All the candidates contested newly created constituencies with Pholo losing in Selebi-Phikwe East, Butale in Tati and Morwaeng in Molepolole North. In her appeal, Pholo - who was defeated by Nonofo Molefhi - claimed there was evidence showing that opposition party members were recruited to vote for some contestants. The system of using opposition members has been referred to as “go tlodisa molapo” in a report compiled by the BDP technical committee that looked into the appeals.
Pholo submitted that civil servants and under-age people voted in the primaries. She claimed that the winners in Selebi-Phikwe East at both parliamentary and council levels do not represent the true choice of the BDP membership.
She alleged that there was voter intimidation. However, the task force found that her grounds of appeal were all weak.
According to the committee’s findings, there was no evidence that opposition members, civil servants and under-age persons voted in the primaries. “Furthermore, it is difficult to believe that there is another way to express the will of the majority who voted and decide who their true representatives should be than what is reflected in the results of this constituency. No irregularities occurred in the manner in which the elections in Selebi-Phikwe were conducted. The appeal must fail and the election result stands,” the committee said.
In the Tati constituency, Butale claimed that his main opponent, Samson Moyo Guma registered a lot of people without the registration forms going through the party structures. He said Guma registered names of well-known supporters of the opposition. “Workshops were held throughout the constituency at which cattle, chicken, food and drinks were provided in order to buy voters including all night happy feasting for loyalists,” Butale had submitted.
This was allegedly done in respect of Tshesebe and Senyawe wards on the eve of the elections.
“Some voters voted more than once because the ink used was easy to erase. Voters were turned away because of the voters’ roll problems,” Butale appealed.
The task force conceded that failure to forward registration forms through the party structures was not in compliance with the party guidelines on dealing with voter registration. However, the committee noted that Guma stated that the branch secretary “who was obviously not neutral but partisan”, refused to accept the forms.
“There is nothing to suggest that the mere fact that Moyo Guma’s registration forms were signed by the Matsiloje Ward Secretary per se had an adverse effect on the manner in which the election itself was conducted in this constituency,” the committee ruled.
The committee said there was no evidence that opposition members voted, further questioning why the names of such people were not identified and removed during the correction process.
The committee recommended that Butale’s appeal should fail and the election results upheld.
Morwaeng, who lost to Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri, had protested that potential voters were turned away because their names were not on the voters’ roll, adding that 39 people used “receipts” to vote.
He also pointed out that Ratotoboro Ward closed before time, thereby preventing a large number of people from voting. According Morwaeng, there was no reconciliation of ballot papers. He accused one council candidate of using a party vehicle to ferry his supporters at Ratotoboro Ward.
The task force found that the voter’s roll issue was a problem prevalent in all constituencies. “No unfair advantage was obtained or gained by any particular candidate. After all, 2515 people voted in the parliamentary elections in Molepolole North, against a total of 2466 in Molepolole South,” reads the technical committee’s report.
The committee observed that when the Ratotoboro polling station closed because of rowdiness, 30 people out of the remaining 40 people in the queue had voted.
“The other allegations are not sound and, even if they were to be taken as true, they would make no material difference to the result of the election,” the committee ruled.
