BCP owed over P1.8m
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday July 25, 2014 12:57
The BCP secretary general Kesitegile Gobotswang told the extra ordinary congress over the President’s holidays that despite the agreement that all candidates will pay towards the campaign coffer, the party is still to receive P1,845,750.
The party had agreed that parliamentary candidates should contribute P10,000 each towards the campaign budget while council candidates contribute P5,000 each. But, according to Gobotswang’s report, only six parliamentary and 22 council candidates contributed. It means 49 parliamentary candidates owe over BCP P457,500, while 369 council hopefuls owe about P1.8 million.
“In order to raise money to execute an effective campaign the party had to partly depend on the contributions of council and parliamentary candidates. Women and youth candidates were expected to contribute 75% of the agreed amount. It is unclear why few candidates contributed. Financial constraint and delayed announcement of the benefits accruing from the contribution may have contributed to the low participation in the project. Failure to commit ourselves to agreed decisions does not augur well for our organisation,” reads the SG report.
For the party to mount an effective and systematic campaign Gobotswang said the party president Dumelang Saleshando would lead the campaign. He said all parliamentary candidates would be accountable to the president while council candidates report to parliamentary candidates under the guidance of local party structures.
The BCP secretary general said so far out of the 55 parliamentary candidates a limited number have campaign managers as required, adding that limited human resource and inertia may have contributed to the current state of affairs.
He added that they would do a pre-election voter survey like they did prior to the 2009 general election, in which they undertook an opinion poll to assess the chances of winning selected constituencies.
“We intend to repeat the exercise in readiness for the 2014 general elections. The objective of the 2014 pre-election opinion poll is to establish the proportion of registered voters willing to cast their voters in favour of the BCP and determine the characteristics of potential voters and non-voters of the BCP and to establish critical issues of concern,” the report states.
The BCP selected constituencies will be required to identify two interviewers per ward.
The BCP is facing other challenges of membership cards that has serious setbacks that persistently frustrated their efforts due to long delays in receiving refunds after spending money in running workshops under the Westminster for Democracy Foundation (WDF) – a Labour Party funded project.
Currently WFD is supporting a series of workshops to implement some aspects of the strategic plan.
Gobotswang has since refused to comment on the report, saying it was an internal document and the media was not supposed to have it. Saleshando, however, confirmed that parliamentary and council candidates have been given a deadline to pay their contributions, before referring Mmegi back to Gobotswang.