Pakalitha Mosisili

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Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili (born March 14, 1945) is the Prime Minister of Lesotho, and has been since May 29, 1998. He led his party, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), to a near-total victory in the elections.

After his party's victory in 1998, there were accusations of vote rigging and mass protests from the opposition parties, which culminated with their occupation of the grounds to the palace. In the ensuing debacle which saw the army, police and king complacent in an attempt to unseat his government, Mosisili had to resort to asking the regional grouping, Southern African Development Community (SADC), for an intervention to stem the imminent coup. New elections were eventually held in May 2002, which his party won, this after a major split led by his former deputy, Kelebone Maope, and Shakhane Mokhehle, the brother of the late founder of his party.

In October 2006, Tom Thalbane left the LCD and formed a new party, and 17 other members of parliament joined him; this left the LCD with a narrow majority of 61 out of 120 seats. On Mosisili's advice, King Letsie III dissolved parliament on November 24, 2006, and new elections have been scheduled for February 17, 2007; they had previously been expected in April or May.^[1]^[2]