Incumbent UDC legislators on a free ride

Incumbent Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) are safe and will still be exempted from being challenged for primary elections, the UDC has revealed. Last year UDC president, Duma Boko gave the BCP affiliated MPs and Councillors an ultimatum to write to the UDC and confirm their desire to represent the coalition in the 2024 General Election. In the same announcement, Boko promised that MPs and Councillors will not go through primary elections once they have indicated their loyalty. As the primary election season commences in a few months to come across the political sphere, the UDC says the exemption still stands and nothing has changed since Boko’s pronouncement last September.

Although their disgruntled affiliate, the BCP which will officially exit the coalition next week, labelled the exemption as ‘offensively undemocratic’, UDC spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa told Mmegi in an interview this week that the coalition is not undemocratic by sticking to the decision.

“You should appreciate that as it has always happened in the past, we have always had consensus candidates. This happens in all the political formations. It is not new. Democracy in itself exists in a context and circumstances will always guide us in terms of how we deal with different situations as they arise. We are always conscious of the broader interests of the movement,” said Mohwasa.

Shedding more light on primary elections in the coalition, Mohwasa said the UDC does not in itself hold primary elections.

“It is the affiliates themselves who pick candidates in areas which have been allocated to them on behalf of the UDC. We take it that this process will start after the release of the Delimitation Commission results,” he further disclosed. He said it is only the Delimitation that is holding them back adding that a lot of progress has been made on preparation of the constituency and ward allocations principles.