UDC's constitution amendment delays to favour BPF
Mompati Tlhankane | Tuesday September 13, 2022 06:00
Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) is the latest party to join the opposition alliance and according to Boko delaying the change to the coalition's constitution was a decision made by the National Executive Committee (NEC) which the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) was a part of.
BCP president, Dumelang Saleshando has complained that for more than a decade the UDC has been running on a transitional clause and it was time the party held an inaugural congress. “UDC is in a state of emergency, the UDC constitution is not used as it should be and after 10 years there has not been the first congress and there is no internal democracy.
There is no operational programme of action,” Saleshando who is the UDC vice president told the media after he was slapped with a three-month suspension in July. Addressing UDC members yesterday in Mahalapye, Boko explained that a congress cannot be held without amending certain aspects of the UDC constitution.
Explaining their decision to delay the change of the constitution, something that will now benefit the BPF, Boko revealed that they took this decision after realising that they need more opposition parties to join the project.
“We agreed that the constitution needs to be reviewed, renewed, and reinvigorated after being registered in August 2012,” he said. Boko, who is also the president of Botswana National Front (BNF) said all three coalition partners agreed that the change of the constitution could only be effected after inviting other parties. He said they wanted new members to help as they all work together on the constitution and regime change. “We don’t want to make changes while others are still outside. We cannot vote and agree on the leadership change in the absence of others.
We didn’t want BPF to come and become spectators,” he highlighted. Boko said had they changed the UDC leadership and renewed the constitution like the BCP had requested, the newly joined BPF would have nothing to contribute.
He said they didn’t want that scenario, something the NEC decided to tackle opposition cooperation first. “Our partners, BCP have been crying that they want the elective congress to choose the leadership of the UDC. We didn’t oblige, we told them that we should invite others first in order to make decisions as a collective,” he said.
Boko said they reminded BCP that a target was set and the opposition talks will be completed before the end of this year. Boko said the NEC is made up of four members from each party and all along the 12-member NEC had been taking all the decisions, not him unilaterally as is alleged. “The reports that the UDC is a one-man show are not true.
There is no way one man can overcome 11 members of the NEC,” he highlighted. Now that the BPF has joined the UDC, it will have an equal number of representatives in the UDC NEC which is four. BPF will contribute changes to the UDC constitution and will strive to have representation in the UDC leadership ahead of the inaugural congress.