No date yet for BPP primaries
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday January 29, 2024 06:06
The voters’ registration process was delayed by a court application that the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) instituted legal action against the electoral management body, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
The UDC eventually lost the case after the country’s apex court, Court of Appeal (CoA), made a ruling that there is no provision in law that allows the UDC’s agents to observe and monitor the voters’ registration exercise.
In the midst of the UDC and IEC impasse, political parties, the opposition and ruling party, are yet to hold their primaries which pave the way for gruelling campaigns by the chosen candidates.
On the contrary, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has partially completed phase one of its primaries while the Botswana National Front (BNF), an affiliate of the UDC, recently revealed that by March 31, it would have completed its internal plebiscite exercise. The UDC was delayed by sticky negotiations among its contracting parties, BNF, Botswana People’s Party (BPP), Alliance for Progressives (AP) and Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) on how to allocate constituencies.
Meanwhile,the secretary-general (SG) of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Kavis Kario, said that for now, no date has been set for primary elections.
In the same vein, the SG of the BPP, Nono Kgafela-Mokoka, revealed that no definite date has been set for the party to hold its internal polls. In an interview with Mmegi on Thursday, Kgafela-Mokoka, attributed the delay to hold its primaries to the fact that though the the party has been allocated six constituencies to manage by the UDC, it does not automatically mean that it will field its activists in all wardsconstituencies.
Kgafela-Mokoka stated that since the BPP is in a coalition with other parties in the UDC, those parties may be allocated wards in constituencies that are managed by the BPP.
She further clarified that the BPP may be allocated wards in constituencies that were awarded to other affiliates. “As of now, we are not yet sure which wards will be allocated to the BPP by the UDC hence the delay in holding our primary elections. The UDC is still holding discussions about the allocation of wards. We are however optimistic that this matter will be finalised as soon as possible after the completion of the national voters’ registration process. All parties under the banner of the UDC will hold their own primaries using their respective voters’ rolls,” Kgafela-Mokoka said.
Asked what are the implications of not holding primary elections, if any, well on time, a political science lecturer at the University of Botswana (UB), professor Zibani Maundeni, said that holding of the primaries early give parties ample time to solve any disputes that may arise from the exercise. “If there are any disputes arising from the holding of the primaries by certain members of any political party, the disputes may be solved in the best interests of the party and disgruntled activities if the internal polls are held as early as possible. The more the delay to hold the primary elections, the more difficult it becomes for parties to solve any disputes that may arise following the holding of primary elections. If disputes arise when primaries were not held well on time, some dissatisfied party activists may opt to become independent candidates which may work against the interests of the party,” said Maudeni.