Elections in Lesotho: Voting Patterns and Voting Apathy of Basotho: 1998 2007

Abstract

In recent years, developing countries have increasingly experienced declining voters’ participation in democratic elections. This factor has challenged government’s legitimacy, more so, governments that have been elected by fewer voters. Since 1998 election in Lesotho, voters’ participation in elections appears to have dropped tremendously. This decline was also similar in both the 2002 and 2007 elections. However, the 2007 snap election stood out to be the worst election affected by this apparent voter apathy. The objective of this paper is to establish the factors that motivated this apathy among Basotho electorates. The paper argues that political parties should not only be seen to be democratic but must practice democracy within their parties in order to motivate people to take active part in politics. They must play a major role in motivating people to take part in politics in order to have a vibrant democracy. Key Words: Lesotho, Elections, Voting apathy, Intra-party democracy, Political arrogance.