Can opposition form coalition govt?
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday September 5, 2014 15:22
However, no one opposition party is expected to win more seats than the BDP. Is a combined opposition a possibility given the current bickering among opposition ranks?
Yes, opposition parties will coalesce, should their numbers suggest that they could unseat the BDP, says a local political analyst who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity in fear of victimisation.
“There are extremists within both the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) but key decisions are taken by sober minded leaders.
If BCP or UDC gets more seats then it will be easy to give the presidency to a party with more seats and the vice presidency to the one with fewer,” noted the analyst.
He further said at the end of the day it boiled down to Duma Boko and Dumelang Saleshando to get their parties to support unity.
The analyst said the UDC and BCP had a lot of similarities and either party would rather be friends with the other and never the BDP.
BCP spokesperson Taolo Lucas said his party was not averse to cooperation.
“We are alive to the possibility of post election coalition if we fail to reach the required numbers but we have consistently said our next stop would be our colleagues in the opposition.
It is public knowledge that there has never been positive reciprocation to our gestures, but that, disappointing as it is, does not worry us or dampen our spirit,” he said.
He added that BCP deliberately took a stand that its members should not instigate any squabbling between opposition parties as his party appreciated the similarities between it and the UDC.
The UDC had the same position.
“The philosophy behind the formation of the UDC was to have an opposition that could unseat the BDP. While it is unfortunate that not all opposition parties ran along with us, we would be happy to accommodate post-election efforts towards a combined opposition.
At the moment however, we are working around the clock to attain state power, and we will cross the bridge when we get there,” he said.
BDP executive secretary Sechele Sechele said they would win majority seats and were not worried about an opposition coalition.