CHAPTER THREE 3. Democracy and good political governance 3.1 Overview 40 92. Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy that gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The inhabitants of the country are quite homogeneous in ethnic-linguistic composition, and the major religion is Christianity. The king is the head of state, whereas the prime minister is the head of government. The king’s position is hereditary and accession to the throne is regulated by the Office of the King Order No. 14 of 1990. The prime minister is appointed by the king in terms of section 87, subsection 2, of the constitution. 93. The legislature is composed of two houses, the National Assembly, which has 80 elected members and 40 proportional representatives (making for a total of 120), and the Senate, which is composed of 33 members, 22 of whom are hereditary principal chiefs, with the other 11 being appointed by the king on the advice of the Council of State. The Council of State is composed of the top state officials from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the state, a principal chief, as well as four nonstate stakeholders appointed by virtue of their skills and expertise. Its role is to advise and assist the king in the discharge of his functions. 94. The judiciary is headed by the chief justice and consists of the Court of Appeal, the High Court, magistrates’ courts and local courts. There is a Labour Appeal Court which is at the same level as the High Court and which is presided over by a judge of the High Court. The judicial commissioner’s court is a customary appellate court of the local and central courts. Lesotho has a dual legal system in which the above-named courts use common law and Roman Dutch law. 95. Lesotho has undergone painful transitions from colonial rule to the present constitutional order. Its political history and constitutional development have been characterised by considerable political conflict. Independence was gained on 4 October 1966, after years of political agitation by various nationalist protest movements. The British colonial administration had entertained the possibility of Lesotho becoming part of the Union of South Africa, which was established in 1910. 96. Lesotho started off as a multiparty state. Four political parties contested the preindependence elections of 1965. These were the Basotho National Party (BNP), the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) and the Marematlou Party (MTP). This was the first multiparty democratic election. The four parties have since undergone various permutations as a result of splintering, but still have an influence on the current composition and conduct of party politics. 97. The brief period of multiparty democracy was followed by de facto one-party rule from 1970 to 1986. Internal political conflict and instability characterised this period and had its roots in the