Parliamentary elections in Lesotho 2007
The parliamentary elections in Lesotho 2007 took place on February 17, 2007 in the Kingdom of Lesotho . The National Assembly was elected, which elects the Prime Minister and thus the government.
Starting position
Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili has been Prime Minister since 1998 . He was a member of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), which he had founded as a split from the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). In October 2006 Tom Thabane and 17 other LCD MPs left the parliamentary group and founded the All Basotho Convention (ABC), so that Mosilisi's party only had 61 of 120 MPs. Mosisili then asked King Letsie III. to schedule new elections a few months before the regular date in May. The election date was announced on November 24, 2006. In addition to the LCD and the ABC, the National Independent Party (NIP), which was closely related to the LCD, the ABC-related Lesotho Workers' Party (LWP), the former governing parties BCP and Basotho National Party (BNP) and the left-wing Popular Front appeared for Democracy (PFD) and the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP), which is close to the royal family . The parties Lesotho People's Congress (LPC) and Basutoland African Congress (BAC), which also emerged from the BCP, had come together to form the Alliance of Congress Parties (ACP).
Since 2002, in addition to 80 direct candidates, 40 list candidates have been elected who belong to parties that are disproportionately represented according to direct mandates - calculated on the number of 120 MPs. Following an initiative by Mosilisi in May 2006, the proportion of women among the candidates was to be increased.
The distribution of seats after the 2002 elections was as follows: LCD 79 (all directly elected), BNP 21, NIP 5, LPC 5, BAC 3, BCP 3, LWP, PFD, MFP and National Progressive Party (NPP) 1 seat each.
916,230 eligible voters were registered before the elections.
procedure
Candidates in the 80 constituencies and politicians on electoral lists for the remaining 40 seats were available for election. Each voter had two votes. The LCD and the ABC appealed to the voters. to choose the NIP or LWP with the second vote. The election took place on February 17, 2007 (Saturday). The elections were observed by representatives of the SADC . The counting of the constituencies took several days.
Result
The constituency MPs come from three parties: 62 from the LCD, 17 from the ABC and one MP from the ACP. The following members of parliament were elected via party lists: NIP 21, LWP 10, BNP 3, ACP, PFD, Basotho Batho Democratic Party (BBDP), BCP, Basotho Democratic National Party (BDNP) and MFP 1. The 62nd seat of the LCD was first after a by-election held on June 30, 2007 after a candidate died in Makhaleng constituency .
Thus LCD and the allied NIP together made 83 of the 120 mandates. Around 29 percent of the MPs were women, significantly more than before.
442,963 people (50.2% of those eligible to vote) took part in the election.
consequences
Mosisili was able to remain Prime Minister after this election. Tom Thabane and other opposition leaders criticized the slow counting and decisions of the electoral commission in some constituencies. Thabane described the election as "free, but not fair," while SADC officials had no objections.
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