Court to Rule on Election Error in Lesotho

On Oct 22, 2022

Lesotho Election Body says it made a Mistake over Parliament Seats

Lesotho’s top court to rule on seat allocation error
Only one seat affected in ruling coalition
Election could be challenged by disgruntled parties

Electoral authorities in Lesotho have said “they incorrectly allocated parliamentary seats after an Oct. 7 election, asking the country’s top court to amend the allocations and halt the legislature’s first sitting,” court papers showed on Saturday.

The populist Revolution for Prosperity (RFP), founded by diamond magnate, Sam Matekane, won the most seats in this month’s vote, but fell short of an overall majority in the southern African kingdom’s 120-member parliament.

Last week, the party struck a coalition deal with two other opposition parties as the nation strives to emerge from years of political instability under the former ruling All Basotho Convention, which had been in power since 2017.

While the coalition’s majority would barely be affected by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) error, the issue could raise wider questions about the election results, analysts said.

“If push comes to a shove, there are parties which might even insist that the elections were not credible after all and start challenging the whole election process,” said independent political analyst Lefu Thaela.

In Lesotho’s national assembly, 80 seats are won through “first-past-the-post” voting, with the rest allocated using proportional representation, under which parties get seats based on their total national vote.

On Saturday, the court papers showed, the IEC asked the Constitutional Court for an order “reviewing, correcting and setting aside” the allocation of compensatory seats, or those allocated using proportional representation.

Reuters /Shakirat Sadiq