Parliamentary elections in Lesotho 1993

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The parliamentary elections in Lesotho 1993 took place on March 27, 1993 in the Kingdom of Lesotho . The National Assembly was elected, which elects the Prime Minister and thus the government. The distribution of the 65 mandates was determined by majority voting.

Starting position

Lesotho only returned to democracy in 1993 after seven years of military dictatorship . In 1991 the ban on political activity was lifted. The last election was scheduled in 1985 by the then ruling Basotho National Party (BNP). However, after all opposition parties refused to participate, the BNP MPs were declared elected without a vote. The last election was in 1970. At that time, the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) under Ntsu Mokhehle had won the most votes, but the defeated BNP had the elections canceled in order not to have to give up power.

Major General Elias Phisoana Ramaema led the government until the 1993 election ; after the election he temporarily withdrew from politics. The BCP competed with Ntsu Mokhehle as last year in 1970. The BNP under its chairman Evaristus Retšelisitsoe Sekhonyana also took part in the election.

736,930 eligible voters were registered before the elections.

procedure

Candidates from twelve parties and independents were available for election . The election took place on March 27, 1993, a Saturday, in 65 constituencies.

Result

532,678 people (72.3% of those eligible to vote) took part in the election. The BCP won all 65 seats thanks to majority voting. The BCP received 74.5% of the vote, the BNP 22.6%, the monarchist Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) 1.4% and other parties and independents 1.3%.

The elections were recognized by independent observers as free and fair. The high percentage of votes in the BCP was seen by many observers as a reaction to the 1970 election, which was canceled. Mokhehle was elected as the new Prime Minister by Parliament on April 2, 1993.

consequences

The BNP and other losing parties did not accept the election result. In particular, the BNP complained that it could not have any MPs. Party leader Sekhonyana claimed that the results had been falsified, which can be seen in the “automatic” regularity of the voting results. BNP's lawsuit against the election results was dismissed by the High Court. In January 1994 mutinies broke out in the Lesotho Defense Force , whereupon statesmen Frederik Willem de Klerk and Nelson Mandela formed on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Organization of African Unity (OAU) - shortly before his election as President of South Africa -, Ketumile Masire and Robert Mugabe sought mediation. In July 1994 the Deputy Prime Minister Selometsi Baholo was murdered by soldiers. The following month, the Mokhehle government was overthrown by putschists who defended the BNP, the Lesotho Defense Force and King Letsie III. close ones. Only after four weeks was she reinstated under pressure from Mandela, Masire and Mugabe. In 1997 Mokhehle left the BCP with around two thirds of the MPs and founded the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Results on the EISA website , accessed on February 12, 2016
  2. ^ A b c d Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 96.
  3. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , pp. 338-339.