Chapter three: Democracy and good political governance (PR). Eighty constituency seats are contested on the FPTP ballot and 40 on the PR ballot. The PR component is utilised as a compensatory mechanism to ensure the inclusion of, and representation from, the smaller political parties that would otherwise not be represented in the National Assembly under the FPTP component. The 2002 elections were also the second to be administered by the IEC. 42 104. With regard to the strengthening of democracy and good political governance, there have been three best practices that could serve as lessons to other African countries. These are: the consolidation of the constitutional monarchy; security sector reforms that established civil control of the military and the police; electoral reforms that established the IEC and the MMP electoral system. Lesotho has also made strides in the promotion of women’s rights through enactments that eliminate discrimination against them and provide for their enhanced representation in local government (identified as a best practice in the chapter on socioeconomic development). These have been supported by other measures such as the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman and an anticorruption bureau called the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO). The nurturing of a culture of consultation and dialogue among the political parties, as exemplified in the negotiated compromise that led to the MMP electoral reform, has also contributed to the strengthening of democracy and good political governance. 105. Despite these notable developments with regard to democracy and good political governance, Lesotho still faces a number of political challenges. The first major challenge relates to the internal management of political parties and the interactions among them; the second relates to the perception that corruption is growing and is not being effectively checked. 106. Intraparty conflicts persist and are manifested in continuing party splits and floor crossings by members of Parliament. Interparty rivalries are playing themselves out in continuing allegations that there was manipulation of the MMP electoral system by political parties during and after the 2007 elections. There were accusations that certain parties had formed less-than-transparent political alliances with others in order to increase their representation in the National Assembly. This was the cause of the interparty tensions that led to the appointment of Botswana’s former president, Sir Ketumile Masire, as a Southern African Development Community (SADC) special envoy charged with mediating among the political parties to find a solution to the interparty disagreements. The SADC feared that the discord among the parties would lead to an escalation that could result in conflict which would destabilise the country, render the political system fragile and reverse the progress made with regard to good democratic political governance. The resurgence of interparty squabbling since 2007 has not been successfully resolved. A combination of these party dynamics has the potential of growing into full-blown conflicts that could detract the government from its normal functions. 107. A second major challenge relates to corruption, which the Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR) acknowledges is entrenched through the absence of public accountability. The auditor general and the minister of finance and development planning in fact acknowledge that public accounts have been in a very poor state for the past 30 years. The periods of one-party and military rule eroded any semblance of public accountability, and this situation has barely improved since the restoration of multiparty democracy. For instance, the auditor general did not produce any reports