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๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ธ Lesotho: Politics & Democracy

Broadly yes โ€” Lesotho scores 0.516 on the V-Dem liberal democracy index (0โ€“1 scale), placing it among functioning democracies, though with weaker liberal safeguards than the top-ranked states.

Liberal democracy rank (2024)

#58 of 179

Score (0โ€“1)

0.516

10-year change

+0.034

Full rankings โ†’

Current leaders

Letsie III of Lesotho

Head of State

since 1996-02-07

Sam Matekane

Head of Government ยท Revolution for Prosperity

since 2022-10-28

Democracy trend

0.00.51.019002024
Lesotho โ€” V-Dem liberal democracy index, 1900โ€“2024 (0โ€“1 scale). Latest: 0.516 in 2024.

Upcoming elections

2027 Lesotho parliamentary election

2027-10-31T00:00:00Z

Voting alignment

Lesotho's closest UN General Assembly voting partners since 1946:

Frequently asked questions

Is Lesotho a democracy?

Broadly yes โ€” Lesotho scores 0.516 on the V-Dem liberal democracy index (0โ€“1 scale), placing it among functioning democracies, though with weaker liberal safeguards than the top-ranked states. It ranks #58 of 179 countries in 2024.

Is democracy in Lesotho improving or declining?

Lesotho's V-Dem liberal democracy score has improved by 0.034 points over the past decade, standing at 0.516 in 2024 (1-year change: -0.013).

Who leads Lesotho?

Letsie III of Lesotho is Lesotho's head of state; Sam Matekane serves as head of government (Revolution for Prosperity).

When is the next election in Lesotho?

2027 Lesotho parliamentary election is scheduled for 2027-10-31T00:00:00Z.

More on Lesotho

Data source: Coppedge, Michael et al. 'V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v15', Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, https://www.v-dem.net, CC BY 4.0.