AP News, February 17th, 2007
Long lines of people braved a blistering sun Saturday to cast their vote in tight elections pitting Lesotho's ruling party, which has brought stability to the mountain kingdom, against a new rival set up on a platform of change.
The mood was peaceful and turnout appeared high, with significantly large numbers of people showing up at the 2,500 polling stations throughout the southern African country, which is one of the poorest and has one of the highest incidence of AIDS in the world.
The Lesotho Congress for Democracy, which has governed for the past decade, won a landslide victory in 2002. But Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili faces a tough challenge from the four-month-old All Basotho Convention party led by Tom Thabane, the former minister of communications, science and technology.
"I am confident that I will win the elections because of the people," Thabane said. "They want change. Everybody wants change and we are the symbol of change," he said as he cast his vote at his constituency just outside Maseru.
Thabane caused an upset when he and 17 members of the ruling party defected in October, bringing to 59 the number of seats the opposition holds in the 120-member parliament.
He has urged people to vote for him in order to end the hunger and poverty that have dogged the landlocked country since it became independent from Britain in 1966. He has picked up strong support among the country's disaffected young people.
"We ... need change for the betterment of our lives," said 34-year-old Tsetang Makakole as he waited to vote at a high school in the capital. "The past governments had forgotten about us, had forgotten about our aspirations" as young people.
The prime minister urged voters to reward his party for bringing peace and stability to a country with a violent and troubled past.
In the apartheid era, Lesotho suffered heavily from its dependence on South Africa, which surrounds the kingdom. The military staged a coup in 1986, and the army installed King Letsie III on the throne in 1987 after his father was forced into exile.
After more upheavals, troops from South Africa and Botswana briefly occupied the country in 1998, allegedly to try to restore order after disputed elections earlier that year. The 2002 elections, which were deemed to be free and fair, ushered in a new era of democracy.
