How BDP plans to �rig� elections
Ntibinyane Ntibinyane | Friday August 15, 2014 12:25
The company’s executive team, who supposedly report directly to President Ian Khama, will by hook or crook certify a victory for the BDP in the upcoming general election, sources close to the party tell Mmegi The nature of the company’s engagement has not been communicated even to some senior party leaders. Sources at the BDP this week confirmed that the three executives (two men and a woman) reported for work close to a month ago, but were not formally introduced to staff members.
The company is allegedly under instruction to make sure that the party retains power by a whopping popular vote of 70 percent or more. While this appears to be remote, sources close to the party say that the company is working around the clock to make sure that this is attained. The last time the party won elections by 70 percent or more was over 30 years ago when the ruling party was still a dominant force in politics. In the last two general elections the ruling party has failed to hit the 55 percent mark. Nikuv, which is closely linked to the feared Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, has a chequered history in Africa.
In the last Zimbabwean general election the company was accused by the opposition and the media of rigging the election in favour of Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF by manipulating the voters’ roll.
According to the Zimbabwean media the company was paid $10 million (P87,324,800) to rig the election. This was not the first time Nikuv was embroiled in controversy in Zimbabwe. The company was blamed for the 2008 election stand-off between ZANU-PF and Movement for Democratic Change and allegedly manipulated the voters’ roll.
In Lesotho the company was at one point investigated for allegedly bribing the country’s top officials to win two multi-million dollar tenders in 2013.
But how will the BDP attain 70 percent popular vote? The answer, according to BDP insiders, lies in the methods that will be implemented by the three Nikuv executives stationed at Tsholetsa.
It is alleged and feared that the executives may employ Machiavellian tactics to get the results. This may include manipulating the voters’ roll in favour of the ruling party.
“It is very difficult to establish what they are really doing at Tsholetsa, but they seem confident that they will be doing something to make sure that the party performs exceptionally well,” says a senior BDP official preferring anonymity.
Use of spies
Nikuv executives may be working hand in gloves with government security and intelligence agents to gather intelligence about other political parties and the party’s internal ‘enemies’, a senior BDP Member of Parliament says.
In the last couple of months security agents have been deployed at Tsholetsa House for a mission unknown to even senior party officials. While the details are not clear sources are alleging that the agents are in constant communication with Nikuv executives.
The agents, according to the sources do not report to the BDP secretariat, but to ‘forces’ outside Tsholetsa House.
Who pays the Nikuv and government intelligence agents? While it is clear the government pays the intelligence agents, it is not clear who is footing Nikuv’s bill. Be that as it may, the company has won major tenders in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs since 2007. The company was awarded tenders worth more than P80 million as of April 2013, according to the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs. The company is currently managing the births and registration system and the immigration and citizen system.
Change of campaign structure
Other BDP sources that talked to Mmegi this week defended the appointment of the company adding that it brings a sophisticated approach to the party’s election campaign.
The company executives are said to have made recommendations to the president that the party should overhaul its campaign structure. The executives are said to have expressed reservations over the appointment of Alec Seametso as the party’s national strategists.
“… there is a feeling that [from the Nikuv executives] that the young man is inexperienced to manage this year’s make or break [general] election,” says a BDP official. As a result the executives have recommended that the campaign structure should include supporting campaign committees to support Seametso.
President Khama and his close party associates have embraced this recommendation. The implementation of Nikuv backed strategy is to be announced to senior party members very soon, the sources tell Mmegi.
BDP secretary general Mpho Balopi has denied that the party has engaged Nikuv, but confirmed that they have engaged consultants to assist them in the upcoming elections. He took a swipe at the opposition parties saying that they are the ones spreading propaganda that the BDP has engaged Israeli company, Nikuv International Projects, to rig elections. Surprisingly Balopi could not be drawn into revealing the name of the consultant or consultants engaged by the ruling party.
This week repeated efforts to talk to the company’s representatives in Botswana were unsuccessful. A telephone number listed in the company’s website rang unanswered. The BDP also could not give Mmegi access to interview the consultants.
Year Popupar vote % Seats in Parliament
1965 80.5% 28
1969 68.4% 24
1974 27
1979 75.4% 29
1984 68.0% 29
1989 64.84% 31
1994 53.1% 27
1999 57.15% 33
2004 51.73% 44
2009 53.33% 45