BDP’s quench to flip ‘ripe’ Ngami constituency
Spira Tlhankane | Monday February 26, 2024 06:00
This past weekend in Gumare, the BDP Ngami constituency branch elected committee members who will take the party towards the primary election slated for next month. Simon Meti was voted in as chairperson, Letshabamang Morulaganyi was elected as Vice-Chairperson while Omponye Sefo got the Secretary position.
In an interview with Mmegi after the weekend election, Meti said, “I lead a committee that is determined to win back this constituency from the opposition. Remember we have been exchanging it every five years. Last time around we fought hard to win it back so now we are doing a lot of work by appealing to sympathetic voters who do not have allegiance to any political party,” he pointed out. Meti was quick to indicate that his committee will also prepare for the North West region elections as the BDP gears up for the primary elections. He added that they will work hard to reorganise and tighten up the structures.
Meti said unlike in the past where there were divisions, this time around they have one mission which is to oust the opposition.
Since the election cycle began, the BDP has always believed that if it had landed potential candidates to win back the Ngami constituency from the BCP. Former BDP secretary-general (SG), Thato Kwerepe, was initially supposed to battle it out with current SG Kavis Kario but the emergence of Maun North constituency following the delimitation exercise saw Kwerepe now moving to Maun West constituency where he is scheduled to battle with one Uanamisa Henda for the primaries. Should Kwerepe prevail in Maun West primaries, come October he will get another shot at Hikuama who has moved there as a result of the delimitation exercise.
Former Ngami legislator and Education Minister, Jacob Nkate, was also supposed to throw his hat in the ring but his appointment as Chief Legal Advisor in the Office of the President means that he will no longer contest for the BDP primaries. Now, the race will see Kario facing councillors Lelentle Sokwe and Shadreck Sianga in the primaries. Reports from the constituency after the weekend elections is that the new committee is in full support of Kario and that his status as the SG makes him a favourite in the race for the BDP Ngami MP candidate. Looking back, despite the constituency being a BCP stronghold now, it used to belong to the BDP during Nkate’s time as MP but inner party tensions and jostling led to a huge loss in the 2009 General Election. Back in 2009, a combined force of the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) and BCP ousted Nkate by getting 6,836 votes to BDP’s 6,565. BAM-BCP alliance fielded Taolo Habano in what was one of the biggest upset in the election. The division of the BDP in Ngami at the time was a challenge for Nkate because his then challenger Kwerepe had lost the primary election at the height of the BDP factional wars in 2009.
The same year, Kwerepe had just been elected as the new party SG replacing the late Gomolemo Motswaledi.
Fast forward to the 2014 General Election, BAM had been swallowed by the BCP. Kwerepe had a thirst for the constituency and managed to wrestle it back from the BCP and then incumbent MP Habano. Kwerepe won the constituency with 7,063 votes as Habano breathed on his neck with 7,015 votes.
The ruling party was proud that it managed to vanquish the BCP in the tightly contested race. Although this region has never been a Botswana National Front (BNF) or UDC stronghold, in 2019 when the BCP joined the opposition coalition, Ngami was taken once again from the BDP as Kwerepe couldn’t defend his seat. Incumbent MP Hikuama won the seat by 8,026 votes as Kwerepe came second with 7,682 votes. Following Kario’s SG position victory at the Tsabong elective congress in 2,022, the latter was enlisted to toss the constituency back to the BDP and unite members in the constituency.
Should Kario emerge victorious in the primary elections he will face one Phillimon Aaron from the BCP who is already campaigning in the area as both the BDP and BCP seek to harness favourable winds in what will be a key race. Since 2009, the Ngami constituency has become some sort of swing constituency because of how both the BCP and the BDP managed to flip in back and forth. It will be interesting for the BDP because the BCP has since left the UDC and now the latter has allocated the constituency to Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF).
The BPF, which is a BDP splinter party, stood for elections in 2019 and fielded Lekopane Modimo who didn’t do well after managing only 514 votes. The BDP lost quite a number of constituencies in the Central and North as a result of the BPF in the 2019 General Election and surely they will need extra work for them to win back Ngami.