Under the second head individual organisations are going to construct proposals and submit them to LCN indicating how as an organisation does it intend to undertake voter education. However a condition was made that organisations opting for this approach must take care not to train people that are not part its constituency.

The participants were also equipped on the notion of separation of powers. After the training the participants were able to identify three arms of governance namely, administration, legislature and the judicature. These organs were also identified by their varying functions. The function of the Administration was imparted as basically to execute and implement the laws of the state. It is the policy structure of governance. It is the one that is normally called, although sometime too simplistically, the government. The administrative powers in Lesotho are reposed in the cabinet. Whereas the legislature in Lesotho discharges basically three responsibilities viz: to make laws, to appropriate public funds and to oversee the public expenditure. The participants were also equipped on the structure of the legislature in Lesotho as having two houses of parliament; the national assembly which is composed of 120 members and the senate composed of 33 senators. The judicature was discussed as basically comprising the courts of law and their function of dispensing with justice through the interpretation of law.

The participants were particularly trained on the importance of the separation of these three arms governance in a democracy. If these organs remain severed there are checks and balances and as such the idea of limited government easily prospers and the end result is that the liberty of the subjects is assured.

Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)
The object of this session was to equip the trainees with the understanding of the role of IEC in elections and to critically asses its independence. The participants were also equipped with the understanding on the structure, tenure of office, powers, duties and functions of the commission.
The participants were equipped to the effect that IEC is the creature of the constitution. It is charged with the responsibility to conduct free and fair elections and referenda in Lesotho. The following are the functions of the Commission:

• To delimit constituencies in Lesotho
• To supervise and control registration
• To maintain the general register of electors and keep same up to date
• To promote voter education
• To register political parties
• To declare the election results
• To adjudicate complaints of alleged irregularities in the electoral process.

In the performance of these functions the Commission shall not be subject to the control of any person or authority.

Elections

The rationale for this session was to equip the trainees with the understanding of the role of elections in a democracy and further to be able understand and identify a democratic election. Signposts of a democratic election such as free and fair election, regular election, competitive election and the constitutionality of the elections were also imparted

Voting and Voting Procedure
The purpose of session was to equip the trainees with the procedures tat are followed during actual voting. The session started of by brain storming the structure of the IEC during the polling day. At the date of election the structure of the Commission stands as thus:
Independent Electoral Commission: This is the national structure. It is composed of three commissioners. It is the commission that bears the overall responsibility during the election period.
Director of Elections: The director is right below the commission in term of responsibility on the election. The director is the one who even issues the election timetable.
Area Electoral Officer: is the one who is in charge of the elections at the district level.
Returning Officer: is the one who is in charge of returning the election results to the headquarters for declaration. The returning officer consolidates the results at the constituency level. The returning officer declares the results at the constituency level.
Presiding officer: is the one who presides at the polling station. The Presiding officer opens the polling station and closes it. S/he is the one who declares the results at the polling station level. S/he also has the responsibility to ensure that election at the polling station is conducted without breach of the electoral laws.

At the polling station there are other polling officers namely
List Checker: is the one who check the identity documents and the whether they the intending elector appears of the voters roll. S/he is the first polling officer who cancels the names of the electors on the roll.
Ink Checker/marker: is the one who check the indelible ink used on the voters that have already voted. S/he is the one, after checking, who marks the finger to indicate that the elector has already voted.
Third Polling officer: is the one who writes the number of the voter on the ballot paper counterfoil. S/he also issues the ballot paper and appends the IEC stamp on the ballot paper. S/He is the issuing the constituency ballot paper.
Fourth Polling Officer: Directs the voter on the correct ballot box after inspecting the IEC stamp on it.
Party Ballot Paper Issuer: Like the constituency ballot paper issuer, s/he inserts the voter’s number on the ballot paper counterfoil. S/he then issues the party ballot paper after appending the IEC stamp on it.


Stages in Voting
First Stage: The voter enters the polling stages and produces to the polling officer the identity document, it being the voter identity card, passport licence or any other document. After the production of such identity, the polling officer check the identity against the name of the voter on the voters roll. If the officer is satisfied that the names on the roll correspond with the one on the identity, the name of the voter on the roll is cancelled.

Second stage: This is the stage of ink checking and marking. The ink is checked to verify that the voter has not voted after which the inked is marked on the finger of voter.

Third stage: The voter’s number is inserted on the counterfoil and the voter is issued with the constituency ballot paper. The polling officer gives the voter the ballot paper already indicating how it should be folded after voting. The IEC stamp is appended at the back of the ballot paper to authenticate it.

Fourth Stage: the voter enters the secret booth to vote. Voting is done by making a tick, cross or any other mark in the box adjacent to candidate or party of preference. After voting, the ballot paper is folded in such a manner that the IEC mark is still conspicuous at the back of the ballot paper.

Fifth Stage: The voter approaches the ballot box and shows the IEC mark on the ballot paper to the officer. The officer then inspects the mark and returns the paper to the voter who then inserts the ballot in the right ballot box.

Sixth stage: When the voter has voted for the constituency representative through the constituency ballot, s/he then has to vote for the party. The voter provides the voters card again for the number to be entered in the counterfoil. Then the officer gives the voter the party ballot in the same manner it was done with the constituency ballot.

Seventh Stage: The voter then votes in the same manner as in the constituency ballot stage and then leaves the polling station immediately after voting.

Electoral system
The purpose of this session was to equip the trainees with the principles and mode of voting under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system to be used by Lesotho in the forthcoming election. The session was conducted through the breakaway sessions. The following important information was cross-shared with and amongst the trainees:

Voting under MMP
As the name suggests, MMP is the combination of two electoral system namely First-Past the Post and Proportional Representation. Under this model an elector uses two ballots; the constituency ballot and party ballot. However the votes are counted separately. The constituency votes are used to find the candidate at the constituency level with the highest votes. The party votes are still counted and announced at the polling station but unlike the party votes, the final figures are tallied and aggregated at national level to ascertains the parties proportion nationwide.

Quota and allocation of seats
The National Assembly in Lesotho is composed of 120 members, 80 from the constituencies and 40 from the proportional representation of parties nationwide. The quota is the number that is arrived at through division of the total number of votes received by different parties with the total number of seats (120 seats).

1st Step: The total party votes for each party are added and recorded
2nd Step: After adding the total party votes, all the total for the party votes are added to get the total votes.
3rd step: The total votes divided by the number of seats in parliament constitutes the quota of votes. e.g:

Total votes (nationwide)
__________ = Quota of votes
120 Seats

4th Step: The quota obtained as above mentioned is used to divide each party’s total votes to acquire the party’s quota of votes. The party’s quota of votes determines the number of seats that a party gets in the provisional allocation of seats. The final figures obtained at this stage are called “the provisional allocation of compensatory seats”.

Several examples were used to demonstrate how this model works under different scenarios. In a nutshell the model was intensively discussed.

Community Visitations
At the training tree community visitations were undertaken. The purpose of these visitations was double-pronged. Firstly, they were practical part of the training to test the trainees and give them the public confidence. On the other hand they were step in the advancement of the voter education to the communities. The voter education was done through Pitsos in collaboration with he local authorities concerned. The methodology used to impart the information was participatory whereby the participants (community) and the presenters (trainees) interacted on the thematic areas chosen. There were presentations on voter education after which there were mock elections for the communities simulating voting at the polling station.

These community visitations were very fruitful for both the communities and the trainees as both sides benefited from the Pitsos

Other Civic And Voter Education Areas Touched

The training other incidental areas in voter education that will best enable the trainees to best appreciate the electoral processes in in Lesotho such as:
The role of political parties in Election processes: how the parties are registered, their code of conduct, how they construct PR lists and how they nominate constituency candidates
Safeguards for the free and fair election: Election Observers, Party agents, Media etc
Other incidental matters relating to the electoral system were discussed such as

3.1 whether the candidate a candidate can run for the election where his party has elected not to field the candidates

3.2 whether a person can appear as the candidate for the constituency and at the same time be on the list of the party

3.3 whether a party does not meet the quota can be represented in parliament

3.4 whether the number of members of parliament can be lower than 120 in parliament

3.5 whether there is by-election under MMP

3.6 Whether floor-crossing is permitted for PR parliamentarians

3.7 Whether a party whose constituency votes outnumber its share under PR can get its PR share

The Concept of Constitutional Democracy
The object of this session was to enable the trainees to understand the role of the constitution in the democracy and thus understand the constitution as the basis for the democratic election. Using the experiential learning method the participants were equipped with the understanding that the constitution is the supreme law of the land and it is the one that provides the framework for any legislative, administrative and juridical actions. It is the one that creates the fundamental structures of governance. The constitution is the one that tests the validity of the Acts of parliament. If any law is inconsistent with the constitution such law, to the extents of such conflict with the constitution, shall be void to the extent of such inconsistency. The emphasis was also laid on the notion that for any election to be democratic, it must have the basis in the constitution.

Conclusion: Measured against its objective, and a larger goal of the LCN Election programme the Training was a great success for the member organisations. As earlier demonstrated the objective of the training was to equip the member organisations with voter education so that they can conduct voter education individually and collectively. This objective was squarely achieved as deduced from the participants’ evaluative comments.