General election is underway in lesotho with voters heading to the polls to choose the Members of Parliament (MPs) who, in turn, will decide who becomes the next Prime Minister.
Polling began at 7.00 am with over eight hundred thousand people registered to vote across ten districts.
According to the country’s election body, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), 65 political parties are contesting the 7 October general elections.
Voters must pass through a series of checks in order to cast their ballots.
First, they need to produce a form of identification or be verified by the local chief. After their names are checked off the list of eligible voters, voters enter a polling booth and put a tick or a cross on the ballot paper next to their preferred candidate or party’s symbol before depositing it in a box. After voting, their fingers are marked with indelible ink.
Advance polling took place on 30 September to allow public servants who work in all Lesotho embassies, party agents, IEC officials, security forces, election observers, private security officials, and journalists, to vote.
Commonwealth Observers were stationed across the country to witness the procedure.
The Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, H.E. Danny Faure, was at various polling stations in Maseru, Berea, and Mafeteng to observe the opening as well as voting procedures.
He said:
“I am very happy with what I have seen so far, the mood across the board seems to be a happy one, I wish the people of this mountain Kingdom the best as they cast their ballots, and I hope that the current mood is sustained until after the elections and when the new government is formed.”
Lesotho has a bicameral Parliament consisting of the Senate with 33 seats and the National Assembly with 120 seats.
The 120 members of the National Assembly are elected using the mixed-member proportional representation system, with voters casting two votes. Eighty members are elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting, with the remaining 40 elected using the proportional representation system.
