BDP Introspects On By-Election Losses
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday December 21, 2021 06:00
The ruling party has won only three council seats out of 11 vacant ones for the by-elections that were held on Saturday.
The BDP has won Tumasera, Metsimotlhabe and Moshupa East wards while opposition parties won Nkange, Tamasane, Khwee, Motokwe, Lentsweletau, Mochudi East, Lorolwane and Ga Molopo wards.
In the 2019 General Election, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had won Nkange, Khwee and Tumasera.
“We want to thank all the people who had voted for the BDP and members who were working tirelessly to ensure that we win. As the BDP we accept the results and now it is up to us as a party to keep on working hard to ensure that we win some of these wards back to the party. We congratulate opposition parties for having won eight wards,” BDP spokesperson, Kagelelo Kentse said on Sunday.
He said the other issue that might have affected them is that the parties did not have enough time to campaign as they had to deal with their internal elections first.
In addition, he said the festive season is not the right time for elections since in December people want to do personal things and it is difficult to convince one to vote during that time.
Again, he said failure to hold rallies and launches might have an impact as people are normally motivated by those things to go and vote.
However, the opposition by-election chairperson Phenyo Butale said they are happy with the outcome of the results and it shows that they can do better if united.
“We have managed to win six wards from the BDP and lost one to it. This shows that we can have a solid foundation for the 2024 General Election if we are united as opposition parties. Even if we celebrate, we should not forget that we aim to do better and win government as opposition parties. Opposition parties could yield better results if they focus on their aim because Batswana show that they can vote for us if we work together. We need to overcome small obstacles that want to hinder us from winning and our members must understand our aim and objectives,” Butale said.
He said one of the things that helped them is that some Batswana are not happy that the 2019 General Election promises are not fulfilled.