Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskLess whimsically, Lesotho’s economy is nearly a tenth smaller than in 2016 and its 2.2m people are poorer than the average sub-Saharan African. The more than two-thirds who live off the land face erratic rains and climate change. Factories built by Taiwanese and Chinese firms in the 1990s to make clothes for Americans are shedding jobs. A huge dam to supply its neighbour with water is delayed.
One reason is that barriers to entry are low. To set up a party takes just 500 signatures. Under Lesotho’s version of proportional representation, a party does not have to reach a minimum share of the vote to be granted seats in parliament. In any case, candidates have few ideological or ethnic differences. Once in parliament there are no rules againsts joining other parties or forming new ones. Coalition governments are ephemeral.