The purpose of this dissertation was to address the problem expressed in thefollowing question: "Why have the opposition political parties in Lesothoweakened since 1993?"A qualitative approach was used. The researcher interviewed officials of twelverepresentative parties out of the total of eighteen parties. The responses of theinterviewees are in appendix 5.This work reveals the problems of the opposition parties in Lesotho. Amongothers, the study addressed the following issues: the reform of the electoralsystem, political party funding, dominance of the ruling party, prohibitivelegislation and party leadership. The potential strengths and weaknesses of theopposition parties have been noted.The MMP electoral model, introduced in 2001 and tested in 2002, created a moreinclusive party system, but it is not the sole solution for the weakness of theopposition parties. Patronisation and lack of political party funding appear to bemajor factors.
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