20120526
AFP
African observers Friday called for peace on the eve of Lesotho's hotly contested general elections, while praising the tiny country for a campaign period free of major violence.

"We call on all Basotho electors to exercise their democratic right and civic duty and participate massively and peacefully in tomorrow's elections," said former Nigerian leader Yakubu Gowon, chief observer from the African Union.

"It has been peaceful up to now, so let us hope that you will continue to be peaceful, right up through the period, and more importantly, at the end," he told a press conference.

"It's not because we have knowledge of any possible crisis whatsoever. It's just a sincere appeal before the actual date of the election," he added.

Gowon read out the statement alongside former presidents Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and Rupiah Banda of Zambia, who are heading other observer missions.

The election Saturday is the closest race since Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili came to power in a 1998 vote that sparked rioting and a South African military intervention.

After 14 years in power, Mosisili has established himself as a towering figure in this mountainous kingdom, bordered on all sides by South Africa, the regional powerhouse that dominates the enclave's economy.

But when his own Lesotho Congress for Democracy tried to force him to hand the reins to a new leader, he broke away in February to form the new Democratic Congress.

He is now trying to defeat the LCD under its young new leader Mothejoa Metsing, as well as the main opposition All Basotho Convention and its leader Tom Thabane.

With no election polls, the vote Saturday is widely seen as a toss-up in one of the most fiercely fought campaigns since independence from Britain in 1966.