Opposition coalition
The paper focused on a case study on democratic Botswana. “Therefore, localised and without clear historical precedence in Africa, Botswana parties’ attempted coalitions for winning elections are having a hard time to take root and function.
Coalitions between Botswana opposition political parties have also been attempted but either collapsed or failed to win elections,” said Maundeni.
Without being specific to the UDC case, Maundeni had observed that the problem with the coalition is that opposition parties negotiating election-winning coalitions have based them on secrecy, elite orientation and disregard for the voting public.
He said Batswana prefer a coalition of opposition parties for purposes of winning elections but yet secrecy has always worked in favour of opposed internal elements to disrupt working together.
This expert view confirms the struggle opposition parties have been facing over the years, which has been exacerbated by mistrusts that continue to dog the opposition.
At one stage or another, the current parties holding talks had worked together and left scars, which will continue to haunt them.
In another recent interview, political analyst, Adam Mfundisi urged UDC parties to urgently resolve their differences.
Mfundisi, a University of Botswana (UB) politics and administrative studies lecturer, explained the importance of parties in the UDC to reconcile in order for them to maintain competitiveness in the country’s political landscape.
“In my humble submission, UDC problems and difficulties have to be dealt with decisively for a sustainable opposition. Competitive politics is a virtue rather than a vice. It is critical for political consolidation.
Therefore, the parties that make the UDC must resolve their differences as a matter of urgency,” Mfundisi told the opposition recently. “It is politically important to expose differences in order for deliberations and resolutions to take place. Strategic leadership demands ethical and visionary leadership.
Strategic leaders confront problems and admit difficulties and differences in order to develop effective strategies to resolve them.
And, ethical leadership demands recognition of the existence of potential problems and admit fault on their part. People respect and develop trust on truthful leaders,” the UB lecturer had said.
He also stated that the differences in the UDC were bound to come to the fore in the long run.
He was, however, quick to point out that the growing tension between the BNF and the BCP should be worrisome to the rank-and-file of the UDC because they can lead to severe instability of the coalition. The BCP is a splinter party from the BNF as 11 MPs broke away from the BNF in 1998 in Palapye after disagreements with the then BNF founding father, the late Kenneth Koma. The BCP won a single parliamentary seat in the 1999 general election.
Mfundisi, however, acknowledged that the BCP remains a vital cog in the UDC and cannot be wished away.
The BNF spokesperson, Hunyepa, is insistent that the BCP was never allocated Bophirima ward and as such, it does not have any legitimate claim to the ward, under the UDC.
“Sekete is the BNF candidate as it were in the 2019 general election. Everything said by the BCP is a lie,” insisted Hunyepa and stressed that the BNF was ready to put the BCP to a lie detector and prove them wrong.
He indicated that the BNF was not shocked by the confusion sown by the BCP. He observed: “It should also be noted that the BCP also caused a full blown out confusion in the recent Mogoditshane Ledumadune East ward by-election.
The BNF managed this ward in 2019 on behalf of the UDC represented by Simon Moipolai.
Out of the blue the BCP started posting their candidate on social media, conducted nocturnal house-to-house campaigns and attempted to wrestle the ward from the BNF.”