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State Fragility and Electoral Reforms in Lesotho

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State Fragility and State Building in Africa

Part of the book series: United Nations University Series on Regionalism ((UNSR,volume 10))

Abstract

Lesotho can be considered as a fragile state due to its weak governance institutions like the electoral system, which produces persistent and perverse political conflicts. This chapter establishes the relationship between state fragility and the country’s Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system. The MMP was introduced as a conflict management mechanism but was exploited by political actors, in the 2007 election, at two levels: the procedural and the behavioural level. The findings of the study indicate that the procedural rules governing the implementation of the MMP system have shortcomings, which influenced the behaviour of key political actors to manipulate these weaknesses so as to achieve desired electoral outcomes. The weaknesses manipulated emanate from its “contamination” effects and its electoral formula which produced distorted electoral outcomes that aggravated rather than mitigated conflict. The MMP’s role in enhancing conflict management and good governance is, therefore, relatively weak in its current form in Lesotho.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political and Administrative Studies, National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho

    Oscar Gakuo Mwangi

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  1. Oscar Gakuo Mwangi
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Correspondence to Oscar Gakuo Mwangi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Peace Compact, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Dele Olowu

  2. OSSREA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Paulos Chanie

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Mwangi, O.G. (2016). State Fragility and Electoral Reforms in Lesotho. In: Olowu, D., Chanie, P. (eds) State Fragility and State Building in Africa. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20642-4_10

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