Botswana needs progressive electoral reforms

Solly Rakgomo | Monday September 5, 2022 06:00

There is a strong feeling among different sectors of Botswana society ranging from politicians, academics, civil society group, etc. that the Constitution of Botswana, which was adopted more than 50 years ago, needs a serious overhaul as it has many shortcomings that makes the country to lag behind other progressive countries in terms of both participatory and inclusive democracy.

It is within this context and in the spirit of the International Day for Democracy (commemorated throughout the whole month of September worldwide) that this piece discusses how the constitutional review process should give some space for reforms in the management of elections in order for the quality of Botswana’s democracy to improve for the better.

Progressive democracy requires that electoral processes enjoy public trust. This is critical to the integrity of elections. Citizens not only have a right to participate in elections, but also have a right to know for themselves whether the electoral process is valid. That knowledge is the basis for confidence in elections and their resulting governments.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as the Electoral Management Body of the republic, should be an independent institution that deserves autonomy from the Ministry for State President. The need for the independence of the IEC is important so as to make citizens trust that it is impartial in exercising its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour and prejudice.

The issue of automatic succession is another area, which needs serious review. Proponents of automatic succession argue that it ensures a smooth transition between the outgoing president and the incoming president (in most cases the incoming being the one who previously served as Vice President) and that it has worked well for the country for many years.

However, there are arguments that the political turn of events that followed the ascendency to the high seat by His Excellency Mokgweetsi Masisi in 2018 has proved that automatic succession has some challenges that has the potential to polarise the nation.

The polarity has an impact not only on national security but the quality of democracy in general. Constitutional review therefore should make a provision for direct election of the president.

This will not only attempt to fill the gaps that are inherent in the current dispensation but also to ensure that the president of the republic, who is bestowed with executive powers by the constitution, is directly elected by the populace. This will therefore give confidence to the electorate that those executive powers are exercised by the president whom they have directly elected.

In addition, Botswana should also move away from the First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system to Proportional Representation (PR), which is an electoral system in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each political party. For example, if a political party gained 40% of the total votes, a perfectly proportional system would allow them to gain 40% of the seats.

PR seeks to overcome the disproportionalities that result from the majority and plurality formulae and to create a more representative body that reflects the distribution of opinion of the electorate.

Last but not least, it is imperative to introduce political party funding in Botswana. It is very important to know that political parties play a key role in the democratic processes as they are entities that are critical to ensuring that there is participation in political life, the expression of the will of the people and other functions. It is therefore against this background that money in politics is necessary for inclusive democracy. In addition to leveling the political playing field, political financing from the government of Botswana will allow candidates and political parties to reach out to voters and build long-term political organisations that are fit to robustly partake in the democratic process.

This has a huge potential of making value addition to the quality of Botswana’s democracy.

Most importantly, political party financing by the government might go a long way in minimising risks of Botswana’s electoral processes and democracy in general vulnerability to hijacking by the corporate elites by virtue of huge campaign donations they make to political parties and individual candidates.

This is because it might be a transactional approach to governance where politicians craft and implement policies that are centered on the interests of the corporate elites instead of the ordinary voters. Such an arrangement has the potential to create a toxic plutocratic political environment, which is not in line with the spirit of a grassroots and mass-centred democracy that Botswana badly needs.

These are few key areas, which I think that as the constitutional review is ongoing, there is need to make space for some improvements in the management of elections that can go a long way in ensuring that Botswana’s democracy does not only shine from outside but it is equally skin-deep.