Three-horse race for 2024 General Election
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday February 6, 2023 06:00
There is a possibility that the BCP and its possible alliance partners, the Alliance for Progressives (AP) and the Botswana Labour Party (BLP) will face the BDP and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) which is made up the Botswana National Front (BNF), the Botswana People’s Party and the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), in a three horse race.
That is, if the BPF would honour its unity commitment to the UDC.
As a party, the BPF has been divided over its coalition to the UDC. Analysts are of the opinion that only a formidable united opposition has strong prospects of removing the BDP from power.
Over the weekend in Maun, the BCP officially told its hordes of supporters that it was officially leaving the ‘undemoratic UDC’. On the other side of the country, the BDP and its chief campaigner President Mokgweetsi Masisi were in Shoshong while the UDC was also in Maun.
Some people feel that the parties used the weekend major rallies to set the tone of what to expect during the build up to the crunch 2024 plebiscite. At the UDC rally in Maun on Saturday, it was expected that the UDC led by its leading light Duma Boko, will fire salvos at the BCP like it has become the norm following the bitter fallout of the UDC and the BCP.
But that was not the case as Boko chose to adopt a conciliatory tone. Instead, Boko and his lieutenants reserved their energy in talking about effecting regime change and not attacking the BCP.
In the same vein in Shoshong, Masisi was diplomatic. He even spoke about the prospects of reconciling with former president Ian Khama and urged democrats to work very hard to retain the Shoshong constituency that was won by Aubrey Lesaso of the UDC in 2019 before his shock defection to the BDP. However, on Sunday at the BCP rally things took a different twist.
The BCP president Dumelang Saleshando whose party’s fallout with the UDC precipitated the BCP to leave the UDC, attacked both the BDP and the UDC. For obvious reasons, it is now official that the BCP will vigorously attack the BDP and the UDC in the build up to the 2024 General Election. It is not known how the UDC will remain silent in the face of being under sustained attack from the BCP.
For now, the BCP and the UDC have been at each other's throats for some months now with no sign of improvement in relations. Contacted for comment why the BDP is now adopting a diplomatic tone and not attacking the UDC and the BCP like it is normally the case, a political science lecturer at the University of Botswana (UB) Professor Zibani Maudeni said with the campaigns now getting into overdrive ahead of the 2024 polls, the BDP may have discovered that instead of concentrating very much on criticising the opposition, it should in fact spend its energies on carrying out development projects around the country as espoused by the transitional plan.
“The BDP may have found out that effectively carrying developments across the country will endear it to the voters as opposed to spending time attacking the opposition. The BDP wants to mostly focus on service delivery. On the other hand, the UDC may now have also discovered that there are some BCP members who have not left the UDC and is acting with caution not to annoy these BCP members.
The UDC wants to grow its brand and is cautious not to attack the BCP. That could be its strategy,” Maundeni told Mmegi this week.