MASERU, May 24 (AFP) - Voters in the tiny African mountain kingdom of Lesotho return to the polls on Saturday to elect a new parliament after the disputed outcome of the last elections in 1998 gave rise to bloodshed.
The vote will see the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) led by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili line up against 18 opposition parties.
Out of a population of 2.2 million people, some 830,000 have registered and are due to elect 120 legislators under a new mixed electoral system, which is being implemented for the first time in Africa.
Eighty members of parliament will be elected according to a majority system and 40 on a proportional representation model.
It is hoped the election, Lesotho's third since independence from Britain in 1966, will consolidate democracy after the fiasco in 1998.
Mosilili won that vote by a landslide, but opposition supporters charged that it was rigged and staged massive protests.
Fearing a military coup, the prime minister called for help from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, which responded by sending a military intervention force made up of soldiers from South Africa and Botswana.
The local population resisted what they saw as an invasion and in the clashes that followed 75 people were killed, including South African soldiers, and parts of the capital Maseru was destroyed.
The most serious challenge the ruling party faces Saturday is from the main opposition Basotho National Party (BNP) and the Lesotho People's Congress.
They have based their election campaigns on the three main problems facing the people of the kingdom, which lies entirely within South Africa's borders.
Unemployment stands at 45 percent, 25 percent of the adult population is afflicted with HIV/AIDS and 80 percent of Lesotho's people face starvation following crop failures.
In May 1998, the LCD won 60 percent of the vote, which amounted to 79 out of 80 seats in parliament, and the BNP was allocated one seat for its 25 percent of the vote.
The first voters cast advance ballots on Thursday. Officials said the advance voting went smoothly, despite voters having to get used to a new electoral system.
But BNP leader Major-General Metsing Justin Lekhanya told AFP on Thursday he was unhappy about the safety of the ballot papers and complained that at 950,000 too many had been printed.
"There are too many ballot papers and they are totally insecure," he said.
"I am afraid the LCD will inflate its support. That is the way they looted the last election."
The Commonwealth has deployed six observers, the Organisation of African Unity six and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 25 for the vote.
Lesotho had four years of democracy after independence, followed by 23 years of military rule.
It returned to a parliamentary constitutional monarchy in 1993, but the disputed election in 1998 led to rioting and a mutiny by soldiers sympathetic to the opposition.
That triggered the intervention by 3,500 troops from South Africa and Botswana.
Clashes left at least 75 people dead, including 10 soldiers from South Africa and 18 from Lesotho, and widescale destruction in Maseru and two other towns before the Mosisili government was confirmed in power.
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