The Independent Electoral Commission in Lesotho’s 2022 Parliamentary Elections: Preparedness and Performance
Most assessments and analyses of Lesotho’s elections have focused on the post-election conflict. There has been little attention to the role of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as the key player with the constitutional mandate to ensure credible, free, and fair electoral processes. During the polls on 7 October 2022, the role of the IEC came to the fore in terms of the extent of their preparedness for and actual performance in managing the electoral processes. Adopting a qualitative approach that relies on interviews with purposefully selected respondents and document analysis, this paper assesses these two main aspects of the IEC. The paper argues that compared to previous elections from 2012, the IEC does not seem to have been adequately prepared to manage the October 2022 elections, and as such, it had a poor performance this time.
The Transition and Formation of Government after Lesotho’s 2022 Elections
The process of transitioning from one government to another and forming a new government after elections in Lesotho is often fraught with controversy and uncertainty. These problems can be attributed, by and large, to the lack of adequate rules and consistent constitutional practice. The 2022 elections have once again shone the spotlight on these longstanding problems. Like all other elections since 2012, the 2022 elections were inconclusive: no political party received an outright majority to form a government. Since the country uses a parliamentary system, the government depends on the confidence of the National Assembly and the life of the government is pegged to the life of Parliament. The end of the parliamentary term effectively means the end of the government. In terms of the Constitution, once Parliament is dissolved, elections must be held within three months. Within one month after the elections, a new Parliament must sit. While the Constitution provides for the appointment of the prime minister – the king appoints as prime minister a member of the National Assembly who will have the confidence of the House – there are no rules stipulating how the confidence of the House is to be determined. Likewise, the government’s position between the dissolution of Parliament and the forming of a new government is often opaque and precarious. This article examines these inadequacies in the context of the 2022 elections. The article uses content analysis – the examination of primary and secondary documents – to analyse the activities that took place during the transition and formation of a new government in the 2022 elections. The article concludes that the 2022 elections serve to confirm a longstanding problem of inadequate rules and consistent practice relating to the transition and formation of government.
The Impact of Intra-Party Conflicts on the Electoral Performance of the All Basotho Convention in Lesotho’s 2022 Elections
The literature on Lesotho’s politics and political parties, particularly after 2012, focuses on their alliances and coalitions, their relationships with the military and the seemingly instability of coalitions. There is less focus on intra-party instability and its impact on political party electoral performance. This article uses a critical literature review to analyse the poor electoral […]
Ethics in Electoral Democracies: A Critical Reflection on Lesotho’s 2022 Elections
This study is a critical reflection on how the positive impact of ethics in Lesotho’s political elections and democracy could be amplified for lasting peace and political stability. It is based on secondary data from available literature against the background of Lesotho’s existing, mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system. The MMP system has given birth to the political phenomenon of inconclusive electoral results and unstable coalition governments in recent years. This political phenomenon emanates from intra- and inter-party conflicts, which often led to undesirable and premature dissolutions of parliament and snap elections. Here, ethics should be understood as an essential component of a healthy process in electoral democracy and a practice necessary for rresting the enduring political instability in Lesotho.
Reasons For The Low Voter Turnout in Lesotho’s 2022 Elections
Voter turnout in Lesotho’s 2022 National Assembly elections was at an all-time low of 37%. Since the country returned to multi-party electoral democracy in 1993, voter turnout has steadily decreased. Studies have been undertaken in Lesotho and globally to investigate the reasons for this phenomenon. While the turnout in the 2022 elections is a continuation of the pattern of declining voter turnout in Lesotho and globally, factors specific to each election may provide further insight into this intractable problem. The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the main reasons for the low turnout in the 2022 elections. The study uses qualitative methodology: it relies on primary and secondary data sources such as reports, targeted interviews, newspapers and literature, and legislation. The paper uses Stockemerian clustering of turnout variables to contend that election-specific factors can help to explain the steep decrease in voter turnout in the 2022 elections in Lesotho. Those factors are poor civic and voter education, political fragmentation, and some institutionalist variables.
Women’s Representation in Lesotho’s Legislative Bodies: A Politico-Legal Analysis of the Effectiveness of Electoral Gender Quotas
Women are under-represented in legislative bodies in the majority of
countries, and Lesotho is no exception to this worldwide trend. In an
attempt to address this problem, the country has adopted, through electoral
laws, electoral gender quota systems for both local and national legislative
structures. The country has introduced a 30% gender quota requirement
for election to the local councils at the local level. At the national level, it
introduced a ‘zebra list’ – the condition that when political parties submit
lists for the purposes of 40 proportional representation (PR) seats in the
National Assembly, the names must alternate between those of men and
women. The idea was to attain 50% representation of women in the National
Assembly, at least for the 40 PR seats. The effectiveness of these two quota
systems in enhancing women’s representation has been the subject of
intense disagreement. The animating question is whether, since the adoption
of gender quotas, the representation of women in legislative bodies has
improved. The article investigates this question using the qualitative content
analysis method. The central hypothesis is that electoral gender quotas in
Lesotho, particularly at the national level, have not significantly improved
the representation of women. The paper critiques the models used and makes
some recommendations for reform.