Lesotho parties share seats

MASERU -- Final results yesterday confirmed Lesotho's ruling party's sweep of the general elections, but under a new electoral system opposition parties won multiple seats in Parliament for the first time.

Candidates from the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy won 77 of the 78 districts.

A small opposition party, the Lesotho People's Congress, picked up the other seat in the 120-member legislature.

Under the nation's new electoral system, voters cast two ballots -- one for a local candidate and another for one of the 19 parties running.

Eighty seats went to the top vote-getter in each district, although elections in two districts were postponed because of the deaths of candidates.

Another 40 seats went to the parties based on their proportion of the national vote. However, the ruling party did not get any of those seats under a complex equation designed to bolster opposition representation in Parliament.

Of the party seats, the Basotho National Party won 21.

The National Independent Party and the Lesotho People's Congress each won five seats.

The Basotholand Congress Party and the Basotholand African Congress each won three seats and the Lesotho Workers' Party, the Maramatlou Freedom Party and the National Progressive Party each won a single seat.

Historically one-party governments have dominated the government, sparking a series of coups and unrest in this impoverished country of two million.

Election officials said yesterday they would conduct an internal audit of Saturday's election results in an effort to pacify two opposition parties who claim there may have been irregularities in the vote.

The Basotho National Party has called for an independent audit of the election results and a second opposition party, the Sefate Democratic Union, has called for a recount.

Foreign and domestic observers, however, said the elections appeared to have been free and fair.

The country hopes the new, more inclusive system will prevent a repeat of the violence that followed the 1998 elections, when the Basotho National Party sparked riots and strikes in Maseru that only ended when troops from South Africa and Botswana were called in to restore order.

Seventy-five people were killed and hundreds of businesses pillaged. -- Sapa-AP