Dismiss the appeal, Masisi urges BDP

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Wednesday September 17, 2008 00:00

 

The applicants, Sylvia Muzila and Peter Ngoma, had appealed to the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Central Committee against the conduct and ultimately the results of the August 30 primary elections, which Masisi won by 1, 263 against Muzilas 824 votes.

In his response, Masisi contends that the appeal should be dismissed because certain procedures were not followed.

Masisi says that the complainants sent the same appeal twice - one to the Francistown Regional Committee and the other to the Central Committee. He said that the matter was prematurely and improperly brought before the Central Committee, and so the appeal must not be entertained.

He said:The practical and disquieting position is that at the time that the appellants lodged an appeal before you, they knew that they was also an appeal before our regional committee. In other words, at the time they lodged their appeal before you, a similar appeal was still, and still is subjudice elsewhere,reads the response. Masisi further states that not only is that untenable in law but it is also wrong in general administration to set identical proceedings in motion before a lower and higher forum. Masisi applied that for that reason, the committee should dismiss the appeal as it is not properly presented by reason of duplicity and the fact that it is also before a Subordinate forum.

The MP further wrote that the fact that the appeal was lodged twice shows the ill-intentions of the appellants. If the alleged prejudice for so doing was genuine and ill perceived, they would not only have dreamt of approaching the said regional committee in the first place, they must by now have withdrawn their appeal from the said committee. The alleged prejudice is therefore not deep seated at best, it simply lingers on the horizon, and at worst it is contrivance of convenience to reach a desired goal, he stated. In responding to the grounds of appeal, Masisi denied and rebutted most of them. The MP said that the ground that the voters roll was altered is not made to him as it refers to one parliamentary candidate. Furthermore, the allegation is not made specifically to my constituency, Francistown West Constituency, as the allegation refers to,making alterations on the Francistown roll,he said.

He added that the applicants also stay away from touching on the numerical impact of the alleged misdemeanour and fail to cite an example of the belated alterations. Masisi writes that he will only agree to a recount at Botsalano ward. One of the grounds was that he and his team were campaigning at polling stations, which he strongly denies. The accusers are not forthcoming with a name of a single persons name who was our target. How then are we expected to meaningfully refute or admit in the abstract? Masisi also denies and rebuts the allegations that he was responsible for changing of polling station for unequal treatment of polling officers and for the loss of control at polling station.

As for the loss of control at the polling station he says the allegations can best be handled by polling officers, but speaking as an affected MP candidate I need not say more than that my fellow contestants can have the eight votes complained about and see if that will make them victors,he wrote. By the look of things the bad blood in Francistown East is far from over as Muzila is not taking her loss well. But BDP deputy executive secretary, Fidelis Molao, explains that it is not permissible for an appellant to appeal twice to a lower forum and to a higher forum at the same time. The process itself does not allow that. It is not admissible. Usually what they will do is appeal to a certain forum and then send a copy here just for records,he said.