A nightmare for the IEC

THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) this week admitted that it seriously erred when it allocated Proportional Representation (PR) seats following the October 7 general election.

While this obviously came as a shock to most Basotho who had concluded that the IEC had delivered a clean and almost flawless election, it has now triggered a sense of distrust and even outright animosity towards the electoral commission.

Their anger is understandable.

Under normal circumstances, an electoral commission must be able to deliver on its mandate, by running a smooth and credible election both in terms of processes and outcome.

The latest twist has stained the IEC’s reputation after it delivered what was generally seen as a free and fair election.

This is therefore a public relations nightmare for the IEC.

But this crisis is of the IEC’s own making. With the benefit of hindsight, we would like to argue that the commission rushed to finalise the allocation of results without giving attention to all the details.

It would be interesting to know who led the calculations and who eventually signed off for the results.

Whoever bungled must not be allowed to get away with it. Heads must roll at the IEC. This is because the entire reputation of the IEC is now at stake.

In fact, what the IEC is now requesting through the courts could result in massive civil unrest. That would be sad.

Yet on the plus side, it is to their credit that the IEC has admitted that it made a serious mistake in calculating the allocation of the compensatory seats and that it wants this amended.

It took a lot of humility and soul-searching for the IEC to admit its own error.

Political players who will be directly impacted by the reallocation will obviously feel hard done by any overtures to reallocate seats. Their anger is therefore understandable.

But in the spirit of fairness, political parties must allow the courts to arbitrate on this matter to ensure that the law is applied and upheld.

The courts must be allowed to regularise the matter. It is also critical to point out that the reallocation will not impact the 80 seats that were directly contested by political parties which were overwhelmingly won by the Revolution for Prosperity (RFP).

What is in dispute here is the allocation of the 40 compensatory seats. So any ruling by the courts will not invalidate the election result.

The biggest political parties in Lesotho have all admitted that they lost fair and square to the RFP. Their decision to concede is a mark of the maturity of our politics in Lesotho.

We commend these parties for displaying this level of maturity.

But at the same time, we note some excitable and overzealous individuals running radio stations who are seeking to stoke some anger over the debacle.

Their reasoning is that there was a sinister plot by the IEC to rob the Democratic Congress (DC) of some seats.

The radio stations have not provided any iota of evidence to substantiate the allegations.

These latest allegations present what could be the most compelling evidence yet of why we need to reform the media in Lesotho and regulate radio stations.

We will be the first to endorse the need for a comprehensive and mandatory training in basic journalism so that we do not have excitable individuals stoking emotions at radio stations in what is clearly a combustible post-election environment.