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 “We have written to individual political parties inviting them to attend the forum and if any of the parties choose not to attend, it is up to them. I don’t care whether they attend or not as that remains their responsibility to ensure that they attend. I am also accountable to my own party (ga ke na sepe kana ke boikarabelo jwa bone jaaka le nna ke nale boikarabelo jwa phathi yame),” stated Kwelagobe.The All-Party Conference adjourned recently to give political parties enough time to prepare themselves to submit names of people they feel should sit in the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as Commissioners. They had to choose from a list of over 1000 applicants. Kwelagobe is however least bothered by the threat of the opposition and has warned them that the law will take its course.
Save for the two small parties, MELS and Botswana Labour Party, the rest of the opposition are unanimous that they will not attend the July 27 meeting. They claim that the government seems to be calling the conference, only to satisfy the requirement that the names of the IEC commissioners should pass through the forum. The opposition expressed worry that the government did not want the crucial issue of electoral reforms to be debated. They also claim that the BDP wanted them to rubber-stamp its decisions through the forum. Parties that vowed never to return to the forum are the Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Peoples’ Party (BPP), Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
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