UDC condemns BCP approach to cooperation talks
FRANCISTOWN: The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa has said there is no party in the coalition that can make its own submissions at the opposition cooperation negotiating forum.
This is despite the fact the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has indicated that it will make its individual submissions at the forum. The forum, which is made up of the Alliance for Progressive (AP), Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and the UDC is tasked with coordinating opposition cooperation talks for the 2024 general election. Through the forum, opposition parties want to explore a working arrangement that can help them unseat the ruling party from power. The BCP is part of the UDC together with the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and the Botswana National Front (BNF).
On Wednesday, the BCP spokesperson Mpho Pheko told Mmegi that the BCP president Dumelang Saleshando attended a meeting chaired by Margaret Nasha to address progress on opposition cooperation talks for the 2024 general election. She added that it was agreed that the parties would present their proposals the “cooperation framework” for 2024. Nasha of the AP is the coordinator of the forum.
“The agreed deadline is May 3rd, 2022 and we wish to report that the BCP will submit (proposal on the kind of working arrangement the BCP wants opposition parties to adopt at the 2024 general election) before the agreed deadline,” Pheko told Mmegi on Tuesday.
Pheko said the BCP would be making its individual submissions at the forum. Nasha later issued a statement asserting that the BCP has declared its readiness to directly make its submissions at the forum on May 3, 2022. She added that the AP and BPF are ready to make their submissions but the BNF has asked for a postponement. She then noted that parties have since been given until May 23 to make their submissions. But, Mohwasa maintained that the BCP move is not in order, adding that the arrangement is that UDC affiliates submit their position papers (to the UDC), which will inform the paper that the coalition will submit to the negotiating forum.
“Note that the talks are between the UDC, AP and BPF. No single party that is affiliated to the UDC can negotiate on its own. If any party wants to do so it will have to exit its standing arrangement or affiliation to the UDC first and probably request from the negotiations forum that it does so independently,” Mohwasa told Mmegi in a written response yesterday.
He added: “It is not how we are negotiating. Just like we indicated during the Bophirima by-election, negotiations and agreements reached so far are between AP, BPF and UDC. The BNF, BCP and BPP are negotiating under the UDC. This has not changed.”
Mohwasa said it is only after the UDC NEC meeting billed for May 21 that the UDC could give an answer as to when it (UDC) will submit its position paper. He also said if Nasha’s statement is authentic, it ‘distorts the current arrangement’ (on opposition cooperation talks).
“It is just like the BCP and AP decision to contest against the UDC in the recent Bophirima by-election. Even in the negotiating principles that we entered into right at the beginning of the (cooperation talks for 2024) talks and the subsequent engagements, there has only been the AP, BPF and UDC. So any party outside these three that wants to be part of the talks will have to first make a request to be a party to the process.”
He pointed out that if there is any party that is currently affiliated to UDC and wants to negotiate on its own, it would indicate so at the May NEC meeting.
“To us it will be tantamount to withdrawal from the UDC. It will be bizarre to have a UDC affiliate with the UDC at the negotiations forum. However, we believe a better response would only be granted by the UDC after its 21st NEC meeting,” he said.
The UDC has been going through internal problems for some time. The BCP accuses other parties in the coalition of not adhering to good governance standards. There is a swelling opinion that the BCP is on the verge of leaving the UDC and working with the AP at the next general election while the BNF intends to work with BPF and BPP. Both the BCP and the BNF fielded a candidate at Bophirima ward by-election recently. That was after they failed to agree on the party to contest the ward. At the by-election, the AP backed the BCP while the BNF had the support of the BPF as well as the BPP.