[ 2012-05-26 ]

Lesotho votes in tight three-way race
MASERU (AFP) - Lesotho's one million voters head
to the polls Saturday in a tight general election
where bitter personal rivalries among the three
main party leaders have overshadowed worries about
jobs and poverty.

Polls open at 7:00am (0500 GMT) for 10 hours of
voting across this mountainous nation in which
most people live as farmers in isolated villages
where horses far outnumber cars.

The three main party leaders were all once allies
whose falling out centred on the refusal of Prime
Minister Pakalitha Mosisili to hand over the reins
of power.

Within the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, which
Mosisili brought to power in 1998, tensions over
his leadership prevented the party from holding
its leadership conference.

Faced with growing pressure to step down, Mosisili
broke away to form the Democratic Congress in
February, taking a majority of parliamentarians
with him.

He's asking voters to give him another term,
campaigning on Lesotho's relative stability on his
watch, which ended a long dictatorship and a rocky
period of monarchy.

But a Gallup poll released last month ranked
Mosisili among Africa's five most despised
leaders, with only 39 percent of those surveyed
approving of his job performance -- placing him
alongside the likes of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

His main rival is the new LCD leader, former
communications minister Mothejoa Metsing, who led
the movement to remove Mosisili as party leader.

Hoping to benefit from the split in the ruling
party is opposition leader Tom Thabane, who broke
away from LCD to form the opposition All Basotho
Convention in 2006 after yet another feud with
Mosisili.

Lost in the clash of personalities are the worries
of most ordinary Basotho. More than half of the
nation's two million people live in poverty.

Textile factories and diamond mines are the only
major industries, but jobs are so scarce that many
seek work in South Africa, which completely
surrounds this landlocked nation.

Three quarters of homes have no electricity, one
third have no running water, and nearly a quarter
of adults is HIV-positive.

Many still travel by horse or donkey, bracing
against the early winter cold by wrapping
themselves in traditional blankets.

Despite the bucolic image, 18-year-old Rethabile
Mphiphi said he'd rather have a paying job than
tending his family's sheep.

"I want to see more jobs. I want to see more
people getting employed. I would take a job for a
mining company," he said, riding a donkey down a
steep slope where some small streams had already
iced over.

"I'm not sure who I'll vote for. I'm still
thinking about it," he said about casting his
first-ever ballot.

In the capital Maseru, even people who have jobs
want government to do more about their
conditions.

"We work hard on a meagre salary, and I would like
them to address that," said Momotselis Likotsi,
23, who works in a Taiwanese textile factory for
about $100 a month.

"I really want a different government," she said,
planning to vote for LCD under Metsing.

Campaigning has proceeded peacefully, with few
posters or banners on the streets and final
rallies held a week before the balloting.

But many still remember Mosisili's rise to power
in 1998 elections, which were endorsed by
observers but disputed by opposition protests.
Protests turned so violent that South Africa led a
regional military intervention to restore order.

Since then, electoral reforms have soothed many of
the tensions, creating a parliament that includes
80 lawmakers elected by constituencies and 40
others who represent parties under a proportional
vote system.

Initial results are expected Sunday, but the final
count could come only Monday.

Source - AFP

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