Coalition forms in Lesotho after no clear poll winner

Johannesburg - The leader of Lesotho's main opposition party has announced a coalition government with smaller parties after the 28 February election had no outright winner.

Pakalitha Mosisili, leader of the Democratic Congress, said in the capital Maseru on Wednesday that he will form a government with former deputy prime minister Mothetjoa Metsing's Lesotho Congress for Democracy and several other smaller parties to gain a majority win.

Lesotho's 120 cabinet seats are allocated using a combination electoral system, in which 80 seats are decided by constituency votes and 40 seats are calculated proportionally. The new coalition has a majority of 61 seats, without the proportional result.