Lesotho votes this weekend amid political instability

JOHANNESBURG – Lesotho holds elections on Saturday after the prime minister lost a no-confidence vote in parliament, highlighting instability in a southern African country with a history of shaky coalition governments and concern about military interference in politics.

Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, who took power after 2015 elections, lost the parliamentary vote in March. Mosisili’s main rival in the elections is Tom Thabane, a former prime minister who fled to South Africa in 2014, saying soldiers planned to assassinate him as part of a coup attempt.

Regional mediators had recommended the dismissal of the military chief, Lt. Gen. Tlali Kamoli, and Mosisili eventually fired him last year.

South Africa, whose territory surrounds Lesotho, has played a leading role in mediating among factions in the mountainous nation of two million people.