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Sub Saharan Africa
Lesotho |
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Country information
POLITICS
Party politics have been fractious and unstable. In 1997 the BCP split and the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) was created which included the Prime Minister and his Cabinet: the BCP then formed the parliamentary opposition. At the May 1998 general election, the LCD won 65% of the votes and secured 79 of the 80 seats. Opposition parties alleged fraud, although international observers judged the poll to have been free and fair. Civil disorder broke out in August 1998. Many people lost their lives as the main towns were burned and looted. A Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeeping force entered Lesotho in September 1998 and remained until April 1999. An Interim Political Authority (IPA) comprising of two representatives from each of the 12 political parties was set up in October 1998 to review the electoral system and prepare for new general elections. The IPA modified the electoral system to create a combination of simple majority voting and proportional representation. Now, 80 parliamentary seats are elected by simple majority (first past the post) vote and 40 are elected by proportional representation. The Senate has 33 Senators, 22 traditional Chiefs and 11 appointed Senators.Elections in May 2002 returned the LCD to power. Teams of observers sent by SADC and the Commonwealth declared them to be free and fair. A general election in February 2007 resulted in another victory for the LCD, winning 61 of Parliament’s 120 directly elected and proportional seats, with its alliance partner, the National Independent Party (NIP) winning 21. The All Basotho Convention (ABC), which fared much better than other opposition parties in recent years, helped to organise a 3-day strike in protest at the allocation of proportional parliamentary seats. SADC stepped in to mediate amidst tension between the opposition and the Government. The mediation process ended inconclusively (indeed, some maintain it continues).
Lesotho’s first local government elections were held in April 2005. Voter turnout - just over 30% - was poor. Although generally accepted to have been free and fair, opposition parties accused the ruling LCD, which took the majority of council seats, of disadvantaging them through the introduction of a 30% quota for female candidates. This, however, was the target set by the SADC principles for the participation of women in politics and, in a landmark ruling in July 2005, the Lesotho Court of Appeal upheld the country’s gender quota.
On 22 April 2009 gunmen attacked State House in Maseru in an apparent assassination attempt on Prime Minister Mosisili. The Prime Minister was unharmed.
BBC News Country Profile: Lesotho
HUMAN RIGHTS
Lesotho is a signatory to the 6 principal international human rights treaties. It retains the death penalty on the statute book, although there has been a de facto moratorium on executions since the 1990s. The UK regularly lobbies the government to abolish the death penalty.The government has a generally good human rights record though there are increasing incidents of police brutality. Domestic and international non-governmental organisations operate in Lesotho without restriction, and publish their reports openly. The media is mainly free and independent, but communications legislation has been used to muzzle dissenting opinion, as in the case of Harvest FM, in 2008.
The Ministry of Justice, with the help of the UK, is taking steps to address the main areas of the criminal justice sector that require attention, such as prison overcrowding and lengthy waits for cases to go to trial.
Lesotho is currently struggling with a large influx of illegal small arms coming in from South Africa. Criminals trafficking in cannabis (known locally as dagga) are the main culprits in illegal firearms’ acquisition. Cannabis cultivation provides significant earnings to subsistence farmers.
Human Rights Annual Report 2006
