Saleshando vanquished
Sharon Mathala | Monday October 27, 2014 17:43
As Botswana went to the polls on friday to vote for its new parliament, when the moment of truth came for the heart of the capital city, it was over before it even began for the incumbent MP Shaleshando.
The counting of votes was done at the Gaborone Civic Centre, and began at exactly 00:02hrs. The area was contested for by Independent Candidate Sidney Baitsile, Saleshando, Botswana Democratic Party’s (BDP) Rupert Hambira as well as Phenyo Butale under the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) ticket.
Previously the slot for the UDC was held by the late Gomolemo Motswaledi, the Botswana Movement For Democracy (BMD) president and UDC deputy president whose death caused a stir in Botswana’s political landscape, he was ultimately succeeded by Butale.
Gaborone Central is made up of six wards, namely Notwane ward, Boikhutso ward, Tsholofelo South ward, Maruapula ward, Village ward as well as Government ward.
Four of the six wards were pocketed by the UDC, with one ward each for BCP and BDP. For the Parliamentary candidates, the first vote was marked under BDP but a few minutes later it was the UDC who had an early first position in the race and never looked back.
Notably none of the contesting parties showed their faces at the counting centre throughout the night except for the independent candidate Baitsile who eventually managed a paltry 35 votes. Counting that took over 14 hours ultimately saw UDC’s Butale as the new MP. By 1pm the city centre was filled with UDC supporters, who were now confident that their representative was well on his way to parliament, as he had been maintaining his 500 margin from Saleshando for over four hours.
The presiding officer at exactly 4:10 pm finally announced that Butale had pocketed total votes of 4,601, Followed by Saleshando with 3,727, BDP came third with 3,191 votes with Baitsile only managing to attract 35 voters.
Making his first speech as MP Butale said, “This is an epic moment, this is in honour of a great man, Gomolemo Motswaledi, but knowing him and what he stood for, he would have said this is for everyone, it is for you as much as it is for me.’
Butale was later spotted being congratulated by Motswaledi’s brother Gape Motswaledi. Activities ended at the city centre with the party president, Duma Boko parading around the mall thanking the voter for sending one of his men to parliament on the day that the UDC won four of the five Gaborone seats; Gaborone North, Central, Bonnington North and South.