Marematlou Freedom Party

The Marematlou Freedom Party is a political party in Lesotho. It was originally formed in 1956 by Chief Seepheephe Matete and members of his Bafokeng clan as a pressure group called the Marema Tlou (Unity Party but literally: Elephant Choppers) that succeeded in installing Constantine Bereng Seeiso (King Moshoeshoe II from October 1966 onwards) as paramount chief in 1960. It won the district of Mokhotlong in the 1960 election. Later it joined with Bennet Khaketla's Freedom Party to become the Marematlou Freedom Party, a hybrid royalist and South African ANC/SACP backed party, with considerable good will from the British before the Rothe Massacre. It won four seats in the 1965 election and cost the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) government, ushering in the Basotho National Party (BNP). It faded rapidly and in 1970 won a single seat out of sixty when the BCP candidate was prevented from registering. Clement Leepa, a disaffected police commander and MFP supporter, led initial armed resistance to the BNP coup of January 1970 but was shot dead later in the year. After the 1986 Lekhanya military coup Bennet Khaketla (a renown Sesotho writer) accepted a post as a minister. In the 2002 legislative elections for the National Assembly, the party won 1.2% of the popular vote and 1 out of 120 seats. It kept this seat in the 17 February 2007 parliamentary election.

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