The Lesotho Election

In what observers have called a "free and fair election," it appears that Lesotho's ruling party, the Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD), has fended off a challenge from former foreign minister Tom Thabane's newly formed opposition party, the All Basotho Convention (ABC). The election proved to be something of a landslide for the LCD despite forecasts to the contrary:

With votes counted in most of the country's 80 constituencies, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili's LCD party had won 58 seats while Mr Thabane's ABC trailed in second place with 17 seats, a spokesman for the electoral commission told the BBC News website. [In addition to the] 80 directly elected MPs, another 40 seats are allocated to parties under the proportional representation system to make up the country's 120-seat parliament.

Assertions that the election was clean do not make it so, of course, but with the outcome as overwhelming as it appears to have been, there is little room to dispute the results. Lesotho's economy is a mess and the country is ravaged by AIDS. Lesotho's biggest draw for tourism -- its mountainous terrain -- also makes its other economic options limited. Surely many of the country's limitations are not the fault of the government, but it comes as at least a bit of a surprise that the challengers were unable to mobilize more support from the electorate.

Africa Updates

Some updates follow on stories about which I have recently written: On Guinea's state of siege, the slowly emerging Lesotho vote count, chaos in eastern Chad, China as a dubious patron of Africa, and always more and more on Zimbabwe.

Lesotho Goes To The Polls

Voters in the tiny southern African Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho have gone to the polls in what will be a closely contested election. Former foreign minister Tom Thabane represents a new party, the All Besotho Congress, which poses a serious challenge to the nine-year reign of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili's Lesotho Congress for Democracy. Mosisili has demanded a third term to tackle dire poverty. Lesotho is both one of Africa's poorest countries as well as one of its most AIDS-ravaged.

In 1998 election tumult provided the justification for South African troops to enter Lesotho (along with support from Botswana's military). It is unlikely that the South Africans will follow suit this time around, but this election's results may not be known for some time, and with each passing day the possibility for violence will accelerate.