A former PM of Lesotho vies For power

Maseru. Lesotho former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who is fighting to regain power in Saturday’s elections, will never forget fleeing his official residence in 2014 as rogue soldiers apparently sought to kill him.

The attempted coup was just one chapter of the recurrent political instability that has plagued Lesotho, a mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa.

“It was the most undignified thing that happened to me, to wear (just) my pants... and go through the fence with my wife, running away from the state house,” Thabane told AFP ahead of the vote.

The attempted coup was followed by elections in 2015, when Thabane was ousted from power by a coalition government that collapsed earlier this year.

He fled to safety in South Africa, and only returned to compete in the latest election, which is likely to deliver another fragile coalition government.

“No army can be above the political authority of those who are elected by the majority of the people, and that is the problem that made me spend a whole year and a half in exile,” Thabane said.

The leader of the All Basotho Congress (ABC), which may emerge in a coalition government with the newly formed Alliance of Democrats (AD), said he was still wary of the army’s role in politics.

- Free and fair? -

“We are going to win this election, if it is free and fair,” said Thabane, speaking at his modest, heavily-guarded home in the capital Maseru.

“(But) the army people have their own interests, and at the moment I am not their favourite.”

Thabane said he did not seek revenge against the alleged coup plotters, but added that he hoped the army would eventually be merged into the police. (AFP)     

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