Cape Town — The Lesotho government has slightly eased the curfew it imposed in the capital, Maseru, last weekend after attacks on the homes of leading politicians.

Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili announced the slight lifting of the curfew today in Cape Town. In a joint news conference with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Mosisili said that the curfew, which initially ran from 6 pm to 6 am, would be cut by three hours, and apply from 8 pm to 5 am.

Mosisili said the country's police commissioner had imposed the curfew last Saturday after bodyguards at the homes of two government ministers were overwhelmed under cover of darkness and their weapons and radios taken.

In a third incident, attackers hijacked a minister's car, overwhelmed his guards also and fired shots into the minister's house. (It has been reported separately that the home of opposition leader Tom Thabane was also attacked.)

The violence has come in the aftermath of elections last February, when the allocation of parliamentary seats on the basis of proportional representation became a bone of contention.

Lesotho has a history of electoral instability. Ahead of its 2002 elections, it introduced a "mixed member proportional" (MMP) system of parliamentary representation – similar to systems used in New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Venezuela. This is designed to ensure seats for smaller parties which have difficulties winning elections in geographically-defined constituencies.

Referring to post-election disturbances, Mosisili said on Tuesday that the country thought it had "closed that chapter" with the MMP model.

"Indeed in 2002 for the first time we had post-election peace and stability. But this time around we were not so lucky," he said.

The prime minister said outside experts will be invited through a SADC initiative to decide whether seats have been allocated properly.