As a member of the BCP, Maope served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the military regime that ruled Lesotho from 1986 to 1993.
[4] On February 21, 1998 he was elected Deputy Leader of the new ruling party, the LCD, which had been formed in 1997.
[9] In September 2001, tensions within the LCD were reflected in a statement by Maope, a member of the party's Lesiba faction, alleging that the government was oppressive.
On September 28, Maope resigned from the government,[10] and he formed a new party, the Lesotho People's Congress (LPC), which was registered on October 8.
The LPC, with Maope as its leader, gained 27 members of parliament through defections from the LCD.