Delimitation Commission to swear secretariat in
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday June 13, 2022 16:17
Today (Monday) the delimitation commission secretariat will be sworn in by the Chief Justice at the Gaborone High Court. The delimitation is expected to produce a report after consultation to assess if there is a need to increase or align constituencies and wards with populations.
However, the power to increase the number of seats of elected members in the National Assembly lies with Parliament only and not the Commission.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) public relations officer, Osupile Maroba the delimitation commission will start its work immediately after the swearing-in of the members of the secretariat.
History has, however, shown that the delimitation commission secretariat is toothless as Parliament may decide to ignore its recommendation. This is so because already the winter Parliament has passed a motion calling for an additional four constituencies instead of five made by the commission or having to wait for a new recommendation report by the commission.
For example, the 2012 Commission feels that there is a compelling need for the creation of an additional constituency in the North West District.
The news constituency was suggested because of the inaccessibility of some of its constituencies owing to geographical features such as swamps, rivers, heavy sand, and the absence of or insufficient road network which make it exceedingly difficult for incumbent parliamentarians to visit their constituencies.
“New constituencies are also needed in Gaborone and some districts which have experienced rapid population growth in the last 10 years namely, Kgatleng, Kweneng (around Mogoditshane village) and the western parts of the Southern District. In all, the commission was convinced that there was a need to create five new constituencies,” it stated. The report stated the population quota as determined by the formula provided by section 65 (3) of the Constitution is 35,524.
Therefore, this is derived from dividing the population of the country as determined in the 2011 comprehensive National Population Census which was 2,024,904 with the number of constituencies into which Botswana is divided which is currently 57.
The commission had indicated that it had done everything possible within its power to realign the constituency boundaries to ensure that the population of each constituency is nearly as equal to the population quota as is reasonably practicable.
In so doing, the commission was not merely complying with a constitutional imperative but was upholding an equitable principle that equal numbers of people should ideally have equal representation.
However, despite the best efforts to ensure that the number of inhabitants of each constituency is as nearly equal to the population quota as reasonably practicable, there remain some constituencies whose populations are far greater or less than the population quota. Only two constituencies, according to the report, which are Kgalagadi North (18,092) and Ghanzi South (20,254) which have exceptionally low populations compared to the rest of the constituencies, there was a maximum variation of less than 30% from the population quota.