Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE leader of the Basotho Action Party (BAP) Professor Nqosa Mahao says a weak financial resources base and a flawed voters’ register contributed to his party’s poor showing in last Friday’s election.
Professor Mahao was speaking at a press conference in Maseru on Tuesday. He however made it clear that the BAP is “happy to be His Majesty’s opposition in parliament”.
“We have joined politics in an era where money plays a big role,” Mahao said.
“Our problem is that we did not even have sponsors.
The BAP was contesting the election for the first time.
Although it did not win a single contested seat out of the 80 that were up for grabs, the party managed to win six seats under the Proportional Representation (PR)system.
Mahao said their candidates also faced other challenges in the constituencies adding his party’s national executive committee is still to meet the party’s candidates to address the problems.
In a separate interview with this newspaper, Mahao declined to get into the details of the problems his candidates faced. “They were internal problems that I will not discuss in the media.
I choose to talk about these only because they were external,” he said. Mahao said the BAP was also not happy with the state of the voters’ register which he said was not clean.
This caused a great deal of confusion in the constituencies, Mahao said. For instance, he said some voters were transferred to other constituencies without their knowledge.
He however said despite all the irregularities and shortfalls, the election results must be respected for the sake of peace in Lesotho. Mahao encouraged his party’s members to continue working hard for the party and not to forget that they had only been in existence for 18 months.
He also congratulated the Revolution for Prosperity (RFP), Alliance of Democrats (AD), and the Movement for Economic (MEC) for forming a new coalition.
He advised the new partners not to look back and try to develop the country for the sake of Basotho. “Democracy is not a blank cheque for those in government to do as they please,” Mahao said.
“We need our government to be accountable to Basotho,” he said. Mahao maintained that their party is comfortable to sit on the opposition benches where it will play its role as an effective, loyal opposition.
He said they have accepted defeat and will move on especially when they are aware that even bigger parties with several years of experience had failed to win a single constituency.
He said his party was competing against parties that were part of the government where they had plenty of resources at their disposal. Mahao said the BAP only relied on financial support from their own members.
He said they are going to ensure that the national reforms are successfully passed in parliament. “Our duty in parliament is to make the government accountable to the people,” he said. He said they will support the government where they do right and criticise them where they are wrong.
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