| Marematlou Freedom Party | |
| Leader: | Moeketse Malebo |
| Ideology: | Conservatism Royalism[1] |
| Country: | Lesotho |
| Seats1 Title: | National Assembly |
The Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) is a royalist[2] political party in Lesotho.
The party was established in December 1962 by a merger of the Freedom Party and the Marema-Tlou Party (MTP).[3] Soon after its formation several members of the Basutoland Congress Party defected to the MFP.[3]
When former MTP leader Seepheephe Matete was replaced as party president by Seth Makotoko he broke away to re-establish the MTP as a separate party.[4] Both contested the 1965 general elections, with the MFP winning four seats with 16.5% of the vote and the MTP no seats with 2.2% of the vote.
In the 1970 general elections the party's vote share fell to 7%, resulting in it being reduced to a single seat.
When multi-party democracy was restored in the 1990s the party contested the 1993 elections, receiving 1.4% of the vote and failing to win a seat. It remained seatless after receiving 1.3% of the vote in the 1998 elections. Despite its vote share falling to 1.2% in the 2002 elections, the party won a seat due to the new proportional electoral system. It retained the single seat in the 2007, 2012 and 2015 elections.
| Election | Proportional | Constituency | Seats | +/- | Government | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Share | Votes | Share | ||||
| 1965 | 40,414 | 15.70 | New | ||||
| 1970 | 22,279 | 7.27 | 3 | ||||
| 1985 | Did not contest | 1 | |||||
| 1993 | 7,650 | 1.44 | 0 | ||||
| 1998 | 7,546 | 1.27 | 0 | ||||
| 2002 | 6,890 | 1.24 | 7,723 | 1.44 | 1 | ||
| 2007 | 9,129 | 2.06 | 5,106 | 1.19 | 0 | ||
| 2012 | 3,300 | 0.60 | 0 | ||||
| 2015 | 3,413 | 0.60 | 0 | ||||
| 2017 | 2,761 | 0.47 | 0 | ||||
| 2022 | 1,764 | 0.34 | 1 | ||||