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IN a political deal brokered by SADC, about one million registered voters of the highland kingdom of Lesotho will go to the polls tomorrow, February 28, to elect their parliamentarians.
Twenty-four political parties and 15 independent candidates have registered with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to participate in the anticipated polls.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has deployed 475 police to oversee the ballot.
Meanwhile, regional and international election observers have been deployed across the country to observe the elections.
A 74-member SADC election observer mission headed by South Africa’s International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was deployed in the country’s 10 election districts two weeks ago.
In addition, a 40-member African Union (AU) election observer mission headed by Kenya former Prime Minister Raila Odinga arrived in Lesotho this Wednesday.
Political leaders have committed to accept the outcome.
Many observers hope that tomorrow’s election finally brings stability in Lesotho.
Lesotho is staging elections two years earlier in a bid to end the instability wrought by an alleged coup plot by the military in August last year.
The ‘coup’ was prompted in part by the suspension of Parliament in June by Prime Minister Thomas Thabane who was hitting back at his partners in the coalition government, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing and Chief Thesele Meseribane after they plotted a vote of no confidence against him. 
Thabane subsequently fled to South Africa, which surrounds the landlocked country of about two million residents ruled by King Letsie III, whose duties are mainly ceremonial.
Lesotho has been ruled by a coalition government since May 2012 consisting of the three dominant parties: the Basotho National Party (BNP) led by Chief Thesele Maseribane, Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) led by Mothetjoa Metsing and All Basotho Convention (ABC) led by Thomas Thabane.
Although, the coalition was shaky from the start: politics has been more personality than policy driven, and each of the three major parties in Parliament, including the leading opposition party, are offshoots of the old Basutoland Congress Party.
Thus the parties clashed over the appropriate distribution of resources within the coalition government.
This division became increasingly visible in August last year between Thabane who is allegedly supported by the police and Metsing who is said to have the loyalty of the military.
This has contributed to a breakdown in the security structure, creating a hostile relationship between the military and police.
However, timely intervention by SADC calmed the situation, which resulted in the renegade army chief Tlali Kamoli who allegedly spearheaded the coup attempt being side-lined and the elections being moved forward from 2017.
Last week, regional leaders who attended the SADC double troika extraordinary summit held in Pretoria South Africa confirmed the political and security situation in Lesotho would allow its citizens to go to the polls tomorrow, as planned.
The SADC Chair, President Robert Mugabe, South Africa President, Jacob Zuma, Namibia incoming President Hage Geingob, Botswana Vice-President Mokgweetsi Masisi, Malawi Minister of Foreign Affairs George Chaponda and the SADC executive secretariat congregated to come up with a lasting solution to Lesotho’s political instability.
SADC stressed the critical need to address all political and security challenges in Lesotho.
“Summit called upon stakeholders in the Kingdom of Lesotho to pay attention to security sector and constitutional reforms, post 2015 Parliamentary Elections, with the support of SADC,” reads the communiqué presented by Executive secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax.
To allay fears of violence, SADC confined Lesotho Defence Forces to the barracks on polling day.
SADC said any actions that might compromise the holding of peaceful, free, fair and credible election will not be tolerated.
The 15-member grouping is leaving nothing to chance as it battled to deal with the crisis in the mountain kingdom.
Last year’s coup attempt was not the first time the people of Lesotho have experienced insecurity.
The kingdom has a long history of political instability that dates back to the time when it attained its independence from Britain in October 1966.
Soon after independence, a constitutional crisis arose when King Moshoeshoe II attempted to obtain wider personal powers in accordance with traditional rights.
When his attempt failed, the King was forced by then Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan to sign an undertaking that he would abide by the constitution, which gave executive powers to the Prime Minister.
This resulted in continued strained relations between the Prime Minister and the King.
Other coups and political instabilities were experienced in 1970, 1974, 1986, 1991, 1994 and 1998.
It is against this background that political analysts opine that elections alone will not bring a permanent solution in the current environment of divisions, political opportunism and defiance.
“Election will be an important milestone for establishing stability in Lesotho, but only if they form part of a broader process,” said one political analyst.
“Lesotho must seriously engage in peace building processes to prevent a resurgence of violence.
“Reforming the parliamentary system should be the first step.”
Following its independence from Britain, Lesotho inherited the British electoral system, which is the majority wins, the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.
However, in 1998, this system came under intense scrutiny when the governing Lesotho Congress of Democracy (LCD) won 78 out the 79 contested seats but only 60 percent of the valid votes cast.
In contrast, opposition parties who earned 40 percent of the vote won only one seat.
The resultant public outcry was followed by violent protests which left 75 people dead.
As a result Lesotho’s constitution and electoral law were amended to introduce a mixed-member proportional system which combines the FPTP system and the proportional representation to come up with 120 seats.
Eighty of those seats are filled using the FPTP system which is tied to specific constituencies and 40 are filled using proportional representation in order to ensure each party’s number of legislative seats more or less reflects its proportion of the national vote.
That is, they compensate for the FPTP system’s tendency to over- or under represent political groups.
This is how it works; on election day, voters receive two ballots.
They use one to elect the Member of Parliament for their constituencies using the FPTP system and they use the other to vote for their preferred party.
The second ballot is used to determine the number of seats each party would receive.
However, controversy arose in 2007 election as the result of floor crossing in the national assembly and political infighting that demonstrated the system needed further reform before it can deliver on its promise of better political accountability and representation.
It is the same system that led the formation of Lesotho’s first ever government of national unity in 2012.
This electoral system seems to be creating more problems than solutions for the tiny country.
Therefore Lesotho’s future lies in the hands of voters who tomorrow must elect parties that embrace transformation and reform that recognise the errors of the past.