A landmark ruling in the Lesotho Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal to declare as unconstitutional the reservation of one third of the country’s local government seats for women.
An aspirant male ward councilor Molefi TÅ¡epe lodged the complaint with the Lesotho Independent Electoral Commission. He argued that the reservation violated his constitutional right to contest the elections in a constituency of his choice and requested that certain provisions of the country’s Local Government Elections Act be struck down as unconstitutional.
The respondents relied on the constitution that gives the government the authority to take positive steps to redress existing inequality.
The Constitution states that the state shall take appropriate measures in order to promote equality of opportunity for the disadvantaged groups in society to enable them to participate fully in all spheres of public life.
The Court ruled that the amendment to the contested act that provided for a temporary and rotating quota of electoral divisions reserved for women was indeed ”reasonably justifiable” in Lesotho’s circumstances.
Women make up more than 50% of the mountain kingdom’s population but a mere 12% of the country’s legislators are women.
The Court was also swayed by Lesotho’s international obligations in terms of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the African Charter on Human Rights and People’s Rights.