Lesotho political parties workshop

22 - 23 March 2007, Lesotho

EISA conducted a workshop for political parties in Lesotho on the 22 and 23 March 2007. This workshop is part of the in country dialogue activities of the regional project on Strengthening Political Parties for Sustainable Democracy in the SADC Region. The project covers Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland.

Seven political parties participated in the workshop. Four of them form a core group chosen according to the project selection criteria: ruling party, main opposition party in parliament, second main opposition party in parliament and one party outside parliament.

The other three parties were included for the purpose of continuity because, together with the ruling LCD, they formed a core group of the project before the recent 17 February 2007 general elections. Each of the core parties had six representatives while the non-core parties were represented by two members. EISA ensured a balanced representation of structures of the political parties by requesting them to nominated representatives from youth and from women - a call which the participating parties heeded.

The workshop was also attended by local stakeholders such as the Lesotho Council of Non Governmental Organisations (LCN), Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) and Development for Peace Education (DPE).

Parties that took part in the workshop

Political Party	Criteria
Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD)	Ruling party
National Independent Party (NIP)	Main Opposition party in parliament
All Basotho Convention (ABC)	Second main opposition party in parliament
Social Democratic Party (SDP)	Party outside parliament
Alliance of Congress Parties (ACP)	Opposition party
Lesotho People's Cogress(LPC)	Opposition party
Basotho National Party (BNP)	Opposition party

The workshop was officially opened by Mr. Sehoai Santho, Team Leader of the IEC-UNDP Elections Facilitation Team and Director of Moruo Consulting Company.