Africa-Press – Botswana. While many people are celebrating the festive season, Botswana’s political think tanks will be hard at work planning their election campaigns, crafting their party manifestos and strategising for their primary elections and other political gains.
The main political parties that will be busy preparing for both primaries and the General Election next year include the Alliance for Progressives (AP), the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), and the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF). The BCP has already held 80% of its primary elections, while the BDP and the UDC are yet to hold theirs. Although the BCP has already held most of its primaries, it still needs to complete the remaining 20% and finalise its campaign manifesto.
As part of its 10-point draft manifesto, the BCP promises Batswana a monthly unemployment allowance of P600 and sustaining a statutory living wage of P4,000 per month, amongst other initiatives.
Further, the BCP aims for a high-wage economy that works for all, bringing back exported jobs, and creating 300, 000 jobs by 2024. As for the pensioners, the party promises an old age pension of P1,500 per month, and a means-tested child grant of P300 per child. Primary elections for all parties are expected to take place early next year.
Meanwhile, the BDP has had a slow start to its own primary election process, known as Bulela-Ditswe. In most cases they come in two levels – at opposition held constituencies and the party held constituencies.
So far, the party has only called those who are interested in running for the primaries to express their interest by applying at the party’s head office, Tsholetsa House.
While the party has opened the door for expression of interest (EOI) for both council and parliamentary primaries, the race is far from starting, as individuals still have to submit formal applications to their branch committees for vetting.
There are still processes to be followed before the final approval by the party central committee (CC).
It is apparent that the crucial structure that plays a major role in the primary elections is the branch committee, which deals with the vetting process from the lower level.
The party position is that if one wants to contest for a parliamentary seat, he or she should have paid P5,000 to the party. The branch will need the receipt before anything and it will look again at the candidate’s behaviour as well as the record in the party. No new member can contest the elections. The CC takes the recommendations made by the branches into serious consideration when deciding on every member who wants to contest. Interestingly, the final decision lies with the recommendations and the CC’s independent assessment. The BDP also faces the challenge of reviving its collapsed structures before it can begin membership registration at the lower structures.
Recently, in an endeavour to prevent potential conflict of interest by some members, the BDP leadership asked its representatives in lower structures to resign if they had any interest in contesting future elections. This was done to prevent those representatives from using their positions to gain an unfair advantage. Only the CC members are not mandated to resign. With some allegedly using their positions to cheat, the BDP was forced to take this decision and improve inner-party democracy at the level of primary elections.
Constituencies that have structures that have collapsed include Francistown, North West, North East, Central, Western, Kweneng West, South East, South West, South East, South West, and Southern. Recently the source further revealed that there is no way the party could run party primaries with collapsed structures, therefore there is a need for them to be revived first.
The BDP’s Political Education and Elections Committee (PEEC) has been mandated to ensure that all structures are revived for the Bulela-Ditswe process to kick-start at the branch levels by January. The collapse of the BDP’s lower structures not only presents a challenge in itself but also threatens to disrupt the party’s Bulela-Ditswe and membership registration processes.
Therefore, it is essential that these structures are revived as quickly as possible. To prepare for the upcoming polls, the BDP must work around the clock to ensure that the processes of reviving lower structures, Bulela-Ditswe, and membership registration are all completed on time. Now the challenge shifts to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and its partners who are still grappling with plans for dividing the 61 constituencies and the model of cooperation they have agreed upon. Despite the ongoing talks between the UDC and its partners, no agreement has yet been reached on how to divide the 61 constituencies and work together effectively.
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As the end of the year approaches, Botswana’s political landscape promises to be an eventful one as the 2024 General Election is just around the corner. Political parties are looking ahead to both the primary and general elections. Press Staffer TSAONE BASIMANEBOTLHE reminisces about the stories that dominated headlines in the year 2023
Source: Mmegi Online
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