SADC-PF jets into electoral fracas
Bame Piet | Tuesday April 15, 2014 14:12
The two most powerful offices in the land are at loggerheads over the attendance of Botswana election observer mission in South Africa, which goes to the polls on May 7, 2014.
The OP issued a statement yesterday reaffirming the government’s position that Botswana will no longer take part in election observer missions in the region.
The Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Margaret Nasha confirmed that Dr Esau Chiviya was coming to the country, but was quick to state: “He is not here for Nasha, they will be conducting a workshop. Although Mmegi efforts to get hold of Chiviya hit a snag, his office in Windhoek, Namibia was surprised to learn that Botswana would not be participating in the election observer missions in the region.
“What we know is that five MPs from Botswana who are members of the SADC PF will be undertaking an observer mission in South Africa. The sixth member is the Speaker of the National Assembly that side,” said the Personal Assistant Agnes Lilongwe, before saying she was not authorised to speak to the media.
“We are not aware of any communication that stops our members from participating in observer missions,” said the surprised assistant.
However, Botswana government stated that it would not participate in the observer mission.
“In the interest of public understanding and in light of recent media speculation over Botswana’s participation in Southern African Development Community (SADC) election observer missions the Government of Botswana wishes re-affirm its position to not send official observers to participate in such missions,” says a statement issued yesterday.
The statement further says that in its previous communication, Botswana’s decision to suspend its participation in SADC observer missions was taken last year after the Government raised its concerns about compliance with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
“In this respect, the Government of Botswana remains engaged on this matter with the appropriate SADC structures. Further to the above Botswana’s position is based on a matter of principle and thus not targeted at any institution or state,” the statement says.
However, the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone is yet to receive the communication, and might as well be unaware of the surprise that awaits them.
Head of the Public Relation organ of the Secretariat Leesa Martin also expressed surprise of why the government would stop its MPs from taking part. She said yesterday that the SADC Secretariat was yet to make request for.
“We are not aware of any communication to that effect,” she said.
She explained that the normal procedure is for the Secretariat to make a request, and then it is the government that should give them a list of names of people. Then the Secretariat facilitates the logistics. She added that since the SADC PF was an autonomous organisation there was no need for it to make the request through the Secretariat.
“What we normally do is make a request for names of participants, then the government will us that list, and we do facilitate their travel and participation in observer mission,” Martin said.
The MPs who are members of the SADCPF are Kentse Rammidi, Fidelis Molao, Phillip Khwae, Isaac Mabiletsa, Nehemiah Modubule and Dr Nasha.
Efforts to get a comment from any of the five were futile at time of going to press