700 000! Is the BDP telling the truth?

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Thursday September 18, 2008 00:00

 

Tafa first broke the news in a Mmegi interview last week, but the assertion has set tongues wagging, with critics saying the BDP must have made up the figure. The number appears all the more incredulous when put against the national population of approximately 1.8 million and the fact that adolescents and children make up a significant number of the population.

The Independence Electoral Commission  (IEC) meantime says Botswana has an estimated 900, 000 eligible voters. The IEC however is targeting a figure of 650, 000 voters for next year's general elections, while 563, 702 people have registered so far.
The fact that the BDP figure of 700, 000 was eventually trimmed by almost 300, 000 people who were found to be either ghost figures or members of the opposition, has caused critics to doubt the so-called significant growth claimed by the ruling Party.
Critics say the BDP membership ballooned this year just because a huge number of opposition members were approached to help other Bulela Ditswe (BDP Primary elections) candidates win at the controversial Primaries.

Allegations of opposition members taking part in BDP Primaries have been rife in the just concluded Bulela Ditswe exercise, with the number of appeals rising from the primaries reaching 100.

However the BDP electoral Board this week maintained in a Mmegi interview that the party's membership did indeed hit the disputed 700, 000 mark.

'It's a fact,' Tafa insists. 'At some point, we reached the 700, 000 members mark. I am talking about just registration. The number eventually went down after we embarked on a clean-up process. I can confirm that people who voted in Band B and Band C were in the region of half a million. The numbers are huge. In a constituency like Serowe South, we registered 60, 000 people, just in that constituency alone.

'Not all of our members managed to vote in the primaries because of their huge numbers. People were fighting to queue up and vote. I think the reason for this huge membership is that people saw voting in BDP primaries as an opportunity to vote for a government (of their choice) because once candidates win in the primaries, the BDP is sure to retain the seats.'

According to the BDP database, the party's membership currently stands at 471, 128 as at Monday this week, a figure that the party's political and administration manager, Fidelis Molao, says reflects card-carrying members.

For one to qualify for the BDP membership, they must be of the voting age(18) 'I think the chairman might have been giving a hypothetical figure,' Molao says.

'Also, remember that we still have bundles of names in the office that we are still factoring into our database. We are big party; why do people doubt that the BDP can hit the 700 000 mark?

Molao dismisses suggestions that the BDP is shaken by the spate of complaints and appeals against the results of the primary elections in which some of the losers have threatened to work against the party in the general elections next year.
'There is no crisis,' he says.

'People are talking as if a huge number of our candidates are unhappy. Our analysis shows that out of a total 703 candidates that stood in Band B constituencies, only 73 candidates were unhappy with the results. What percentage is that?'