Africa: Think Again - Pushing the Reset Button On Lesotho's Democracy

analysis

On Saturday 28 February, the people of Lesotho will head to the polls. The national election is being held two years earlier than originally planned - sadly not because citizens of the mountain kingdom are so eager to exercise their democratic privileges, but because their democracy is failing and urgently needs a fresh start.

Tensions that had been simmering within the ruling coalition exploded into the open in August last year, when a component of the army - under renegade Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli - forcibly occupied police stations in Maseru, killing one policeman in the process. Fearing a coup, and for his own life, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fled across the border into South Africa. Kamoli is now in exile as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) deal, along with his would-be successor and the police chief.

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