BMD, BRP vow to win elections
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday February 5, 2024 06:00
Thuso Tiego, the president of BMD, and Biggie Butale, the leader of BRP, will be battling for the keys of the State House with President Mokgweetsi Masisi of the BDP, Duma Boko of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and Dumelang Saleshando of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
The optimistic Tiego and Butale, who are both ordained pastors, have lamented the lack of developments in the country since the BDP came to power in 1965. In the past, all opposition leaders promised to deal with what they say is “endemic corruption and misuse of the country’s resources by the ruling elite in the mineral rich country”.
The government has denied that the country’s resources are only benefiting a few people who are aligned to the BDP. President Mokgweetsi has previously said he was sure of winning his second and final five-year term as the country’s leader and downplayed talks by the opposition that they will cause an upset and oust the BDP from power.
After the BDP won the 2019 polls, the UDC accused the country’s electoral management body, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of having helped the BDP to win the elections. The UDC alleged that the Directorate of Security and Intelligence (DIS) aided the BDP to rig elections.
The UDC then filed petitions before the High Court in a bid to nullify the election results in some of the constituencies but lost all the cases with costs. The High Court held that any reference to corrupt and illegal practices require essential elements of evidence further saying that the failure to provide a verifying affidavit is insufficient on legal grounds.
The BDP, DIS and IEC have denied allegations of helping the BDP to rig the elections. In the 2019 harmonised legislative and council polls, both the BMD and the AP performed badly. The BMD only won a council seat in the Bobonong constituency. By then, the BMD candidate who won the seat, was supported by Taolo Lucas who was deployed by the BCP to run for elections under the banner of the UDC before the acrimonious fallout of the BCP and the UDC. In the same vein, the AP only won a parliamentary seat in Francistown South where it was represented by its vice president, Wynter Mmolotsi. It also won six local government seats. Asked in how many constituencies the BMD field candidates, Tiego said: “Our intention is to field candidates in all the 61 parliamentary seats across the country. We think that we will achieve that goal. Bear in mind that some former BMD activists have defected to the ruling party and other opposition parties but we are optimistic that they will return to the BMD if things don’t go well for them in those parties. The BMD is a party of Batswana and its doors will remain open for everyone who wants to stand for elections both at legislative and council levels.” Quizzed when the BMD will launch its manifesto, Tiego said: “The BMD will launch its manifesto in April. The manifesto launch will be held in Gaborone North and will coincide with the launch of our podcast, merchandise and membership card”. When asked if the BMD has a realistic chance of causing a historic upset by unseating the BDP from power and how many parliamentary seats it will garner, Tiego added: “The BMD is not taking chances when it says that it wants to topple the BDP from power.
Our aim is to win 20 parliamentary seats and then form a government with other opposition parties in case of a hung Parliament.” According to political scientists, parties have better chances of winning the polls if they have well functioning structures across the country. Probed if the BMD has well functioning structures across the country to mount a serious challenge to the BDP, Tiego said: “The BMD is now in a revolution since I became its new president in September last year. Our structures across the country are a well-oiled machine hence we are confident of performing very well during the upcoming elections”. Butale is also confident that the party will perform heroics during the anticipated hot plebiscite. When asked how many constituencies the BRP will contest, Butale said: “We have just completed the process of expression of interest on January 15. However, we have not consolidated the information relating to how many parliamentary seats the BRP will contest in the looming elections. Our manifesto launch will be held at the end of April.” Asked to sample the chances of BRP’ success during the polls, Butale said the BRP’s aim is to win more than 50% of parliamentary seats in order to form the next government. Butale added: “We have structures that are well functioning across the country to achieve that objective”.