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Maseru — Vote results were trickling in yesterday in Lesotho after a snap election held to resolve a political crisis triggered by an alleged coup bid last year.
Saturday’s parliamentary poll, which was called two years ahead of schedule, passed without incident according to observers.But results were slow to come yesterday, with only a few districts tallied and none officially declared by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) by noon.

“In Lesotho, we don’t count the votes electronically, we count them manually,” said IEC official Rethabile Pholo.

Lesotho has been in crisis since June 2014, when Prime Minister Thomas Thabane suspended parliament in June 2014 to avoid a motion that would have seen him ousted from power after his fragile coalition government fell apart.

On August 30, soldiers attacked police headquarters, looting weapons and killing one officer.

Thabane described the violence as a coup attempt fuelled by the opposition and fled to neighbouring South Africa.

Both the military and opposition denied any bid to topple him.

About 1.2 million people were registered to vote in the regionally brokered poll.

Pholo said the laborious counting system was further hampered by Lesotho’s mountainous terrain, often requiring the use of helicopters.

“Mercifully, the weather has held up and the choppers were able to fly in and out of the voting areas to collect the votes and transport them to the district offices” that communicate the results to the IEC, Pholo said.

About the size of Belgium and completely landlocked by its larger neighbour South Africa, Lesotho is one of the world’s poorest countries.

Landlocked Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa and is heavily dependent on its bigger neighbour in economic terms.

Analysts have warned the election could turn violent if any one party wins an outright majority – particularly Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC).

Two other parties – the Democratic Congress led by former prime minister Pakalitha Mosisili and the Basotho National Party (BNP) – were contesting the parliamentary elections.

The biggest party in the current parliament is former prime minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s Democratic Congress (DC), which took nearly 40 percent of the vote in the 2012 elections, but did not join the coalition.

On casting his vote, Metsing expressed confidence of victory.

The people of Lesotho “need this kind of leadership and you are going to see it when the results are announced”, he was quoted by the South African broadcaster SABC as saying.

The DC and LCD have grown close and it was thought possible they could form the next coalition government.

The main political parties have their allies in the security forces, with many in the police seen as siding with Thabane while Metsing enjoys support within the military.

The Sadc, the African Union, the European Union and the British Commonwealth sent observers to the elections, which were expected to be transparent, though analysts said shortfalls in logistics could spark violence.

The differences between the parties are historical rather than ideological, according to Dimpho Motsamai from South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies.

She said the government had focused on power struggles rather than on improving the lives of the people, nearly 60 percent of whom live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. – Sapa