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 MASERU 00000176 001.2 OF 005 CLASSIFIED BY: June Carter Perry, Ambassador, EXEC , STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶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 SIPDIS 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. -------------- Hearing the Ruling Party's Side -------------- ¶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 MASERU 00000176 002.2 OF 005 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." -------------- The Legal/Constitutional Arguments -------------- ¶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 MASERU 00000176 003.2 OF 005 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 SIPDIS 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 SIPDIS dialogue with the ruling party. (Comment: The SADC Executive Secretary told us March 22 that at Thabane's request, they had SIPDIS 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.) -------------- Minster of Justice and Donor Comments -------------- ¶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 MASERU 00000176 004.2 OF 005 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. -------------- Government's Concluding Remarks -------------- ¶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. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶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 MASERU 00000176 005.2 OF 005 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 SIPDIS 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