Lesotho: Political Parties Material
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- Creator
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
TitleLesotho: Political Parties Material
Reference codePP.LO
Date1958-
Scope and ContentManifestos, journals, constitutions, programmes, letters, petitions, resolutions, interviews, press releases, pamphlets, statements, reports, election results, conference papers and histories, 1958 onwards, issued by the Basotho National Party, the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), the Basutoland Progressive Association Party, the Communist Party of Lesotho, the Lesotho Unity Party and the United Democratic Party (Lesotho). The substantial holdings of BCP material from this period include a number of conference papers originating from the Round Table Conference of Political Leaders which sought to resolve the political crisis which followed the 1970 poll.
NotesThe majority of the material held here relates to the first two elections held under full adult suffrage in Lesotho. In 1965 the Basotho National Party (BNP) under the leadership of Leabua Jonathan won the first of these amidst accusations of interference on its behalf by the Catholic Church and the South African government. Independence followed in 1966, but when the opposition Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) appeared to have won the elections in 1970 Jonathan annulled them and suspended parliamentary government, remaining in power until deposed by the first of a series of military coups in 1986.
Conditions governing accessAccess to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment of the library.
Extent1 box
System of ArrangementAlphabetically by party, and then in rough chronological order.
Finding aidsItem-level descriptions are available on the library catalogue: http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S17/
Related files
See also Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and material in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies library's main classified sequence.
Level of descriptionfonds