After last month’s election in Lesotho produced no clear winner, the opposition Democratic Congress formed a coalition with six smaller parties. In an email interview, Dimpho Motsamai, a policy analyst and researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, discussed Lesotho’s election.
WPR: What are the political implications of the indecisive election outcome, both for the incoming government and Lesotho more broadly?
Dimpho Motsamai: Lesotho’s government is formed on a constitutional requirement of a party winning 50 percent plus 1 of a total of 120 seats in the House of Assembly. The constitution also demands that a government be formed within 14 days after the announcement of the election outcome. Like in 2012, the outcome resulted in a hung parliament where no single party had a decisive majority to constitute a government. To resolve this impasse, parties have to form alliances to establish the majority necessary to form a government. As in 2012, this was done very quickly.