Botswana votes in rare cliffhanger election
GABORONE: Voting was underway in Botswana yesterday for a cliffhanger election set to test the decades-long dominance of the ruling party and challenge the country’s image of stability. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which has ruled since independence from Britain in 1966, suffered a seismic jolt in May when former president Ian Khama renounced his hand-picked successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Khama stormed out after accusing his former deputy of autocracy and threw his weight behind the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), once his fiercest critic. “It’s the toughest election we have had to fight,” Masisi told reporters after voting in his native village of Moshupa, 65 kilometers east of the capital Gaborone. “But you know I enjoy a test, I enjoy the challenge,” he added.
Masisi maintained that the BDP’s victory was “automatic”, but said he would concede and “retreat” into opposition if his party did “not make it”. Botswana’s founding party saw its share of the vote dip below 50 percent for the first time at the last election in 2014. That year, the two main opposition parties, which teamed up to form the UDC, won a breakthrough 30 percent of the vote. This time, the BDP vote share could be around 44 percent of the vote, according to a pre-poll survey carried out by Afrobarometer.
Parliament battle
More than 900,000 of the country’s 2.2 million people are registered to vote in the elections, which are at parliamentary and local level. The BDP, UDC and two smaller parties are vying for the 57 places in parliament, where the party with the most seats chooses the president. “These elections are too close to call because no single party is sure of the outcome, unlike before,” said Tuelo Gaadingwe, 44, a civil servant queuing to cast his ballot near Moshupa.
“Before this split, (the BDP) were assured of 19 seats in parliament before we even started counting votes.” Should Khama fulfil his goal, it would be the first time diamondrich Botswana has seen a change of government in 53 years. “We may be looking at a spectacularly different future from what we had so far,” said UDC leader Duma Boko after casting his vote in Gaborone. “To live to see that moment, to be part of it, to make it happen is one of the most humbling experiences,” he added. “I have spotted a candidate I think is the right person and I have to get him in,” said banker Chops Maswikiti, 37, who waited all night to cast his ballot in Gaborone. “He does not belong to the party I voted for in the last two terms but he represents strong sanity on our side,” he told AFP.