After the 2012 election, Prime Minister
Pakalitha Mosisili's
Democratic Congress failed to attain a majority; and thus a
coalition government was formed among the three opposition parties:
All Basotho Convention (ABC),
Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the
Basotho National Party (BCP). The government was led by ABC's Tom Thabane, who served as the new prime minister; whilst the leader of LCD,
Mothetjoa Metsing was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister. Following political tensions and the suspension of the National Assembly over the controversial change of the head of the army from Lieutenant General
Kennedy Tlali Kamoli to Lieutenant General
Maaparankoe Mahao, an attempted
coup d'état forced Prime Minister
Tom Thabane to flee the country. He then returned under cover of
South African and Namibian police, who guarded him around-the-clock. Under the auspices of the SADC, mediation led by South African Deputy President
Cyril Ramaphosa resulted in a call for an early election. The national elections took place on 28 February. Thabane was backed by the
national police, while his deputy
Mothetjoa Metsing was backed by the
army, which refused to recognise the change in army leadership. On 17 October, the National Assembly reconvened in a bid to avert the political crisis, with Thabane's advisor Tumisang Mosotho saying "It’s a milestone. We want to hope this is the first step in the right direction, in liberating our country from the danger that has surrounded us these past few months". Senate Chief Whip
Khoabane Theko said: "This is what we can call maybe the beginning of the process that takes us to the elections, because we are going to have a budget and maybe deliberate other laws... ahead of our elections from here on". ==Electoral system==