Description of Electoral System:

The King is the Head of State and is chosen by the College of Chiefs, in accordance with the customary law of Lesotho. The Government is headed by the Prime Minister who is appointed by the King on the advice of the Council of State and must enjoy the support of the majority of the National Assembly. The ministers are appointed from members of Parliament by the King acting on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Parliament consists of two houses, the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly has 120 seats. Its members are elected by direct popular vote using the mixed member proportional system - 80 in single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system and 40 from one national constituency using party-list proportional representation. Proportion representation seats are allocated so as to compensate parties for the discrepancy between percentage votes obtained and percentage constituency seats won.  Members serve a fixed five year term. The Senate is made up of 22 hereditary Principal Chiefs and 11 Senators nominated by the King on the advice of the Council of State.

Politics in Lesotho

Events:

Workshop: Promoting Intra - Party Democracy in Lesotho

EISA conducted two workshops for political parties in the southern districts of Qachas' Nek and Quthing in Lesotho from 19th - 21st January 2009.

Workshop: Promoting Intra - Party Democracy in Lesotho

EISA will hold two back to back workshops for political parties in Mokhotlong Districts in Lesotho from 10th to 15th November 2008.

Worshop: Political Parties workshop

EISA hosted capacity building workshop for Political Parties in Lesotho, from 9 - 11 April 2008

Conference: dispute resolution

A conference was held to promote regional dialogue on election related disputes and share experiences across countries in terms of best practice in managing them entitled Lesotho's 2007 General Election: Challenges & prospects for the constructive management of post election disputes.

The Kingdom of Lesotho became independent on 4 October 1966 with a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. However, when the ruling Basotholand National Party (BNP) party realised that it was losing the 1970 elections, its leader, Chief Jonathan, executed a coup and instituted a period of one party rule that lasted until January 1986. At this point the military seized power and maintained a corrupt and inept regime until popular pressure forced a transition to democracy in the early 1990s resulting in democratic multi-party elections in 1993.

The new democracy continued to be plagued by instability. The even distribution of the opposition vote, combined with the single member plurality constituency system, resulted in the ruling party winning a disproportionate number of seats. Thus in 1993 the Basotho Congress Party (BCP) won 74.7% of the vote and all the seats; in 1978 the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) won 60.7% of the vote and 98.7% of the seats. Unrest amongst opposition parties at their marginalisation in the political system culminated in an attempted coup after the 1998 elections. This was suppressed by SADC troops at the request of the government.

As part of a general political settlement the mixed member compensatory system was adopted to ensure that the opposition obtained representation in the National Assembly. Thus in the 2002 election the LCD won 54.8% of the vote and 65.8% of the seats, while 9 opposition parties were now represented in the National Assembly.

Previous election

DID YOU KNOW?

Lesotho is the only SADC country that uses a compensatory Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) Electoral system.

In the February 2007 National Assembly election the ruling party (BCP) and the main opposition (All Basotho Congress), made arrangements with smaller parties whereby the larger parties contested only the constituencies and the smaller parties submitted only party lists for the compensatory seats; these lists then included members of the larger party. The understanding was that the smaller partner's supporters would vote for the larger partner's candidates on the constituency ballots; in exchange the larger partner's supporters would vote for the smaller partner on the party ballots. The opposition parties disputed the way that seats were allocated as a result of this and discontent manifested itself in a general strike in March 2007. The dispute has been referred to SADC Ministerial Troika for mediation (For more details see: Conflict over seat allocation and 2007 National Assembly election results).

Next election

The next National Assembly election is scheduled for 26 May 2012.