BCP demands cessation of election-day BDF trips
Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday August 21, 2014 12:06
BCP Youth League President Dithapelo Keorapetse said his party is disturbed by reports that a major unit of the BDF-EMG, being the 21 Infantry Battalion, will be deployed in areas such as Kwando, Phalaphala, Lenyanti, Phoha and others for an anti-poaching mission during the 2014 general elections period.
He said the 21 Infantry Battalion is the largest unit at the EMG consisting of mainly non-commissioned officers.
EMG camp is based in Selebi-Phikwe and falls within Selebi-Phikwe West constituency where Keorapetse is the parliamentary candidate alongside
Moeti Mohwasa and Opelo Makhandlela of the Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) respectively.
“The 21 Infantry Battalion is a military unit with about 1,000 soldiers and consists of more than four companies commanded by a lieutenant colonel.
“We have been reliably informed that the advance party of the deployed unit will leave Selebi-Phikwe on August 28, while the main body leaves on September 6 and returns in November.
“We are further informed that there are no arrangements for troops to return to Selebi-Phikwe to vote,” he said.
He said his party’s view is that deprivation of the rights of Citizenship, especially the right to vote is the worst political crime any government can ever commit in a democracy.
He added that the October elections accord soldiers a rare opportunity that comes once in five years to elect a government of their choice.
He said it is an opportunity for soldiers to voice their concerns about accommodation, abuse by deployment of soldiers in non-military duties, skills misplacement, low wages and poor conditions of service, including ignorance of the military’s special X factor by government.
“We are appealing to the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, President Ian Khama to order the return of the 21 Infantry Battalion and other forces deployed during the elections or arrange that they vote in a free, fair and credible manner.
“While the high command of the BDF can make necessary arrangements for the troops to return to vote, the buck stops at the Commander-in-Chief’s office who can give the final order,” he said.
He stressed that government should get the message that the aim of politics is to preserve individual rights and maximise freedom of choice and that democracy presupposes government by law with the consent of the governed.
He added that soldiers registered in large numbers hoping to speak with a vote and BCP speaks out for soldiers because they cannot speak for themselves because they would be viewed as mutinous and insubordinate.
“They do not have a union and are not allowed to have one and we therefore must speak on their behalf as people’s representatives,” he said.
The Minister of Justice Defence and Security, Ramadeluka Seretse, said during an interview that if at all the schedule is like that, it cannot be changed because BDF cannot withdraw everybody from the operation.
He said that would be a very unfortunate thing to do. “The defence of the country cannot be left open. The country’s security must be assured at all times,” he said.
Minister Seretse said it is not true that there is a systematic plan in place to disenfranchise soldiers and stressed that the army is an apolitical organisation. “I do not think that there is anybody within the BDF that can deliberately disenfranchise soldiers,” he said.