UDC to finalise constituency allocation principles
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday March 6, 2023 06:00
In an interview with Mmegi this week, Mohwasa said currently the allocation of wards and constituencies has not yet started since they are still waiting for the delimitation report.
“We hope to have the principles adopted at the next national executive committee (NEC) meeting. The NEC met last month and we are still to set a new date. Following this, the discussions on constituency and ward allocation will ensue,” Mohwasa said. With regard to the primary elections, Mohwasa highlighted that the UDC does not hold primaries, rather the candidate selection process is undertaken by affiliates.
Even if the UDC has registered as a party, it is a coalition and its affiliates are the Botswana National Front (BNF), the Botswana People’s Party (BPP), the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
It is, however, apparent that the BCP wants to pull out from the UDC. It has not yet made any official move. Rather, it had stopped attending and cooperating with the UDC in any activity. Instead, the BCP has formed a new alliance or coalition with the Alliance for Progressives (AP) and the Botswana Labour Party (BLP). Recently, at a BCP press conference, the party leadership informed the media that the party congress will take a decision regarding its membership of the UDC whether to move out or not.
The BCP leadership indicated that the relationship between them and the UDC no longer exists. For their part, the BNF spokesperson Justin Hunyepa said: “A date has not been decided yet.
Our elections rules stipulate primary elections, not expression of interest. The central committee has talked about it and that we should be prepared by the time elections are held.” As for the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) party president, Biggie Butale said the primaries would be held in November at the wards and constituencies they will contest. Recently, the party released a statement inviting its members who want to express their interests in party primary elections to write to the party. “Letters of interest must be accompanied by a receipt/proof of payment of the required application fee strictly into the party account for the respective position one is expressing interest, for example, for a parliamentary seat, one pays P1,000. Incumbent Members of Parliament and councillors are required to send proof of payment of outstanding monthly subscriptions to the party together with their applications for them to be considered. This requirement and application will be processed only upon their payment by the set deadline,” the statement read. The BPP secretary-general, Nono Kgafela-Mokoka said: “We are waiting for the UDC to finalise the issue of the constituency and ward allocations first.
There is no way we can proceed before we know the areas that we will contest. As it stands, the BPP is preparing itself so that if the process ends, then write to members to show expression of interest and if they are more than one then we prepare for primaries. It is always best to issue an election writ when the key process has been dealt with. This helps to avoid internal fights in an organisation so that any member does not claim to own a ward or constituency.” She, however, asked the members to respect the process allocation principles, which are about to end and the one that will follow which is ward and constituency allocation. She said the two issues are sensitive and therefore, it must be treated as such. In addition, she said negotiation issues are not supposed to be leaked or discussed with the media until they are finalised.
The delimitation report has been circulating for the last three weeks and this time around, the constituencies are 61, not the usual 57 after Parliament passed a motion which was calling for the increase of constituencies. The delimitation report will show how the wards have been re-aligned.