Performance of Women-led Political Parties in Lesotho’s 2022 National Elections

Since the dawn of multi-party democracy in Lesotho in 1993, few political parties have been formed and led by women, and they are not doing well. The main political parties lack the political will and commitment to nominate women as leaders. In the elections of 7 October 2022, none of the main political parties were led by women and none of them won a single constituency. While many women-led parties could not make it into parliament, a few women leaders got into parliament through Proportional Representation (PR). Four women-led political parties contested the election, all of them performing dismally. It is important to explore why women-led political parties did not perform well, as Lesotho has signed and ratified international protocols on women’s empowerment and equality in politics, among others, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1325, the African Union (AU) Maputo Protocol, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on gender and development. All these urge member states to ensure meaningful participation of women in politics and elections, specifically as leaders. We assess the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5) on gender equality and women empowerment to measure the progress Lesotho has made and the challenges yet to be addressed. This article explores factors that contributed to this poor performance and analyses the reasons for the poor performance by reviewing relevant documents regarding the performance of women-led political parties in Lesotho’s 2022 national elections.