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 MASERU, Lesotho (AP) - A new opposition party mounted a stiff challenge in national elections Saturday, promising to end hunger and poverty in this tiny mountain kingdom in southern Africa — one of the world's poorest and most AIDS-ravaged countries.
Former government minister Tom Thabane, who defected from the ruling party in October to form the rival All Basotho Convention party, had polled strongly among the country's disaffected young people in the weeks leading up to the election.
Turnout among Lesotho's youth was high Saturday, as people traveled for miles on foot or horseback along remote rocky paths and waited patiently in the searing heat to cast their votes at 2,500 polling stations.
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