All Basotho Convention

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The All Basotho Convention (ABC; Sesotho : Kobo-tata ea Basotho ; German for example: “Assembly of all Basotho”, kobo-tata is literally a woolen blanket that covers many people as a piece of clothing) is a party in Lesotho . It was founded in 2006 and became the second largest party in the 2012 general election . From then on, she provided the Prime Minister with Tom Thabane until 2015 . In 2017 she received the most seats, so Thabane became Prime Minister again. However, the majority of the ABC MPs opposed Thabane in 2019 and in 2020 formed a coalition with other parties under Moeketsi Majoro , also ABC.

history

From 1998 the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) ruled with an absolute majority. In 2006, LCD politician Tom Thabane left the party with 16 MPs and founded the All Basotho Convention, which he chaired in 2007. It mainly attracted voters from the urban milieu. In the elections in February 2007 she received 17 direct seats, mainly in the area of ​​the capital Maseru . The ABC competed with the Lesotho Workers' Party (LWP) on a joint list that had a total of 27 mandates. This made the ABC / LWP the second strongest party.

In the elections on May 26, 2012, ABC received around 25 percent of the vote and 26 out of 80 direct mandates. Thanks to partial proportional representation , she received four more seats and thus got 30 of the 120 seats. Their strongholds were the districts of Maseru and Berea . The party of the former Prime Minister Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili , the Democratic Congress (DC), missed an absolute majority. Thabane announced that he would set up a coalition government with the LCD, the Popular Front for Democracy and the Basotho National Party (BNP), which would receive 64 of the 120 mandates. Mosisili then resigned on May 30, 2012 from the office of Prime Minister. On June 8, 2012, Thabane was sworn in as Prime Minister of a coalition government of ABC, LCD and BNP with the support of smaller parties. However, the coalition broke up in June 2014. On August 30, the Lesotho Defense Force tried to overthrow Thabane. To solve the state crisis in Lesotho in 2014 , it was decided to hold the next parliamentary elections in February 2015.

In the 2015 elections , the ABC received 40 direct seats and six proportional representation, while the DC won a total of 47 seats. The strongholds of the ABC were in the northwest and the urban regions. Despite the gains, Thabane had to give up the post of prime minister. In May 2015, Thabane fled to South Africa for fear of persecution. He is represented by General Secretary Samonyane Ntsekele. The remaining ABC deputies then boycotted the parliamentary sessions. In 2016 there were further threats against ABC parliamentarians; in August 2016, seven ABC MPs had already fled to South Africa. Thabane returned from his exile on February 12, 2017.

In the 2017 elections , the ABC received 51 seats. Thabane then formed a coalition government with the newly founded Alliance of Democrats , the BNP and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho (see also: Thabane II cabinet ).

In January 2018, Maliehe Prince Maliehe was appointed acting deputy party chairman. In February 2019, the party leadership was re-elected under Thabane. The vice-chancellor of the National University of Lesotho , Nqosa Mahao , was elected as the new deputy party chairman against Thabane's will, while Lebohang Hlaele, Thabane's son-in-law, became general secretary. Mahao first had to assert himself in a lawsuit against the party's National Executive Committee (NEC), which had not accepted his candidacy. Hlaele was dismissed as minister by Thabane after his election. In June 2019, Thabane expelled five NEC members elected in February, including Mahao and Hlaele, from the party. This led to physical confrontations at headquarters, and a few days later to mutual threats with firearms. At the beginning of July 2019, Thabane was suspended by his own party for six years by majority vote. Thabane also rejected this decision.

After Thabane stood trial for the murder of his second wife and announced his resignation, the party's NEC nominated the NEC chairman, Samuel Rapapa , as the successor candidate . The group, however, nominated the incumbent Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro on March 22, 2020 . The nomination was supported by other parties such as the DC, so Thabane resigned. Moeketsi was sworn in as Prime Minister on May 20, 2020. Thabane still sees himself as party leader.

presentation

The party colors are yellow, red and green. A sun with red points serves as a symbol.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report with mention of the largest parties ( memento of October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), (PDF file, Sesotho)
  2. ^ A. Mabille, H. Dieterlen: Sesuto-English Dictionary. Morija Sesuto Book Depot, Morija 1985, p. 151.
  3. ↑ 2012 election results ( Memento from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English; PDF, 13.3 MB)
  4. ↑ Results at iec.org.ls ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF)
  5. ^ Opposition meets Ramaphosa over return. Lesotho Times, August 12, 2016, accessed August 13, 2016
  6. ↑ Lesotho teeters as former PM returns. timeslive.co.za on February 14, 2017, accessed February 14, 2017
  7. ^ 'I was compromise choice for ABC deputy', Maliehe. Lesotho Times, February 3, 2018, accessed February 3, 2018
  8. ↑ 'Marafaele Mohloboli: Mahao wins ABC leadership contest. Lesotho Times, February 12, 2019, accessed February 17, 2019
  9. ↑ Chaos as 5 NEC members of Lesotho's ABC expelled. ewn.co.za on June 18, 2019, accessed June 18, 2019
  10. ↑ Pascalinah Kabi: ABC factions in newar gun battle. Lesotho Times, June 28, 2019, accessed June 30, 2019
  11. ^ The Citizen / AFP : Lesotho prime minister Thabane suspended from own party amid bitter political row. citizen.co.za on July 6, 2019, accessed July 8, 2019
  12. ↑ Michael Vosatka: Lesotho's murderous prime minister insists on immunity. derstandard.at of February 24, 2020, accessed on February 25, 2020
  13. ↑ 'Marafaele Mohloboli: Lesotho: Majoro ready to take over. allafrica.com, April 4, 2020, accessed April 23, 2020
  14. ↑ Michael Vosatka: Power struggle in Lesotho under the sign of Corona. derstandard.at of April 16, 2020, accessed on April 16, 2020