BDP underdog itching for Gaborone Central re-run

Isaiah Morewagae | Thursday February 20, 2014 17:06

 

Relatively young Mangwegape-Healy told Mmegi that despite coming last in the first round of Bulela Ditswe, he still believes that he can snatch the constituency from Mogami who led the pack. He attributed his loss in the first round to the timing at which elections were held.

 “Look most of our electorate told us that the timing for elections was very inconveniencing in that most of them were either taking their kids home for festive season or themselves were going for weddings as it was a holiday season,” Mangwegape-Healy said.  Also counting against him, said Mangwegape-Healy, was the fact that the University of Botswana, Institute of Health Sciences and other institutions in the Gaborone Central constituency were closed, and his target voters, the students, were away.

“In the constituency they are about 6,700 registered votes and only 900 cast their votes, as such it is not a true reflection of what the electorate in the constituency wants.

At least if numbers combined were close to half of the registered voters. If at least I lost when half of the voters had voted then it would be a different story,” he said.

Mangwegape-Healy added that should he win the race to represent BDP in this years general elections, he would fight hard to wrestle the constituency from the opposition Botswana Congress Party.

He felt that representation of youth in decision-making position was lacking in the country thus should he win he will endeavour to strengthen the voice of the youth in parliament.

In December a photo finish was seen in the constituency where Mogami beat Hambira by only three votes, 283 to 280, while Lebogang Mosope managed 202 with Mangwegape-Healy trailing behind with 165