Seven-month- old party wins Lesotho’s parliamentary elections

A political party formed seven months ago has won the Lesotho parliamentary elections.

The party, Revolution for Prosperity (RP), clinched 56 of the 120 constituencies in the parliament.

It also secured the prime minister’s seat.

The RP defeated the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) which failed to win a single seat in the direct constituency election held last Friday.

The party was formed by billionaire business mogul, Sam Matekane, in April.

The Lesotho Independent Electoral Commission said on Tuesday the RP only fell short of winning an outright majority by a mere five seats in the 61-seat parliament and will now have to find a coalition partner to form a government.

READ ALSO: Former Lesotho Prime Minister charged with murder of estranged wife

Other parties that won seats in the parliament were the Basotho Action Party (6), the Alliance of Democrats (4), the Movement for Economic Change (4), the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (3), the Basotho National Party (2) and the Socialist Revolutionaries (2).

Matekane, a self-made businessman with companies in the transport and construction industries in the country, had based his campaigns on the full implementation of the RP’s development agenda to lift Lesotho out of endemic poverty, unemployment and crime.

The 64-year-old’s campaigns were targeted at the youths and women who make up 60 percent of the country’s 2.1 million population.

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