2007年VOA标准英语-Former Botswana President to Mediate Lesotho Po

By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
22 June 2007

The former president of Botswana is flying to Lesotho Monday to mediate¹ a dispute over parliamentary seats that led to attacks on political leaders and a nighttime curfew. Correspondent Scott Bobb spoke² with Ketumile Masire and has this report from Johannesburg.

Ketumile Masire (2003 file photo)

Botswana's former President Ketumile Masire says the dispute that has paralyzed Lesotho politics for weeks stems from two basic disagreements.

"One is the interpretation³ of the electoral law and the other is just the disagreement between the government and the opposition⁴," he said.

The confrontation⁵ has been simmering since parliamentary elections in February. But it came to a head last week when unidentified gunmen attacked the homes of three government ministers and the leader of the main opposition group.

Police are investigating the attacks and a night time curfew has been imposed.

The February elections were judged to be fair despite a short campaign period and some procedural irregularities.

Under reforms introduced in 2002, 80 seats were chosen by direct ballot⁶. Forty more were to be allocated⁷ proportionally according to each party's overall results.

The purpose was to give smaller parties greater representation in the assembly.

The ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy won 61 of the directly elected seats and with its share of proportional seats was set to dominate parliament.

However, the opposition protested after the winning party forged an alliance with a smaller party that gave it overwhelming control of the assembly.

Mr. Masire says his team has proposed that international experts who helped draft the electoral reforms resolve this dispute.

"We have contacted those experts to come back and see, one, if the law has been framed according to their advice and, two, if it was in accord with the intention of the Basotho," he said.

He says both sides say they will accept the experts' ruling.

Mr. Masire calls the second issue one of human relations between political leaders with long-standing rivalries⁸.

The elections in 1998 were marred⁹ by violence, which was only quelled¹⁰ after the arrival of troops from Botswana and South Africa.

The next elections, in 2002, were peaceful and judged to be fair although there were disputes over procedural matters.

Mr. Masire said his team will seek to determine the root cause of the country's electoral disputes.

"This is the question," he said. "Is there really a problem or is the problem just that after every election the Basuthos find a reason to complain about the outcome of the elections?"

Mr. Masire, who retired¹¹ in 1998 after 18 years as president, was asked to mediate the Lesotho dispute by the Southern African Development Community, SADC.

SADC announced the trip Thursday recommending that a formal political dialogue be initiated¹² to resolve the stalemate.

Preliminary meetings were held last week with political, diplomatic, religious and civic¹³ leaders. They drafted an agenda and agreed to begin what was called the main dialogue on Monday.

1 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

6 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

7 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

8 rivalries   

n.敌对，竞争，对抗( rivalry的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new government was torn by rivalries. 新政府由于各派对立而四分五裂。 来自辞典例句
• Rivalries could bring about pain and hatred or give rise to fighting. 竞争会带来痛苦、仇恨，或者引起争斗。 来自互联网

9 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

10 quelled   

v.（用武力）制止，结束，镇压( quell的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Thanks to Kao Sung-nien's skill, the turmoil had been quelled. 亏高松年有本领，弹压下去。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
• Mr. Atkinson was duly quelled. 阿特金森先生被及时地将了一军。 来自辞典例句

11 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

12 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

13 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。