Batswana 'okay' with one party dominance
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Tuesday May 9, 2023 06:00
The study conducted last year reports that a sizeable minority, however, believe it’s good for democracy if power changes hands via elections from time to time. A least 54% of the population does not worry if there is a change of hands while 44% feel otherwise.
The view that political power need not change hands is more common amongst citizens experiencing no lived poverty (59%), those with no formal education (58%), and men. It further indicates that large majorities believe that Botswana needs many political parties to ensure voter choice and that competition between political parties rarely or never leads to violent conflict.
“While support for multiparty competition is widespread across key demographic groups, it is particularly common amongst urbanites (87%), the middle-aged (86%), citizens with at least a secondary education (84%), and those experiencing low or no lived poverty (82%–83%),” read the survey. Eight in 10 Batswana (80%) say the country needs many political parties to give voters real choices in who governs them.
“About seven in 10 (69%) respondents say competition between political parties ‘rarely’ or 'never' leads to violent conflict,” the report further stated. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has won all 12 of the country’s elections since independence in 1966, though its share of the popular vote has been declining (to 46.7% in the 2014 elections).
The opposition has only come close to taking power on a few occasions but bungled their chances at the last hurdle largely due to their infighting. The formation of the opposition coalition, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) in 2012 was viewed by most as a revolutionary step towards dethroning the BDP.
However, that has not borne any fruit thus far as peace continues to elude the coalition party. Post the 2019 General Election, the opposition coalition, the UDC approached the High Court after accusing the BDP of election rigging. The Duma Boko-led coalition said the elections were not fair and wanted the results thrown citing “irregularities in some of the constituencies”.
However, the High Court dismissed the case with a majority of the nine judges of the view that the matter was not properly before the court, saying petitioners failed to provide verifying affidavits and comply with rules. Meanwhile, critics have argued that the BDP’s dominance has bred complacency, lack of accountability, unresponsiveness, and corruption.