The four-party coalition under whose banner Lesotho’s embattled Prime Minister Thomas Thabane was elected collapsed on Monday, with the premier’s All Basotho Convention and the opposition Democratic Congress close to inking a pact to form another unity government.
National Assembly Speaker Sephiri Motanyane has accepted an agreement between the ABC and Democratic Congress to form a coalition government.
Reports also say Deputy Prime Minister Monyane Moleleki’s Alliance of Democrats has submitted its interest to be part of that coalition.
Motanyane noted that the government was in transition since the collapse of the governing coalition had left Thabane without enough seats to continue governing.
“We have verified that the four-party coalition agreement has been terminated and there is a formation of a new government,” Motanyane announced in parliament.
He revealed that the embattled premier should leave office by May 22.
During elections held in 2017, the ABC won 50 seats in parliament, which fell short of the 61 seats necessary for a party to form a government without a coalition in the 120-seat parliament.
This forced Thabane to form a coalition with the Alliance of Democrats, the Basotho National Party and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho to give it an overall majority.
However, fault lines have emerged in the coalition in recent months amid murder allegations against the premier in a case involving the 2017 killing of his former wife.
JN/APA