Maseru — Lesotho’s former deputy prime minister Mothetjoa Metsing has called for a national unity government, saying a broader coalition deal would ensure stability after last week’s election failed to produce an outright winner. Lesotho, which has been on a political knife-edge since an attempted coup in 2014, held elections last week, the third in five years, after Pakalitha Mosisili, with whom Metsing had been in a coalition government, lost a no-confidence vote as prime minister in March. Mosisili admitted defeat on Friday to his opponent Thomas Thabane, whose All Basotho Convention (ABC) emerged as the winner of 48 parliamentary seats but short of the 61 needed to form a government. "There is no need for the removal of the existing government in office as we all agree that in order for Lesotho to be stable there is a need for a government of national unity," Metsing told a news conference late on Friday. Thabane has said his ABC party would form a coalition government with thre...
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