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Commonwealth Experts for Lesotho Local Elections

28 April 2005

The flag of Lesotho flying in the gardens of Marlborough House, headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

A Commonwealth Expert Team is in Lesotho for the local elections on 30 April 2005. The Team, organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), consists of Councillor J E Otekat, Chair of the CLGF, President of the Uganda Local Government Association and Chairperson of the Soroti District of Uganda; Councillor Leslie Lynch of the San Fernando City Council and member of the Local Government Association of Trinidad and Tobago; and Angela Odah, National Co-ordinator, Transition Monitoring Group (a democracy NGO) of Nigeria.

The Team, which began work on 25 April 2005, will observe preparations for the local elections, the polling, counting and results process, and the overall electoral environment. The decision to send the Commonwealth Expert Team follows an invitation from the Independent Electoral Commission of Lesotho.
 
The Expert Team will remain in Lesotho until 6 May 2005. Its report will be submitted to the Commonwealth Secretary-General as well as the CLGF, and will then be transmitted to the Government of Lesotho, the Independent Electoral Commission and the political parties. Thereafter, copies will be circulated to all Commonwealth governments and the report will be made public. Members of the Team have been invited in their individual capacities and the views they express regarding the elections will be their own and not those of their respective governments, of the Commonwealth Secretariat or of the CLGF.

 

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 232 27 April 2005