Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Lesotho's General Election of 1998: Rigged or De Rigeur? |
| Authors: | Southall, Roger Fox, Roddy |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
| Volume: | 37 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Period: | December |
| Pages: | 669-696 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Lesotho |
| Subjects: | elections 1998 Politics and Government |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/161431 |
| Abstract: | The result of Lesotho's general election of May 1998, which saw a 79 out of 80 seat victory for the ruling Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD), was repudiated by the opposition, notably the Basotho National Party (BNP) and the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). These latter parties were historic enemies but forged an alliance of convenience to contest the outcome of the election. By mobilizing their supporters to occupy Maseru they successfully paralysed the capacity of the LCD to govern. After diplomatic preliminaries, this led to military intervention by South Africa and Botswana in September 1998 and their brokering of an agreement which restored the LCD to power. After an outline of the background to the election of 1998, this article reviews the conduct of the election and its result. It examines the opposition case against the election result and argues that, although there may have been something of an attempt to manipulate the voters roll in order to produce 'ghost voters', the opposition case that the election was rigged is largely without substance. It further argues that the unbalanced nature of the LCD's victory - a product of the first-past-the-post electoral system - was a major cause of the crisis. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |
