AP leadership negotiated in bad faith—BCP

With cooperation talks failing following the withdrawal of the Alliance for Progressives (AP), Botswana Congress Party says the AP leadership negotiated in bad faith. BCP is now accusing their ally of cutting a deal for themselves with the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).

The AP has been engaged in the process of negotiations with the BCP and the Botswana Labour Party (BLP) since September 2022. The intention was to conclude the talks within 10 weeks, but there was a deadlock on seven constituencies. The deadlock lasted for four months until AP decided to withdraw altogether recently.

In a media release after the last attempt to save the talks on Friday, BCP spokesperson Mpho Pheko said how the talks evolved suggests that the AP negotiated in bad faith.

“As the record shows, the AP acted as if it was entitled to constituencies which objective criteria suggested BCP should have first claim on, including all the seven on which the two were deadlocked,” she said. Pheko indicated that when BCP offered three of the seven constituencies it was deadlocked with AP, but the AP leadership shifted its goalposts and started making baseless claims about trust and lack of give and take. “Though it complains about lack of give and take, the AP leadership has not once, throughout the process, yielded anything to the BCP. On the contrary, it has extracted numerous concessions from the BCP,” she pointed out.

Pheko accused the AP leadership of running parallel negotiations with the UDC. She said AP leaders got a deal they like but continued to pretend they were negotiating with BCP and BLP, all the while looking for an excuse to bolt. “AP negotiators briefed their central committee dishonestly about consequential agreements at the table. We have it on good authority that even though BCP had ceded Gaborone Central, Mogoditshane, and Lerala-Maunatlala to AP they went ahead and told their central committee that BCP was clinging to all,” she added.

Pheko said they wish to emphasise that since 2019, the BCP has never laid claim to any ward in which it was outperformed by a coalition partner in 2019, save for Bophirima, where the BNF reneged on an agreement reached before 2019. She emphasised that the BCP gave way to the AP in Metsimothabe and Lentsweletau despite having superior numbers in both. She added that the BCP proceeded to cede constituencies in which it had outperformed AP in 2019 to the latter.

“We also wish to assure the nation that the BCP will never cease to speak without equivocation on good democratic governance and authentic change of government. We are not in the least bothered by the deal-making that has seen a hotchpotch of opportunists, domestic and foreign, united by nothing more substantive than lust for power and money come together under UDC. We are disappointed but not surprised by reports that the AP leadership intends to take AP to UDC. It is apparent that the leaders of AP have cut deals for themselves,” she said.