The Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) is a
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Lesotho
Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...
.
In 1997, Prime Minister
Ntsu Mokhehle left the
Basutoland Congress Party to form with his faction the new Lesotho Congress for Democracy. The new party won the 1998 elections with 60.7% of the popular vote and 79 out of 80 seats.
Pakalitha Mosisili became the new party leader and prime minister. At the
elections for the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
, 25 May 2002, the party won 54.9% of popular votes and 77 out of 120 seats. In the 17 February 2007
parliamentary election, the party won 62 out of 120 seats.
Major splits from the party occurred in October 2001, when leading LCD members
Kelebone Maope and
Shakhane Mokhehle left the party to form the
Lesotho People's Congress and in October 2006, when
Tom Thabane left the party to form the
All Basotho Convention. Prior to the
Lesotho general election, 2012 the party split again with incumbent Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili forming the
Democratic Congress and General Secretary
Mothetjoa Metsing taking over the party leadership.
Electoral Performance
References
External links
Lesotho Congress for Democracy
1997 establishments in Lesotho
Pan-Africanism in Lesotho
Pan-Africanist political parties in Africa
Political parties established in 1997
Political parties in Lesotho
Social democratic parties in Africa
Socialism in Lesotho
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