Staff Writer
EVERY election witnesses the rise and fall in fortunes of political parties and candidates, and last Saturday’s National Assembly polls were no exception. On one hand, many prominent candidates successfully retained their seats while on the other notable politicians were forced to bite the dust.
The hard-fought elections saw the All Basotho Convention (ABC) consolidate the gains it has made since 2007 to become Lesotho’s biggest party with 48 seats, although it failed to meet the 61 seats threshold to form government on its own. Dr Thabane yesterday formed a coalition government with the Alliance of Democrats (AD), Basotho National Party (BNP) and Reformed Congress of Lesotho RCL).
The polls also marked the end of an era for the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, which has been a governing party since 1998.
The polls may also have brought to an end the storied and lengthy premiership of outgoing Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, although he remains a Democratic Congress (DC) legislator for Tsoelike constituency. Below are some of the elections’ biggest winners and losers.
The Big Winners
Thomas Thabane and the ABC
Dr Thabane and the ABC have consolidated, beyond question, their status as Lesotho’s most popular politician and party respectively. Despite losing the advantage of incumbency with the collapse of the Dr Thabane-led tripartite coalition with the LCD and Basotho National Party (BNP) in 2014, the ABC still managed to gain seven more constituency seats than in the 28 February 2015 snap polls.
The ABC’s votes tally also increased from 214 972 in 2015 to 235 729 in last Saturday’s polls. The party also gained 11 seats, but lost one with a total of 47 constituency seats and one proportional representation (PR) seat.
Considering that the ABC won the popular votes in in Thupa-Kubu, Hololo and Teyateyaneng #24 constituencies, which were declared failed elections by the Independent Electoral Commission, the party may end up with 50 constituency votes after the by-elections in three months.
While the ABC failed to garner the requisite 61 votes to form government without the need for a coalition, the 47 seats they polled are a formidable feat in an election contested by 27 parties.
Monyane Moleleki and the AD
The veteran politician has had the last laugh after his acrimonious exit from the DC last November. Mr Moleleki left the DC after failing to wrest control of the DC from Dr Mosisili and getting suspended by the party leader. This was after Mr Moleleki and his faction, dubbed Lirurubele, inked a pact with the ABC, BNP and RCL to dislodge the government in a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
Under the terms of the pact, Mr Moleleki would have been prime minister for the first 18 months upon forming government and thereafter trade places with Dr Thabane who would initially be deputy prime minister.
Their objective of toppling the government came to fruition on 1 March 2017, after the parliamentary no-confidence vote was passed. However, Dr Mosisili dashed Mr Moleleki’s hopes of landing the premiership by evoking a constitutional clause empowering the prime minister to advise the King to dissolve parliament in the event of a no-confidence vote.
King Letsie III dissolved parliament on 6 March 2017 despite the protestations of the opposition, with the monarch eventually declaring last Saturday as election day.
The elections have yielded one constituency seat and eight proportional representation seats for the AD, and positioned the party as an integral cog in the Dr Thabane-led “4×4” incoming coalition government.
By joining forces with the ABC, BNP and RCL, Mr Moleleki also ensured the political downfall of his arch rival, LCD leader Mothetjoa Metsing.
The Big Losers
Pakalitha Mosisili and DC
Saturday’s elections may have likely put paid to Dr Mosisili’s cumulatively 16-year tenure as prime minister. However, counting out the Tsoelike legislator has been the undoing of many of his opponents.
There can be no denying though that the polls results were devastating for the DC which garnered 37 constituency seats and 10 PR seats in the February 2015 elections. This time around, they only notched 26 constituency votes and four PR seats. The DC’s votes tally also dwindled from 218 573 in 2015 to 150 172 in last Saturday’s polls. The drastic decline may partly be attributed to the DC’s alliance with the LCD in which the former contested in 54 seats while the latter contested in 25. The Popular Front for Democracy was allocated the last seat of the 80 constituency seats that were up for grabs.
Mothetjoa Metsing and LCD
While the LCD’s losses were not as huge as the DC, their biggest loss is being relegated to the opposition after being a governing party since 1998. The LCD also lost the Thabana Morena constituency to its former secretary-general Selibe Mochoboroane. The party’s votes tally marginally declined from the 56 019 of the 2015 elections to 52 052 of 2017.
Given that the party’s fortunes were already dwindling while it was in power, only time will tell if the LCD can survive opposition politics.