AP, BCP, BLP fail first test
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday March 7, 2023 06:00
The by-elections for Bosele and Grootlaagte ward in the Gantsi North constituency will be held on March 27. Many had hoped the three parties, which aim to work together at the 2024 General Election, would cooperate as early as possible since they have been signing political letters together.
Early this year, the trio of BLP, BCP and AP made a correspondence in which they informed the public that they hoped they would be done with constituency allocation talks before the end of February.
However, the new marriage seems to be facing challenges as they cannot agree on minor issues such as ward by-elections. This has made the AP back away a bit to watch how the game unfolds. While for its part, AP secretary-general Phenyo Butale said: “The AP yielded the ward to the BLP and the BCP in the spirit of give and take.
We, therefore, would not be supporting anyone between the two because we believe this misstep should not affect the bigger negotiations which we hope to conclude very soon.” In that regard, University of Botswana political analyst, Shirley Monyatsi said this is a clear indication that opposition parties are not intact. “Whatever is happening within the opposition will give the BDP {Botswana Democratic Party} an advantage to win the election and it also stands a good chance to retain the ward.
Eventually, voters will lose hope in opposition parties if they keep fighting and failing to resolve even minor issues. It is quite clear that the coalition may fail to work even before it is launched.
If they cannot organise themselves for the by-election, what about the general election,” Monyatsi said. She opined that failure by the opposition parties to put their eggs in one basket indicates that they cannot organise themselves well and that on its own contributes to one losing the election.
In addition, Monyatsi said what is happening at Bosele ward shows that there is a problem in the newly established coalition. She added it would be difficult for the BCP and BLP to convince people to vote for them since they had informed the public that they were working together and all of a sudden both of them are independently standing for the by-election.
Monyatsi continued: “The public may punish them for that. Of recent, they have been all over social media explaining how they might work together. The question is, how will they defend their temporary separation from people?” She said their temporary division might affect them further if both leaders are not careful and they could have learnt a lot from what happened to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and BCP.
Five candidates who will slug it out for Bosele ward on March 27 are Botswana Democratic Party’s Moseki Isaac, BCP’s Kgomotso Kaelo, UDC’s Maplanka Mpule, BLP’s Sesupo Olebile, and independent candidate, Molomo Montsho.