ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Lesotho. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Lesotho. After many delays, Lesotho made progress in 2001 on holding general elections to extract the country from a political crisis that had erupted after voting in 1998. The people of Lesotho are guaranteed the right to change their leaders through free and fair elections, but mistrust and delays have marred the process. Some nongovernmental organizations objected that the new mixed-member voting system was too confusing for most voters in Lesotho. Each voter received two ballots: one for candidates and one for political parties for proportional representation.
