Lesotho set for elections following no-confidence vote against PM Mosisili

Lesotho’s Prime Minister lost a no-confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday, deepening political uncertainty in the southern Africa kingdom.

Prime minister Pakalitha Mosisili of the Demoractic Congress(DC) has headed a coalition government since the ouster of former prime minister Thomas Thabane’s All Basotho Congress (ABC) two years ago, following a snap election that was called in an effort to end Lesotho’s power struggles.

The law makers voted in favour of replacing Mosisili with Monyane Moleleki whose Alliance of Democrats party split from the Democratic Congress last year.

Lesotho may dissolve parliament & call fresh elections, in the interim MPs propose that AD leader Moleleki must take over #politics #lesotho

— Lerato Mbele (@BBCLerato) March 1, 2017

According to media reports, the prime minister has three days to either resign in favour of Moleleki or advise His Majesty King Letsie III, to call snap elections which would be held within three months.

But according Mosisili’s political adviser Fako Lokoti, the premier would not step aside.

He to told a local radio station, “He will continue to be prime minister until we go for elections.”

Lesotho’s big brother South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc have repeatedly called for peaceful political reforms in the country.

The last two elections have not produced a winner with clear majority.

The land-locked southern Africa nation of two million people is among the world’s poorest and has been hit by several coups since independence in 1966.