Annual report on Basutoland / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Office of Commonwealth Relations.
Date:
[1960]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Basutoland / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/154 (page 6)
    At 2.30 p.m. on the same day the Paramount Chief, the High Commissioner and the Resident Commissioner attended the formal opening of the Legislative Council in the renovated Council Chamber. After reading messages of goodwill from Her Majesty the Queen and the Secretary of State, the High Commissioner, His Excellency Sir John Maud, G.C.B., C.B.E., said, in the course of his address to the Council: “Gentlemen, it seems to me a very happy fact that these two great oc¬ casions both take place on the same day, ‘Letsatsi la Moshoe- shoe’, (Moshesh Day) because I belive that the new Paramount Chief, with whom I am so delighted to share this platform this afternoon, and the new Constitution, which I am so de¬ lighted to share in inaugurating this afternoon, will prove two powerful allies for the good of Basutoland.” The First Meeting of the First Session of the Legislative Council took place between the 11th March and the 6th June, but within this period there were adjournments from the 15th March to the 12th April, and from the 14th April to the ] 0th May. The details of the new Constitution are outlined in the Chapter on Administration in Part III of this Report. After many months of preparation, the first elections to the new District Councils were held on the 20th January. 162 seats were at stake, and of these 73 were won by the Basutoland Congress Party, 51 by Independents, 22 by the Basutoland National Party, 15 by the Marema Tlou Party, and none by the Progressive Party. Altogether a total of 35,302 votes was cast, 12,787 for the Congress Party, 12,470 for the Independ¬ ents, 7,002 for the National Party, 2,812 for the Marema Tlou, and 231 for the Progressives. The total of votes cast represents 24 % of the total electorate, and at first this figure appears to be disappointingly low. But it must be borne in mind that the Register of Electors contains all eligible voters, and not just those who took the trouble to be registered, that at any given time a large proportion of the population is absent in the Union, and that communica¬ tions in many parts of the Territory are extremely difficult. The elected members of the District Councils then acted as electoral colleges to choose 40 members of the Legislative Council, and as a result of their voting 30 of the seats in the Council were won by the Congress Party, 5 by the Marema Tlou Party, 4 by Independents, and 1 by the National Party.