Maseru — The Fundamental Dilemma Of Democracy In Lesotho Is The Crisis Of Individual Gains By Political Leaders Projected On A System, whether the first past the winning post electoral system or PPR. NO SYSTEM IS PERFECT, BUT IT CAN BE MADE TO WORK by political leaders if they are committed and unselfishly so because their role is simply a facilitating one in the democratic process, whose primary ownership falls on the MAJORITY ELECTORATE.

If the majority passes their verdict in a fair and free election and reject some politicians, it is tyranny for them to impose themselves through PPR.

It is selfishly arrogant to blame the system when the culprit is egotism and lack of public support, or claim that there wont be political stability without PPR. The most essential challenge is to spare no effort to ensure that the requirements for having fair and free elections are fulfilled.

From IPA to PPR government, we can expect governance and development to be thrown into shambles unless there is a committed change of attitudes and genuine reassessment and balancing of perceptual and real role of parties that will, by default sanctioned universally through PPR, find themselves in parliament.

Imagine the political parties replaying the consensus game in parliament.

It is not inspiring to contemplate what mess is likely concerning the delivery of development programmes, at a crucial time when Lesotho must recapture the goodwill of its development partners and decisively uplift the masses out of their poverty. It is even more depressing to imagine how the security situation will be, with some parties threatening destabilisation of governance.

The fundamental problem inherent in PPR is that it erodes accountability to the electorate. It is as clear as daylight that the parties that will have been sneaked into parliament are unwanted by the electorate, and these parties know it. Without a real people's mandate they will have no motivation to promote development or security of the masses, except their own betterment under the cloak of PPR.

While it is anticipated that there will be clear guidelines to do away with consensus debacle in PPR government, the important issue, on which Lesotho politicians must seriously do some soul searching, is whether the post-elections PPR government will recreate IPA conditions requiring SADC to intervene endlessly, this time in the country's development and governance. If that is the case, Lesotho might as well accept a lowly status of being SADC's backyard experimentation guinea pig; or be an unwanted appendage of South Africa.

What is required is a decisive, principled and confident majority government, that can give direction to many Basotho who earnestly want to advance in the new millennium. The worst option of free for all, idealistic, complex (feedlot- style) and incomprehensible 100 percent PPR will make the task of governance ever so impracticable, while the dual system, a better worst option, will enable the majority government to put reins on political rejects from rocking the development and governance boat.

D.R. Phororo P.O. BOX 1287 ­ Maseru