Trio wants IEC commissioners investigated

MASERU – THREE Basotho men have asked the Council of State to advise King Letsie III to investigate whether the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)’s commissioners are still fit to hold office.

In their letter dated January 3, 2023, Kananelo Boloetse, Motsamai Mokotjo, and Resetselemang Jane said the IEC had admitted in October last year that it had incorrectly calculated the results for four Proportional Representation (PR) seats.

“Perhaps we should state that the IEC is one of the state institutions that have enjoyed a long spell of favourable press and unquestioned credibility since it was established,” the trio said.

They said in its final report, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) said the IEC’s credibility was affected by announcing incorrectly calculated results for four PR seats.

Then months later, no one has been held accountable for that embarrassing mistake.

The petitioners argued that this lack of accountability is undermining the legitimacy of the rule of law.

They said they could not create a culture of accountability if people do not see accountability for those who have committed mistakes.

“Those who make mistakes should at all times prove that they could change and be worthy of trust again.”

For them, the consequences of failing to create a culture of accountability are pervasive.

The trio said the biggest casualties of announcing incorrectly calculated results for the four seats are the taxpayers who are robbed of thousands of maloti every month.

They said MPs earn about M474 348 per annum or about M39 529 per month.

“Members of Parliament are also entitled to a tax-free housing allowance of M3 000 per month, a tax-free petrol allowance of M5 000 per month.”

The petitioners said there is a tax-free utility allowance of M2 000 per month, and a tax-free expense allowance of M1 000 per month, among others.

And these add up to about M50 529 per each of the 120 MPs.

They complained that the taxpayers are forking out over M200 000 each month to pay salaries and benefits of four people who were not supposed to be in parliament.

It is against this background that they request the Council of State to ask the King to institute investigations that could lead to the removal of the three commissioners.

They suggest that the King should appoint a tribunal to enquire into the matter and report on the facts to the King.

When such a tribunal has been appointed, it will enquire into, make findings, report on and make recommendations concerning the issues including investigating circumstances surrounding the delimitation of constituency borders.

“The constitutional court ruling compelled the IEC to correct 20 out of 80 constituencies that fell short of the 10 percent delimitation quota,” they argued.

The trio said Basotho deserve to know what went wrong that led to the IEC getting the delimitation wrong.

They said the tribunal would also investigate circumstances surrounding the suspension and sending on terminal leave of the Manager of Electoral Operations less than six months before the general election last year and find if this had catastrophic outcomes.

They suggest that the tribunal would investigate whether there were any irregularities, undue enrichment, corruption, and undue influence in the awarding of the contract for the printing of ballot papers for last year’s election.

Nkheli Liphoto