Elections have tossed out governments and been a catalyst for coalitions. They have also been a means of expressing people's disquiet on growing corruption, and an opportunity to extort something from politicians every five years. But until now, all the political games have made little improvement to the lives of the average Basotho.

"The problem is gangsterism," replied the officer, as he tried to get prisoners who, wearing a combination of red overalls and stitched-together rags, were to stand in line to vote at Mohale Hoek's prison. I had asked him why Lesotho had the world's third highest murder rate, after El Salvador and Jamaica. 'It's very, very high,' he admitted, shepherding lines of the 426 inmates towards the carefully ordered process.

Security, corruption and jobs were the three main issues highlighted by politicians in preparation for Lesotho's election on 7 October, the seventh ballot since the reinstatement of democracy in 1993. But whether this makes any difference to the mountain kingdom's economic trajectory is questionable. Politics is supposed to be the means to provide a policy and governance platform for growth and development. Not so in Lesotho, as in much of southern Africa. Rather it's been about the redistribution...