Open season as political ‘transfer window’ beckons

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Sunday March 10, 2024 22:53

During this uncertain period, contests for party tickets never guarantee politicians a long stay in their political homes as frustration oftentimes forces losers to immediately search for new political homes in an endeavour to revive their shaky political careers.

Traditionally, primary elections lead to mass disgruntlement across the political divide where losing parties either contest as independents or join other parties where there is a vacancy.

For example, at the height of the 2019 General Election, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) activists, Haskins Nkaigwa and Dr Tlamelo Mmatli de-camped from the party to join the Botswana National Front (BNF) in their respective constituencies being Molepolole South and Gaborone North, so as to gain the candidacy from the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Similarly, the UDC recently unveiled Donald Keakile as its parliamentary candidate for the Gamalete constituency after he was recently rejected by voters in the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) primaries. He lost the BCP primaries to Boniface Mabeo after which he retraced his steps to the opposition coalition where he quickly secured parliamentary candidacy. He will now renew his rivalry with Mabeo in the October polls. In 2014, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Pono Moatlhodi, resigned from the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) to join the BNF of the UDC after losing the primary elections to former Member of Parliament, Thapelo Olopeng. By then, Moatlhodi negotiated his way into the party by ensuring that he did contest under the UDC ticket and Bontshetse Maokaneng, who had then won the primaries for the party, paved the way for him. Although he lost then, in 2019 Moatlhodi won the constituency under the UDC banner and later in 2021 he dumped the coalition to rejoin the BDP and was duly rewarded with the position of Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.

Specially Elected MP, Unity Dow, last year resigned from the BDP and joined the opposition BCP. Even if the BCP had held primaries for Kgatleng West constituency, Dow negotiated his way and now she will represent the party in the coming polls replacing David Morewagole who was supposed to contest for the BCP.

With the BDP and UDC member parties going to the primary election this month and April, more are expected to go independent or move to other parties where there is a secure spot. So far, the BDP is currently busy ensuring that all structures are restored and educated on how to conduct primary elections. Already, there are disputes relating to the conduct of primaries with some party leadership members vying for a compromise rather than going full throttle with the primaries. University of Botswana political analyst, Dr Sethunya Mosime has said politics is just like football. “This is a window period for them where we expect to see the movement of people from one party to another. Since primary elections are expensive, some people prefer to negotiate with other parties so that they do not go through such a process. “Even those who negotiated with the UDC last year, they ensured that they do not go through such a process, which became clearer as part of the deal,” Mosime orated.

She said positions are scarce in political parties and some members start to introspect on what they want about their lives. She said this is due to the fact that conflict management in political parties is one of the hardest things and some members end up leaving their parties. Furthermore, Mosime said such disputes arise mostly during election time. She said some misunderstandings arise when one sees that he or she is losing. She added: “It is easy for one to see that things are not working for his/her side but the problem is that politicians are always in denial. If people are not in support of you, it could be easily seen.” Her view is that it is time that parties have clear requirements on what one needs to do when contesting for elections since the party leadership keeps on waving requirements that exist in their constitution. In addition, Mosime said it is normal for people to fight for limited positions since that is part of democracy.

She said conflict is not easy to resolve just like in families. Moreover, she said some members use this time for political campaigns for the General Election as a way to bargain for their personal survival.