Masire walks out of talks

2009-07-10 08:42

Maseru - Former Botswana president Ketumile Masire on Thursday ended a mediation mission to Lesotho, a day after starting talks aimed at ending a political impasse.

Masire left citing a breakdown of dialogue with the government.

"This is regrettable because the seminar would have provided a crucial opportunity to expertly identify the precise weaknesses in the application of the Mixed Member Proportion (MMP) model," said Masire.

Masire was sent to Lesotho by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to mediate a dispute over the allocation of seats in parliament.

Common ground

But the talks stalled in 2008, after Masire said he was struggling to find common ground between the parties.

Opposition parties claim that the MMP model was not followed when 21 seats won by the opposition in a 2007 general election were allocated to the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).

A court dismissed a complaint lodged by the Marematlou Freedom Party over the matter.

Tom Thabane leader of the opposition All Basotho Convention party said Masire could not be blamed for the failure.

"He did his assignment well and we respect him for that. You cannot force a horse to drink water when it does not want to," he said, adding that "the LCD does not want peace".

- AFP