Basotho Democratic National Party v IEC & Others (C of A (CIV) No.49 of 2015)

• Date: 01 January 2017
• Author: H. Nyane
• Pages: 155-162
• Record Number: lesotho_v25_n1_a9
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC-bf5b92e0c
• Published date: 01 January 2017

PUBLIC LAW

‘Nyane, H.⃰

BASOTHO DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY v INDEPENDANT

ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND OTHERS (C of A (CIV) No.

49/2015)

INTRODUCTION

The case raises fundamental issues about the mixed electoral system

used in Lesotho. Ever since the adoption of Mixed Member

Proportional (MMP) electoral system in 2001,

1

the principal

question has always orbited around the operationalisation of the

Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of Lesotho through an Act

of parliament. The Amendment was a watershed as it is the one that

ended the use of the pure constituency-based electoral model which

the country has been using since independence in favour of the

mixed electoral system. The preambular statement of the

Amendment posits that its purpose is to amend the constitution

to „establish a mixed member proportional system for the

election of members to the National Assembly‟. The cardinal

principle of the MMP model is espoused in section 57 of the

constitutional amendment to the effect that „forty members [are]

to be elected to party seats in accordance with the principle of

proportional representation applied in respect of the National

Assembly as a whole‟.

2

The introduction of this principle meant that although the

majority of the seats of the National Assembly are still based

⃰ Head of Public Law Department, Faculty of Law (NUL); LLB(NUL);

LLM(NWU); LLD(UNISA).

1

S ee the F ourth Amendment to the Constitution of Lesotho Act No 4 of

2001.

22

The total number of seats in the National Assembly as a whole is 120.