Africa-Press – Lesotho. AT the time of writing last night, the Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) was leading in results that had been announced for last weekend’s local government elections.
What stands out though was the massive voter apathy that saw Basotho largely shunning the elections. Under normal circumstances, local government elections should trigger massive local interest as the issues directly affect people at the grassroots level.
Sadly, that has not been the case. What we have seen is general apathy toward the polls with Basotho ignoring the elections altogether. It would appear that most Basotho have very little appreciation of how the local government system works in practice.
That probably explains why there has been very little enthusiasm towards these elections. Perhaps the biggest cause of the apathy is that most people don’t really understand the critical role of local governments.
The other reason could be the government’s reluctance to devolve more authority and responsibilities to the local government. The talk of devolution has been there for years but with little tangible results.
Without much gravitas councillors have been reduced to mere talking heads with little or no say in the distribution of resources to the people. This makes people see local government elections as a ‘by the way’ instead of being the cornerstone of both democracy in general and service delivery.
Local government elections have thus been reduced into an expensive money wasting junket meant to satisfy a constitutional obligation rather than electing local leaders to drive the development of communities.
We would suggest harmonising the elections to cut the cost of voter education. Yet that would not address the apathy. The solution to the people’s aloofness to the local elections is to give more responsibilities to the local councils.
The people have to be convinced that local governments matter. And that can only be achieved by dispersing power, authority and resources to the councils.
That push should come from the government and the opposition. The current results of the elections appear to show that the RFP was running neck and neck to the main opposition Democratic Congress (DC) party.
The other smaller parties appear to have made very little impact in the polls. What we are likely to see in the long run is a clear contest between the RFP and the DC for supremacy.
It would appear that despite some trouble in the RFP cockpit over Matekane’s leadership style, the people on the ground still love their leader and the party.
For Matekane, the honeymoon is still not over. He remains the darling of the rural masses who still see him as a “political Messiah” sent to deliver them from economic penury. They still believe in his vision and political programmes.
While the DC appears to have retained its grassroots supporters, there is still so much work for the party if it is to mount a serious challenge to the RFP’s hegemony in the next elections.
It will need to project itself as a credible alternative voice in parliament if it is to make an impact. That will require that it maintains its stability by speaking with one voice.
Until the government empowers local councils to ensure they have real power to improve the lives of the people at the micro-level, the people will continue to see local government elections as a waste of money.
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