Do or die for UDC
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday May 20, 2022 22:05
The UDC is going to its Palapye meeting already divided with the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) emerging from the leadership forum with a hard stance that it is going to push for an elective congress and that the party will go into opposition cooperation talks as a single entity, not as part of the UDC bloc.
The UDC has three affiliates: the Botswana National Front (BNF), the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and the BCP, and its NEC has 12 members,
therefore, the BCP forms a third of that. Therefore, under the circumstances, its demand may not see the light of the day.
The BPP has since become clear on its stand that it is negotiating under the UDC with other opposition parties, which are the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and the Alliance for Progressives (AP).
The outcome of the Palapye meeting will have to force the BCP to go and get a fresh mandate from its members in July this year on whether they want to pull out or not. On other hand, the BCP has not folded its arms as it has started new cooperation talks with the AP and they might launch their cooperative model if the stay within UDC is no longer conducive for them.
At the same time, the UDC is in a dilemma because if it does not take action immediately, the BCP factor may cost the coalition if the party decides not to pull out and do so, during Parliament dissolution. If the UDC does not find ways to progress, it might fail to field candidates in the 2024 general election as they would have banked on BCP.
Already, different party members within the UDC are calling for special congresses so that each party may be free to associate with one another. As things stand, there is no party, which has a fresh mandate from its members on how they should address disputes within the UDC.
Some members believe that the UDC affiliates must be given an opportunity to decide at their respective special party congresses whether the current set-up is ideal.
Meanwhile, BCP president Dumelang Saleshando told Mmegi this week that the party’s decision to make its own submission at the cooperation talks is in order. This is despite the fact that other parties in the UDC maintain the contrary. He said that in March there was a meeting attended by presidents from all opposition parties (that have entered cooperation talks) where a resolution was taken that parties should make individual submissions.
Their position is that Saleshando had made a proposal that the BCP wants to make its own submissions at the cooperation talks, but it was not endorsed by the other parties at the meeting.
UDC president, Duma Boko, is said to have chosen to remain silent after Saleshando tabled his proposal. The BPP president Motlatsi Molapisi recently said his party had submitted its position paper to the UDC since they cannot negotiate as an individual party as they are affiliated to the UDC.
“To be honest, negotiations are not supposed to take long. The guidelines are also clear. If parties do not agree on the model then it has to be so well in time so that others can continue to prepare for elections,” Molapisi said.
“What is supposed to take time is usually the constituencies’ allocations and wards, but there must be a time frame. All formula that involves an opposition cooperation model must be dealt with before the end of this year and every party should be knowing its stand. Parties that seriously need cooperation should not be delayed by those that have no interest or have become selfish,” he added.
On another front, the AP and the BPF are also divided between the two parties - the BNF and the BCP. The latest developments since the Bophirima ward by-election have shown that the AP prefers to work with the BCP while the BPF is for the UDC.