UN Congratuates Lesotho for holding peaceful elections

United National Secretary general  Ban Ki-moon has  commended  the people of Lesotho for conducting peaceful elections recently for the African country's National Assembly. his spokesperson said overnight.

“The Secretary-General acknowledges that this is an important step for Lesotho in the consolidation of peace following the two-year mediation process that concluded in 2011,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

 He further said that Moon  encourages all political parties to move forward in the democratic process peacefully and in accordance with the constitution.

According to media reports, in the parliamentary elections held on 26 May, the Democratic Congress party won 41 of 80 seats, while the All Basotho Convention, the main opposition, secured 26 seats.

  Moon's spokesperson added that the Secretary-General welcomes the professional work of the Independent Electoral Commission as well as the international and local electoral observer missions.

 A team of Commonwealth observers to the 26 May 2012 Parliamentary elections in Lesotho have also  said that the polls in the Southern Africa nation have so far been peaceful and credible.

 In an interim statement issued at a press conference by the Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group, former Malawi President Dr Bakili Muluzi, recently  in the Lesotho capital Maseru, the Group said that "it is the view of the Commonwealth Observer Group that this election was conducted in a credible, transparent and professional manner."

 "Despite the various shortcomings we have highlighted, they did not materially affect the conduct of the elections," Dr Muluzi said.

In April 2011, a two-year mediation process to peacefully resolve grievances stemming from disputed earlier polls in Lesotho successfully came to an end. The dispute followed the February 2007 general elections – the fifth elections to be held in the small African nation since it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 – regarding the allocation of the seats in the Parliament based on proportional representation.