Basotho National Party

Political party in Lesotho

Basotho National Party

Leader| Machesetsa Mofomobe
President| Machesetsa Mofomobe
Spokesperson| Masetota Leshota
Founder| Leabua Jonathan
Founded| 1959
Headquarters| BNP Centre Maseru Lesotho
Ideology| Conservatism[1]
Christian democracy[1]
Nationalism
Populism[1]
Political position| Centre-right
Continental affiliation| Democrat Union of Africa
Colors| Blue, White, Red, Green
National Assembly|

1 / 120

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The Basotho National Party is a political party in Lesotho, founded in 1959 in colonial Basutoland as the Basutoland National Party by Leabua Jonathan. He was Prime Minister from the 1965 general election until the 1986 coup d'état.

In the 1993 general election, the BNP received almost 23% of the vote but did not win any seats in the National Assembly, with all 65 seats going to the party's rival, the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). It suffered a similar defeat in the 1998 general election, in which it won 24.5% of the vote but only one seat in the National Assembly. Due to its lack of success in winning constituencies, the party sought the introduction of proportional representation in deciding the allocation of seats; as a compromise, a mixed system providing for 40 compensatory seats that would be decided through proportional representation (in addition to the 80 constituency seats) was introduced.[2]

Justin Lekhanya, the leader of the 1986 coup, was elected as Party Leader of the BNP at its Conference in March 1999.[3] In the 25 May 2002 general election, the party won 21 compensatory seats through proportional representation[2] with 22.4% of the vote. Since then, the party has been rocked by internal squabbles which have seen it fail to provide an effective opposition within the Lesotho parliament. In the 17 February 2007 general election, the party won only 3 out of 120 seats. Its headquarters is in Maseru, the capital city.

## Electoral Performance

[edit]

Election  | Proportional  | Constituency  | Seats  | +/-  | Government

|
|
|
|
|

Votes  | Share  | Votes  | Share
1960 | N/A  | —  |

1 / 80

| New  | Opposition
1965 | 108,140  | 42.01  | —  |

31 / 60

|  30  | Majority
1970 | 129,434  | 42.23  | —  |

23 / 60

|  8  | BNP coup d'état
1985 | Only contesting party | —  |

60 / 60

|  37  | Supermajority
1993 | 120,686  | 22.66  | —  |

0 / 65

|  60  | Extra-parliamentary
1998 | 145,210  | 24.45  | —  |

1 / 89

|  1  | Opposition
2002 | 124,234  | 22.41  | 115,085  | 21.44  |

21 / 120

|  20  | Opposition
2007 | 29,965  | 6.76  | 24,721  | 5.76  |

3 / 120

|  18  | Opposition
2012 | 32,788  | 4.31  | —  |

5 / 120

|  2  | Coalition
2015 | 31,508  | 5.53  | —  |

7 / 120

|  2  | Opposition
2017 | 23,451  | 4.05  | —  |

5 / 120

|  2  | Coalition
2022 | 7,343  | 1.43  | —  |

1 / 120

|  4  | Opposition

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Matlosa, K. T. (2005). Political parties and democratisation in Lesotho. Caleb Nchafatso Sello, Electoral Institute of South Africa. Johannesburg: EISA. ISBN 1-920095-28-4. OCLC 64586659.
2. ^ a b Political Parties of the World (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, pages 376-377.
3. ^ "Committee of Privileges Reports to Parliament; Opposition MP Bereng Sekhonyana Murdered" Archived 2010-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, Summary of Events in Lesotho - 2nd Quarter 2006, trc.org.ls.

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Political parties in Lesotho

Parliamentary|

* Revolution for Prosperity (56)
* Democratic Congress (26)
* All Basotho Convention (8)
* Basotho Action Party (6)
* Alliance of Democrats (4)
* Movement for Economic Change (4)
* Lesotho Congress for Democracy (3)
* Socialist Revolutionaries (2)
* Basotho National Party (1)
* Popular Front for Democracy (1)
* Mpulule Political Summit (1)
* Basotho Covenant Movement (1)
* HOPE – Mphatlalatsane (1)
* National Independent Party (1)
* Lesotho People's Congress (1)
* Basotho National Party (1)
* Basotho Patriotic Party (1)
* United For Change (1)

Extraparliamentary|

* Basotho Democratic National Party
* Lesotho People's Congress
* Basutoland Congress Party
* Lesotho Workers' Party
* Marematlou Freedom Party
* Reformed Congress of Lesotho

Inactive|

* Basutoland African Congress
* Basotho Batho Democratic Party
* Communist Party of Lesotho

* Portal:Politics
* List of political parties
* Politics of Lesotho

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

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