{"id":12154,"date":"2022-08-17T12:54:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T12:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses"},"modified":"2022-08-17T13:36:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T13:36:41","slug":"counting-his-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses","title":{"rendered":"Counting His Losses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. <\/strong><\/span><b>Wairi licks his wounds after by-election defeat<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Weeks ahead of the Moselewapula Ward by-elections in Gerald Estate, Francistown, the then Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) candidate, Mmoloki Wairi, seemed to be set to cruise to victory.<\/p>\n<p>His fortunes would, however, change when his party, Botswana Congress Party (BCP), decided to go it alone and not use the UDC symbol, just two weeks before the by-elections.<\/p>\n<p>Caught off guard, and with little time on their hands, the UDC roped in Gift Tebo to represent them.<\/p>\n<p>When ballots were counted on 30th July, the late entrant to the race won the ward with 339 votes to Wairi\u2019s 334, while the BDP came a distant third with 110 votes.<\/p>\n<p>In an exclusive interview with The Voice this week, Wairi quickly admits that the stand-off between UDC and BCP cost him what should have been an easy victory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a BCP, and its decisions are binding. The party comes first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Wairi, who lost the elections by five votes, said the stand-off created a lot of confusion in the run-up to the by-elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UDC used this opportunity to further confuse voters in the ward. Some of the BCP members have confessed to voting the UDC because they were told I was standing under the Umbrella,\u201d revealed Wairi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was, however, our responsibility as BCP to counter such propaganda, and it looks like we did not do enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Still gracious in defeat, Wairi dismissed allegations that the party leadership may have sacrificed him to test the party\u2019s readiness for the 2024 general elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is ridiculous. This is a BCP stronghold. I, together with the party, had confidence that we\u2019d retain it. There were never any doubts in our minds that we\u2019d win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Wairi further said while he rues the missed chance, he plans to go back to strategise for his comeback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what the future holds, the party may decide to field a different candidate next time, it is still ok with me. I\u2019m not bitter at all,\u201d Wairi said in conclusion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\">Botswana<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. Wairi licks his wounds after by-election defeat Weeks ahead of the Moselewapula Ward by-elections in Gerald Estate, Francistown, the then Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) candidate, Mmoloki Wairi, seemed to be set to cruise to victory. His fortunes would, however, change when his party, Botswana Congress Party (BCP), decided to go it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,10,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-12154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-parties","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Counting His Losses - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wairi licks his wounds after by-election defeat Weeks ahead of the Moselewapula Ward by-elections in Gerald Esta ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counting His Losses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wairi licks his wounds after by-election defeat Weeks ahead of the Moselewapula Ward by-elections in Gerald Esta ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-17T12:54:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-17T13:36:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_28-62fceed373347.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Counting His Losses\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-17T12:54:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-17T13:36:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses\"},\"wordCount\":364,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_28-62fceed373347.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"parties\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/counting-his-losses\",\"name\":\"Counting His Losses - 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