Lesotho snap election raises curtain for looming continent’s poll season

A citizen casts her ballot at a polling station in Nyakosoba on June 3, 2017, during Lesotho's general election. Dr Mosisili, the leader of the Democratic Congress Party, served as premier from May 1998 to June 2012. PHOTO | GIANLUIGI GUERCIA | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Matters are made worse by the fact that Lesotho has been unstable ever since 2014 coup attempt.
  • The election was a curtain raiser for polls in countries like Kenya, Angola, Liberia, among others.

The snap general election in Lesotho today was a reminder of how delicate the political situation in the country has been in recent times.

Indeed, turbulence and endless instability have reigned in the small mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa.

It has been hit by coups since independence from Britain in 1966.

INSTABILITY
Still, snap elections like the Lesotho one have taken part in many countries though for different reasons.

Poignantly, less than a week after the poll, Great Britain will be holding its own snap general election, occasioned by the Brexit storm.

Unfortunately for Lesotho, even as its snap poll was held — perhaps one too many — there were many misgivings, and analysts fear the country could be set for yet another round of instability.

COUP ATTEMPT
The fears are real, particularly given that the last two polls have not produced a winner with a majority in the country of two million people.

Matters are made worse by the fact that Lesotho has been unstable ever since 2014 coup attempt.

PM Thomas Thabane fled to South Africa in rather comical circumstances.

After intervention by the Southern African Development Community, Thabane returned to the country with two other opposition leaders and vowed to win back power.

CONTROL OF LESOTHO
Before the 2014 disruption, Thabane — the leader of All Basotho Convention — had fallen out with deputy PM and coalition partner Mothetjoa Metsing.

The latter was the leader of Lesotho Congress for Democracy.

The short-lived marriage of convenience between ABC, LCD and Basotho National Party had begun in 2014 after the coalition assumed power on June 8, 2012.

Instructively, today’s election was the third in less than five years, and saw incumbent premier Pakalitha Mosisili and his predecessor Thomas Thabane resume their long-running battle to lead the country.

HUNG PARLIAMENT
Dr Mosisili, the leader of the Democratic Congress Party, served as premier from May 1998 to June 2012 when he lost to Thabane, but reclaimed it in the February 2015 snap election.

Dr Mosisili’s DC party won 47 of the 120 parliamentary seats, followed by ABC, the erstwhile dominant party in the ousted coalition, which got 46.

Unfortunately, it resulted in a hung parliament since none of the 23 parties won the minimum 61 seats needed to form a government.

Consequently, the “Congress movement” parties banded and formed the government under Dr Mosisili, who found himself heading a wobbly seven-party coalition.

ELECTIONS IN AFRICA
After assuming power Dr Mosilili could not sit easy, however, given the infighting that became a hallmark of the ruling coalition government.

Just two years after he came to power, the hapless PM’s goose was cooked when the 120-member Parliament voted to depose him, paving the way for the snap election.

The election was a curtain raiser for polls in countries like Kenya, Angola, Liberia, among others.