About 1,300 expected to throng BDP congress
After a resounding victory in the 2019 General Elections, the Botswana Democratic Party’s (BDP) fortunes have been slowly taking a tumble. The BDP meet in Tsabong halfway through the ruling party’s five-year mandate to rule the country in what could be termed a mid-term review.
According to the BDP’s Political Education and Elections Committee (PEEC) chairperson, Alec Seametso, BDP followers will be coming in large numbers to elect a new party leadership.
After sitting through their examination as leaders since October 2019, President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his now divided central committee will sit before party members at Tsabong Unified Secondary School for feedback. This will not just be the usual talk amongst party members as they recently met at the BDP national council to dialogue on policy issues. The central committee members will leave their slips in the form of election results as most of them seek re-election.
Out of the 14 council by-elections that followed the 2019 General Election, the BDP won only three. On the other hand, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) won nine, while the Alliance for Progressives (AP) and Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) each won one. The party has already conceded that all is not well and fingers are pointing to the COVID-19
pandemic as the main problem. According to Seametso, BDP members will be coming out in droves to give their party direction. “As of Monday, we had registered over 1,100 delegates and we hope the number to reach 1,200.
We have fully prepared for the congress and the democrats will be coming in large numbers. We have no doubt that all those eligible including the President, central committee, Members of Parliament, councillors, and chairpersons from regions and branches will attend,” he said.
Following their last defeat in Moselewapula, Kagelelo Kentse, the BDP spokesperson bemoaned troubles bedevilling his party. He conceded that amongst internal factors, the BDP went into the by-election and other previous ones, not so united and these issues will simply play themselves out and go a long way in robbing the party of possible victory.
From Ledumadumane, Bophirima West, and now Moselewapula by-elections, the BDP was rocked by reports of internal strife that saw party cadres in some instances de-campaigning their very own candidates, instead of working together as a unit for a common cause.
Kentse had said that they might sound like a broken record to be blaming the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their accelerated losses of by-elections in a short space of time. He feels that the results are a reflection of depressed voters who are seemingly all out to punish the ruling party. In 2019, out of 57 parliamentary seats, BDP won 38 seats. The Umbrella for UDC won 15 seats.
The BPF won three seats, while the AP won one. The BDP contested in all 490 polling districts and won 334 seats. It was followed by the UDC, which contested in 484 polling districts and won 129 seats. The BPF, AP, and BMD won 17, six, and one seat(s) respectively. Out of 200 independent candidates contesting in the Local Government elections, only four won.