By ‘Majirata Latela
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is currently assessing objections in which political parties and individual citizens have raised concerns regarding the new demarcation of constituencies.
This follows the process of delimitation of constituencies which started in 2018.
According to the Second Amendment to the National Constitution, 1997, IEC has been mandated to delimit boundaries of constituencies after every 10 years.
In an interview with this publication this week, IEC’s public relations officer, Tuoe Hantši, showed that IEC is currently assessing the objections which were made in January on the preliminary constituency bounderies that were released by the commission.
He said after the exercise, IEC will also go to some of the communities which have filed objections to deliberate on presented objections and their queries and comments of the constituencies. He said the meetings will give an opportunity to the complainants. The IEC will deliberate on the raised concerns.
“After assessment those who have presented the objections will receive letters replying to issues put forward. The objections that we are working on now are those that were presented from September last year.
“If people or individuals feel that their concerns have not been regarded they will have an opportunity to go to the High Court within seven days from the date to be determined by the IEC.
“Then after that there will be the last gazette that will announce the new constituencies and new boundaries. Some objections such as those that will need amendment to the law may not be considered in the already gazetted preliminary constituencies but will be considered in the next delimitation of constituencies,” Hantsi explained.
He added that the preliminary constituencies that IEC has released show that constituencies in Maseru are going to have four more constituencies making the total of 22 constituencies.
He said this is due to the population density of Maseru urban that has increased from 281,667 eligible voters to 336,309.
He added that the growth of the population in Maseru shows that there are more people who have migrated from other districts and are now living in Maseru. He said the commission is using the population census report which was released in 2018 by the bureau of statistics.
He further showed that Mohale’s hoek has lost two constituencies leaving it with only five. Preliminary constituencies while Mafeteng has lost one constituency leaving the district with seven. Quthing district has also lost one constituency leaving it with only four.
