BMD sidelined in opposition talks
Letters between BPF, AP and UDC reveal no BMD interest
Indications are that, it will be a while before the opposition parties are prepared to work with Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).
The BMD was formed in 2010 by mainly disgruntled members of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) who accused the then party leader Ian Khama of dictatorial tendencies. The party participated in the 2014 general elections as an affiliate of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), a coalition of opposition parties including Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP).
Hardly four (4) years later, the party split resulting in the formation of the Alliance for Progressives ( AP). The BMD got suspended and later expelled from UDC collective following a fallout with the mother- body. Its 2019 general election results were an unmitigated disaster which yielded zero Members of Parliament (MP) and a single councillor nation-wide.
Correspondence between opposition parties proposing the commencement of cooperation talks between themselves have excluded the BMD. For example, in a letter dated September 22, the BPF invites the UDC to enter into co- operation talks with it “...aimed towards agreement on the shape and model of co-operation our two organisations should adopt in the next coming general elections.”
Apparently, the two parties have been engaging each other albeit informally for some time. For its part, AP has written to BPF and UDC, proposing for the three parties to “...start working together in the upcoming by-elections in Metsimotlhabe, Tamasane and Bosija South.”
Although the AP goes on to say it is committed “to opposition unity and believe that parties should explore the possibility of a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU) on by- elections as a step towards opposition unity,’’ it has not engaged the BMD because, according to the party Secretary General, Phenyo Butale, “Information we got from our structures is that, BMD does not have presence in those areas and did not even field candidates in the past general election.”
Even former Mogoditshane MP Sedirwa Kgoroba wrote this week on social media that opposition parties should start talking cooperation, but in his list of parties he implored to get into talks, the BMD is not mentioned. “UDC, AP, BPF, let’s get the ball rolling,” Kgoroba wrote this week.
BMD chairman Nehemiah Modubule confirmed in an interview that his party has not been invited to any talks by neither BPF, AP nor UDC. He added that if invited to the talks, his party would participate. “As things stand, we have got no intention to spearhead any cooperation talks ourselves.
However, if invited, we will be happy to participate. We would rather concentrate on the rebuilding of the party,” said Modubule.