BOMASE chair denies region failed to submit protests�

| Wednesday January 22, 2014 17:22

I can confirm that those protests reached their destination. We went to the party headquarters physically to ascertain that they had been received after hearing those allegations,” he said.

He stated that the protests reached the party headquarters within the prescribed period. He said the headquarters is overwhelmed because it received loads of protests from the 57 constituencies, hence it may have been a challenge to see the ones from BOMASE region.

He said the region that is made up of the two Selebi-Phikwe constituencies, Mmadinare and Bobirwa had 13 protests. He said the regional committee made determinations in all the protests and made recommendations to the electoral board for a final ruling. He hoped that the outcome will be out soon as the central committee is already sitting.

He added that some protesters responded to the press release that announced dates of hearing and went to Gaborone while others did not go.

“We did not understand the arrangement to go to Gaborone for hearings because there had been no official correspondence to us as the region from the central committee,” he said.

Matlhogonolo stated that there is no guarantee that all protesters saw the press release in the newspapers and said he does not think that those who failed to go to Gaborone will be affected.

He said he does not remember the region registering protests in the past but added that the current events may mark a turning point.

He said though some complaints had no basis, others were legitimate and needed attention.

He cited a case where a ward had three polling stations using the same voters’ roll. Matlhogonolo said what happened in the primary elections offers BDP an opportunity to revisit some things. “People must understand that the recommendation to hold primary elections was a resolution from the congress.

He said for disgruntled party members to resort to backing the opposition, will not solve anything because even the opposition has its own problems. “Disgruntlement is something that we will have to deal with,” he added.

Efforts to solicit a comment from the party headquarters were futile as officials were said to be busy hearing complaints.