Lesotho general election, 2015

Lesotho general election, 2015

28 February 2015

All 120 seats to the National Assembly 61 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Pakalitha Mosisili Tom Thabane Mothetjoa Metsing Party Democratic Congress All Basotho Convention Lesotho Congress for Democracy Seats before 48 30 26 Seats won 47 46 12 Seat change 1 16 14 Popular vote 218,573 215,022 56,477 Percentage 38.37% 37.75% 9.91%

Prime Minister before election Tom Thabane All Basotho Convention Prime Minister Designate Pakalitha Mosisili Democratic Congress

A general election in Lesotho was held on 28 February 2015 for all 120 seats of the National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Lesotho, more than two years ahead of schedule due to the 2014 political crisis.^[1] Following mediation facilitated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC),^[2] King Letsie III on the advice of the incumbent Prime Minister Tom Thabane, dissolved the Eighth Parliament and called a snap election.^[3]

Lesotho uses the mixed-member proportional representation voting system. More than 1.2 million voters had been registered by the Independent Electoral Commission.^[4] The army was confined to the barracks on the election day.^[5] The opposition Democratic Congress managed to form a coalition government as no party achieved an outright majority.^[6] Voter turnout was 48%.

Background

After the 2012 election, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili's Democratic Congress failed to attain a majority; and thus a coalition government was formed among the three opposition parties: All Basotho Convention (ABC), Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the Basotho National Party (BCP). The government was led by ABC's Tom Thabane, who served as the new Prime Minister; whilst the leader of LCD, Mothetjoa Metsing was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister.^[7]

Following political tensions and the suspension of the National Assembly over the controversial change of the head of the army from Lieutenant General Kennedy Tlali Kamoli to Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, an attempted coup d'état forced Prime Minister Tom Thabane to flee the country. He then returned under cover of South African and Namibian police, who guarded him around-the-clock. Under the auspices of the SADC, mediation led by South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa resulted in a call for an early election. The national elections took place on 28 February.^[8] Thabane was backed by the national police, while his deputy Mothetjoa Metsing was backed by the army, which refused to recognise the change in army leadership.

On 17 October, the National Assembly reconvened in a bid to avert the political crisis, with Thabane's advisor Tumisang Mosotho saying "It’s a milestone. We want to hope this is the first step in the right direction, in liberating our country from the danger that has surrounded us these past few months".^[9] Senate Chief Whip Khoabane Theko said: "This is what we can call maybe the beginning of the process that takes us to the elections, because we are going to have a budget and maybe deliberate other laws... ahead of our elections from here on".^[10]

Electoral system

The 120 members of the National Assembly are elected in two groups; 80 are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting, with 40 elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. Voters cast one vote.^[11] The 40 proportional seats are allocated on a compensatory system, in order to reflect the number of votes received by each party.^[12]

Campaign

Thabane said that he would run again seeking a new mandate after signing the Maseru Facilitation Declaration.^[13]

Results

Election observer missions were deployed to the kingdom from the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations and SADC; and were led by former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, former Botswana President Festus Mogae and South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane respectively.^[2]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated the citizens for conducting a peaceful election.^[14] The SADC Election Observer Mission concluded that the elections were "peaceful, transparent, credible, free and fair."^[2]

The Democratic Congress formed a coalition government with the Lesotho Congress for Democracy and five other smaller parties as no party achieved an outright majority. Pakalitha Mosisili will take over as Prime Minister whilst incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing will retain his position.^[6]

  ABC: 46 seats

  Others: 8 seats

  BNP: 7 seats

  LCD: 12 seats

  DC: 47 seats

Party		Votes	%	Seats			+/–
				Constituency	PR	Total
	Democratic Congress	218,573	38.37	37	10	47	–1
	All Basotho Convention	215,022	37.75	40	6	46	+16
	Lesotho Congress for Democracy	56,467	9.91	2	10	12	–14
	Basotho National Party	31,508	5.53	1	6	7	+2
	Popular Front for Democracy	9,829	1.73	0	2	2	–1
	Reformed Congress of Lesotho	6,731	1.18	0	2	2	New
	National Independent Party	5,404	0.95	0	1	1	–1
	Marematlou Freedom Party	3,413	0.60	0	1	1	0
	Basutoland Congress Party	2,721	0.48	0	1	1	0
	Lesotho People's Congress	1,951	0.34	0	1	1	0
	Basotho Democratic National Party	1,901	0.33	0	0	0	–1
	All Democratic Corporation	1,689	0.30	0	0	0	0
	Basotho Batho Democratic Party	1,285	0.23	0	0	0	–1
	Hamore Democratic Party	1,265	0.22	0	0	0	New
	Baena	1,259	0.22	0	0	0	New
	Lekhotla La Mekhoa le Moetlo	1,008	0.18	0	0	0	0
	Community Freedom Movement	941	0.17	0	0	0	New
	Progressive Democrats	751	0.13	0	0	0	New
	Basotho African National Congress	582	0.10	0	0	0	New
	Lesotho Workers' Party	577	0.10	0	0	0	–1
	Tsebe Social Democrats	531	0.09	0	0	0	New
	African Unity Movement	390	0.07	0	0	0	0
	White Horse Party	174	0.03	0	0	0	0
	Independents	5,651	0.99	0	–	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		7,754	–	–	–	–	–
Total		577,377	100	80	40	120	–
Registered voters/turnout		1,209,192	47.75	–	–	–	–
Source: IEC Lesotho, Election Passport

References

1. "Lesotho votes in elections hoped to resolve tensions". Deutsche Welle. 28 February 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
2. "Statement by SADC EOM" (PDF). Maseru: Southern African Development Community. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
3. "Dissolution of the Parliament" (PDF) (Press release). Office of Government Secretary. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 2015-03-02.
4. "Health of the Election Voters Register". Independent Electoral Commission. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
5. "Army confined to barracks as Lesotho votes". News24. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
6. "Lesotho's opposition forms coalition after tight election". Reuters. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
7. "Will Lesotho election be peaceful?". BBC News. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
8. Jordan, Michael (13 February 2015). "Climate of uncertainty and fear haunts upcoming Lesotho poll". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
9. Lesotho parliament to reconvene in bid to end crisis Business Day Live, 17 October 2014
10. Lesotho Parliament Set to Open on Friday Voice of America, 16 October 2014
11. Scott Rosenberg; Richard F. Weisfelder (13 June 2013). Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press. pp. 146–. ISBN 978-0-8108-7982-9.
12. Electoral system IPU
13. Lesotho PM Thabane to Seek Re-Election Next Year Voice of America, 6 October 2014
14. "Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the Parliamentary Elections in Lesotho". United Nations. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.

External links

• IEC Lesotho