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Lesotho: Election underway, incumbent Mosisili pledges to step down if defeated
His main rival is the new LCD leader, former communications minister Mothejoa Metsing, who led the movement to remove Mosisili as party leader.
Hoping to benefit from the split in the ruling party is opposition leader Tom Thabane, who broke away from LCD to form the opposition All Basotho Convention in 2006 after yet another feud with Mosisili.
Lost in the clash of personalities are the worries of most ordinary Basotho. More than half of the nation’s two million people live in poverty.
Textile factories and diamond mines are the only major industries, but jobs are so scarce that many seek work in South Africa, which completely surrounds this landlocked nation.
Despite the bucolic image, many voters said they want more jobs and better public services.
“I want better access to services such as clinics, hospitals and passports. I want our children to be educated and employed, said 50-year-old Mamotsamai Macheli, a small business owner.
“I want our children to be educated and employed,” she said waiting outside a cinder-block pre-school building in the village of Ha Mohalenyana, outside the capital Maseru.
