other leaders such as Presidents Reagan,
Bush and Clinton on a regular basis. This was an essential part
of the democracy process -- to keep the people informed.
Ambassador Perry said she would be remiss not to draw the
government's attention to the extensive disregard for democracy
in Zimbabwe and the need for all members of the international
community to condemn it.


10. (C) Ambassador Perry's concern about the people of Lesotho
was echoed by Dr. Esther Aceng, the World Health Organization's
Representative's deputy, who stated that her organization had
not been able to even deliver critically needed medicine such as
anti-retroviral drugs to people suffering with HIV/AIDS due to
the stay-away and cessation of transport. She emphasized the
adverse impact on health that this stay-away had had on the
nation and urged the government to have a "Plan B" should such
an event ever occur in the future and avoid the loss of life.
The UN Resident Representative, Mrs. Hodan Haji Mohamud, said
that the UN certainly did not expect this to happen again and
hoped to see the MMP questions resolved through dialogue and
noted that the model itself had been developed years ago at this
very site, the UN House. She emphasized, as did others, that
the UN House was opened to all, whether politicians or herd
boys, to hear their positions on any issue. She also stated
that the UN with the U.S. and Irish governments had worked
diligently to strengthen the capacity of the IEC and had
coordinated their development efforts. Like her colleagues, the
UN organization must be able to work in a secure and peaceful
environment that ensures the safety of the staff as well as the
safety of the people of Lesotho and demonstrated good governance
-- all requirements for assistance.


11. (C) Irish Ambassador Paddy Faye responded that his
government and his Embassy remained at the disposal of the
Basotho people and the government of Lesotho, which his Embassy
was there to support in its development goals. He also stated
that the Irish Embassy worked in a neutral manner and heard all
sides of all parties concerning the elections. Development aid
of the donors, he continued, depended as well on good governance
and an atmosphere of safety and security. He thanked the
Ministers for briefing the donors on the political crisis that
Lesotho had faced following the elections and reiterated
Irelands cooperation with the U.S. and the UN to strengthen the
capacity of the nation through health and other development
projects.

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Government's Concluding Remarks
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12. (C) Following the donors remarks, Minister Phooko assured
the development partners that Lesotho was committed to holding
regular elections. The GOL was found he stated, on the pillars
of peace, stability and cooperation. It recognized the
importance of free and fair elections and at the same time
acknowledged that the Mountain Kingdom had experienced a number
of post election issues. However, the government, on an
incremental basis was trying to guarantee peace and the
cessation of the type of actions that had followed the current
opposition parties' complaints. The Minister of Justice thanked
the Ambassadors and other attendees for allowing the GOL to
present their views. The Minister of Justice also thanked the
U.S. for the work it had undertaken in Lesotho to achieve
political stability through peaceful means and she committed
herself to working with the media to put forward balanced views.
Extreme rhetoric has been heard on all sides by numerous radio
broadcasts. She noted that Minister of Trade Lebesa had had to
leave about five minutes before the meeting concluded, but he
concurred as well with the GOL's full presentation.

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Comment
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13. (C) We take the comments by the GOL at face value;
certainly their arguments that constitutional and legal basis
had been knowingly abused by the opposition ranks. We say this
knowing that former Minister of Communication Thomas Thabane has
served in every government since Lesotho's independence over 40
years ago and he knows the ins and outs of procedures. Although
Thabane throughout the past three weeks has been personally
contacted, according to the previous South African High
Commissioner as well as the current Deputy/Charge d'Affairs, by
RSA President Mbeki to cease and desist and not to provoke
violent disruption in Lesotho, he seems to have ignored this
advice. Obviously, any unrest in Lesotho poses problems for
South Africa as well as for the people of Lesotho. On the other
hand, in our experience, in key donor separate discussions

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before and after the government's presentation, the consensus
was that the government was, to a certain extent, standing on
ceremony in absolutely requesting a formal request from the
various opposition parties. The Irish Ambassador particularly
felt that the Prime Minister could have shown strength by
offering to meet with any potentially disgruntled party leaders
rather than simply having statements released on the radio by
the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Communications
over the past week urging people to go back to work. The
Government Secretary had also issued a statement saying civil
servants must report to work, that the government would provide
transportation to them and that if they were absent throughout
this stay-away, they would be considered on unpaid leave. The
Chief of Missions (COMs) who had met with the SADC Executive
Secretary late March 20, met him again for a follow up readout

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of his series of communications with the political parties and
government participants prior to Minister Phooko's March 21
session with us.


14. (C) At this point, it appears Lesotho has returned to
normal operations. In addition to the permanent USG staff, PCVs
and missionaries, the Embassy has been handling 70 official USG
visitors during the month of March. Post has continued to
update them on the situation as it as evolved and will, as
needed, continue to do so. There have been no reported
incidents involving Amcits during this period. As members of
the donor community, we agreed that the meeting with senior GOL
ministers was very useful and we hope that they will take to
heart our entreaties to commence a pro-active dialogue with the
citizens of Lesotho as well as other political entities. End
Comment.
PERRY