BNF confirms 21 MP candidates
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday May 27, 2024 06:04
However, elections in Lobatse were postponed due to irregularities. The remaining primary elections are scheduled to take place at the beginning of June. From the given allocations, the BNF got 26 constituencies, the Alliance for Progressives (AP) has 11, and the Botswana Patriotic Front managed to secure 14 while the Botswana Peoples Party was allocated only five from the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) coalition.
“The low numbers in some constituencies are attributable to a combination of factors - lack of resources to mobilise and bring people to the polling stations as we are an opposition party without resources , people finance democracy from their pockets, new data base constraints, deadline that was set for eligibility to vote in primary elections.
So far we are the only party that has held so many primary elections, even BDP as the ruling party is struggling to have primary elections in a single ward, but political commentators are quiet about it,” Motshegwa said. He said as an organisation they have their own challenges and shortcomings, which they admit, have rectified and continue to rectify as a learning organisation. Furthermore, he said leadership is about accepting mistakes, to be solution-oriented and not make poetry proses about problems and challenges, leading in the frontlines in the trenches. He said leading a political party is not honey moon, not a bed of roses, it takes sacrifice and dedication in the quest for liberation of Batswana. The BNF secretary-general said the BNF has “Electoral Rules”, a document crafted by Central Committee and ratified by conference, which is an instrument used for conducting primary elections and elections for organisational structures. He said codifying these rules was meant to ensure fairness, professionalism, policy certainty and predictability, and most importantly, good governance.
He pointed out that the primary elections for wards and constituencies are run independently by constituency elections committees in consultation with national elections board. But he said in the event someone is aggrieved with the conduct in the process, there is room for appeal to the National Elections Appeals Committee, which runs independently to ensure fairness and justice. “I cannot remember the number of appeals we have, but we have a few that will be dealt with by the appeals committee,” he said. Meanwhile, he said their focus now is on continued organisational stability, harmony as they prepare the BNF and the UDC for a serious and spectacular campaign to defeat the Botswana Democratic Party and take over state power to rescue Batswana from the BDP misrule and economic misery. He, however, said as the leadership, they want all their members to be treated fairly and equally, so that everybody is at ease of protection by adopted policies He continued: “We are a Central Committee presiding over a political party and not a synod or diocese presiding over a church.
A political party has dynamics, robust internal engagements, which are welcome and healthy under the auspices of criticism and self-criticism, inner democracy.” On issues of wards and constituencies, he said they have negotiated some wards amongst the coalition partners, and on the verge of concluding the remaining. He said this process must be guided by principle, and with focus on the bigger picture of change of government and the plight of Batswana. “It must be fathomed that negotiations in a coalition are not as easy as a decision within a party contesting as a single entity. There are so many dynamics at play that require maturity, discipline, patience, understanding, compromise, and professionalism,” he said.