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Maseru, 10 November: Lesotho appointed its first woman Deputy Prime Minister following the recently ended National elections in October. Nthomeng Majara was sworn in as the first woman Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on Friday 4 November 2022. Majara was previously the first woman to be appointed the Chief Justice for the Court of Appeal in 2014 and served on the post until 2019,. She also served as a High Court judge of Namibia in 2010.
Other gains made by women in the 11th Parliament include appointment of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Tsepang Tsita-Mosena. Mosena is the Deputy Leader for the Movement for Economic Change(MEC). Mamonaheng Mokitimi who served on the 10th Parliament as the President of the Senate, was re-elected for a second term. In addition, Adelaide Retselisitsoe Matlanyane, became the second woman in Lesotho’s history to be Minister of Finance. Despite these gains women’s representation in political decision making is still well short of the gender parity target in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Lesotho parliament comprises of 120 seats. 80 are filled on a First Past the Post (FPTP) basis. The remaining seats are distributed among parties on a Proportional Representation (PR) basis. The Electoral Law requires that women be equally represented in the PR seats, but not in the FPTP seats.
This year there was an increase from 23% to 25% in the number of women who managed to claim their space in parliament. Although this increase is minimal it is worth celebrating as there was concern in the declining figures of women for the past 3 elections. Women managed to occupy 30 out of 119 National Assembly seats as the election was suspended in one constituency as a result of the death of one candidate. A total of 12 out of 80 FPTP were won by women, which is only about 15%, an increase of 3% as compared to the 2017 elections. The majority of these women are from the newly formed Revolution for Prosperity (RFP), with a total of 10 women and 2 from the Democratic Congress (DC). The proportional representation (PR) seats allocated to women were 18 out of the 40.
Table 1: ALLOCATION OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEATS
Party | # of Constituency Won | # of Women (FPTP) | # of Men (FPTP) |
# Women (PR) | # of Men (PR) | Total Women | Total Men | Total Seats | % of Women |
Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) | 56 | 10 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 46 | 56 | 18% |
Democratic Congress (DC) | 18 | 2 | 16 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 22 | 29 | 24% |
All Basotho Convention (ABC) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 50% |
Alliance Democrats (AD) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 20% |
Basotho Action Party (BAP) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 50% |
Movement for Economic Change (MEC) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 50% |
Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 50% |
Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 33% |
Basotho Convenant Movement (BCM) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Basotho National Party (BNP) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
HOPE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 100% |
National Independent Party (NIP) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Popular Front for Democracy (PFD) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Mpulule Political Summit (MPS) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
TOTAL | 79 | 12 | 67 | 18 | 22 | 30 | 89 | 119 | 25% |
A total of eight women made it to the Senate. This makes up a proportion of 24% representation. The number of women who are members of the Senate I has remained stagnant since 2017. The total number of the members of Senate is 33 consisting of 22 Principal Chiefs and 11 Nominees.
The proportion of women Ministers increased from 22% to 33% percent although the actual number of Ministers decreased from 5 to 3. This is as a result of the general decrease of the cabinet from 36 to 15. There are no positions for the Deputy Ministers in the 11th parliament.
The total number of candidates doubled from 1332 to 2379 and women candidates increased from 409 in 2017 to 846 in the 2022 with an increase of more than 100% compared to the 2017 elections. During the 2022 elections there were a total of seven parties which were led by women as compared to 2017 were there was only one party led by a woman.
Table 2: Analysis of candidates per district
DISTRICTS | MEN | PERCENTAGE | WOMEN | PERCENTAGE |
BUTHA-BUTHE | 104 | 71% | 42 | 29% |
LERIBE | 237 | 65% | 130 | 35% |
BEREA | 234 | 69% | 104 | 31% |
MASERU | 506 | 66% | 265 | 34% |
MAFETENG | 127 | 57% | 94 | 43% |
MOHALE’S HOEK | 91 | 60% | 60 | 40% |
QUTHING | 67 | 64% | 38 | 36% |
QACHA’S NEK | 45 | 56% | 35 | 44% |
THABA-TSEKA | 60 | 58% | 44 | 41% |
MOKHOTLONG | 62 | 58% | 34 | 32% |
Qacha’s Nek is once again leading with the representation of women at 44% and this shows an increase of 2% from the 2017 elections., followed by Mafeteng at 43%, Thaba Tseka at 41% and Mohale’s Hoek at 40%. The district with the lowest representation on women is Botha Bothe at 29%.
Lesotho held the National Assembly Elections which have resulted in yet another coalition government for the fourth time in a row. The Current Coalition government is between three parties, namely Revolution for Prosperity(RFP), Movement for Economic Change (MEC) and Alliance of Democrats(AD).
A lot still needs to be done at the party level to promote the participation of women in decision making positions in Lesotho. The FPTP seems to be very unfriendly for women as the parties that have the lowest percentage of women are those that have the majority of FPTP seats. RFP has the highest number of women in parliament but has the lowest percentage of women. All parties that came through the PR system have highest percentage of women representation from 33% to 100%. HOPE is the only party out of the 7 that is led by a woman that managed to get a seat in parliament.
Gender Links congratulates all the women who will sit in the 11th Parliament. The women who are now members of the National Assembly are expected to work effortlessly in order to ensure that the challenges women face are addressed accordingly. The 11th parliament needs to oversee multiple reforms and it is very important that women’s concerns are prioritised in the process.
Photo courtesy of RFP Facebook Page
For more information on this press release contact the Gender Links Lesotho Manager Mabetha Manteboheleng on lesmanager@genderlinks.org.za or call +266 589 323 06, +266 223 167 55
📝Read the emotional article by @nokwe_mnomiya, with a personal plea: 🇿🇦Breaking the cycle of violence!https://t.co/6kPcu2Whwm pic.twitter.com/d60tsBqJwx
— Gender Links (@GenderLinks) December 17, 2024
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