The winner is set to emerge from post-vote negotiations, yet analysts expect the election to lead to another fractious coalition government and the risk of instability in a country where years of political infighting have undermined attempts to tackle high poverty and unemployment rates. Basotho will go to the polls on Saturday for the third time in five years after the tenure of Dr Mosisili’s seven-party governing coalition prematurely ended due to a 1 March 2017 parliamentary no-confidence vote sponsored by four opposition parties. Fabricius said SADC, the southern African regional body, had made it clear to Mosisili that “it will not tolerate any theft of the election.”

In the capital Maseru, Thabane’s All Basotho Congress (ABC) and Mosisili’s Democratic Congress (DC) party have competed for votes via giant billboards and posters. Thabane, a former prime minister and leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC), was targeted by a putsch in 2014, prompting him to flee to South Africa, where he lived in exile for two years. Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy ruled by King Letsie III, who has no formal power, and it has a mixed parliamentary system.Eighty lawmakers are voted in by constituents, while another 40 seats are distributed proportionally. Dr Mosisili, who leads the Democratic Congress (DC) party, said this in an interview with the Lesotho Times early this week on the sidelines of the joint DC and Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) rally in Ha Foso. Mosisili’s DC party is forecast to join forces with the Lesotho Congress of Democracy (LCD) and the Popular Front for Democracy (PFD).Thabane’s ABC party and the Alliance Democrats (AD) of Monyane Moleleki, a former police minister, are also in talks to form a possible coalition government.
Voters in Lesotho go to the polls for an election, with a tight race predicted between the Democratic Congress, led by current Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, and the All Basotho Convention, led by former prime minister Tom Thabane.