Journal of African Elections: Lesotho's 2022 Legislative Elections and Coalition Politics

Lesotho held four national elections in just ten years between 2012 and 2022, an unusually high frequency driven by coalition government instability. This special issue from the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa analyzes the October 2022 legislative elections, the seventh since the country's return to electoral politics in 1993. The study examines the profound implications of the 2002 shift from a first-past-the-post to a mixed member proportional electoral system, which has entrenched coalition politics.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the frequency and causes of early elections based on the description of coalition government instability.
• Studying the impact of electoral system change (FPTP to MMP) on political party systems and coalition formation.
• Researching democratic consolidation in post-interregnum states based on the 23-year gap in credible elections from 1970-1993.
• Modeling political outcomes in mixed-member proportional systems using the case study of Lesotho's electoral history.

Strengths

• Focuses on a specific, recent electoral event (October 2022 Lesotho elections) with detailed historical context.
• Provides a longitudinal analysis covering seven elections over a continuous period from 1993 to 2022.
• Examines a clear causal mechanism: the shift from FPTP to MMP electoral systems in 2002 and its political consequences.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The data appears to be a specialized journal issue, which may limit its scope to textual analysis rather than structured quantitative data.

Provenance

Source

Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa

Collection Method

Likely contains academic analysis and case studies published in a journal special issue.

Time Range

Primary focus on 2022, with historical context from 1970, 1993, 2002, and the 2012-2022 period.

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown.

Geography

Lesotho