Boko breaks Bophirima silence
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday April 4, 2022 08:48
Boko announced Mankie Sekete of the BNF as the UDC Bophirima ward candidate despite BCP’s calls to field its preferred candidate being Peter Mogapi. Following the standoff, the BCP has since decided to contest outside the coalition using its name and colours in the upcoming by-election.
“In the 2019 elections we fielded all our candidates and after the elections wherever there is a by-election anywhere whoever stood for the election and lost would automatically stand again in that ward or constituency,” Boko said this week during his UDC presidential tour in Gantsi.
He also said there is nothing confusing about the candidacy by-election issue. Boko revealed that the decision to field Sekete as the UDC candidate for Bophirima was not taken in secret by anyone but rather determined by the UDC leadership and national executive committee (NEC).
“If God forbid the MP for Gantsi north passes away, we can never have any confusion as to who would stand for the elections. We could never argue and fight over who should stand for the UDC because we will field the same candidate from 2019 elections,” he highlighted.
He said the arrangement is straightforward and on January 29, 2022 the UDC NEC met and further accentuated the policy. Boko indicated that they will continue to emphasise and make sure that whoever stood for elections in 2019 and lost could stand again.
“We have had many by-elections so the Memorandum of Understanding on by-elections we have with Alliance For Progressives and Botswana Patriotic Front stipulates that when UDC stands for elections they stand as a unity and should never be divided,” he said.
Boko further gave an example of the Ledumadumane East ward by-election in Mogoditshane where the UDC fielded a candidate from the BNF because they represented the coalition in 2019. He said when the BDP councilor for the ward died, the BCP started making suggestions about the candidate who would represent UDC for the by-election.
“The deceased had not been buried yet and we just had to respect the process despite the late councilor being a BDP member. Instead of offering our condolences to the bereaved family, we put ourselves first and this was not right,” he said.
Boko also said they knew who the UDC candidate in that ward so there was no need for arguments. “There were by-elections in Nkange so we never said BNF has a star candidate because we knew whoever represented the UDC in the 2019 general election would continue to represent us,” he said.
Boko stated that if the party that had represented the UDC in 2019 indicated that it has problems, it is only then when other parties within the UDC can offer assistance with a candidate. Boko said it was only fortunate that the Ledumane East candidacy fracas passed but now with Bophirima it should be straightforward. He said what BCP did by ignoring the UDC procedure is what brings unnecessary conflicts.
Boko said he is not a dictator who takes decisions on his own. “Which decisions comrades and where did I take those decisions. All I ever do is act on the decisions taken by the UDC leadership and NEC. Even if one comes with guns blazing, I act on the decisions taken by the leadership,” he highlighted.
Meanwhile the BCP central committee has accused Boko of spurning all efforts to convene a NEC meeting to discuss the ward.
“We have also exercised utmost restraint and patience in the face of serious dereliction of duty, unilateralism and indiscipline by no less an authority than the UDC president Duma Boko. All of these practices continue to hurt the UDC and by extension the BCP,” BCP spokesperson, Mpho Pheko said in a previous statement.