Youth power Salakae to victory
Leinanyana Tsiane | Wednesday October 29, 2014 17:35
The difference in ages between the two contestants for Gantsi North can be seen in the fact that Salakae was only 10 years old when Swartz was first elected into Parliament.
However, over the weekend, the 37-year-old triumphed over his more senior and formidable rival, garnering 3,999 votes against Swartz’s 3,685.
Though Salakae won the Parliamentary seat for the constituency, a majority of Council seats went to the ruling BDP. The constituency has 11 Council seats of which eight went to BDP while UDC managed to win only three.
Salakae’s triumph was viewed by many in Gantsi as a blessing because they alleged that the township was seriously under-developed though they have had an MP for more than 26 years.
“This is a huge blessing to us because Gantsi is not developed, but we have always voted for Swartz. We really needed change and we believe Salakae will surely represent our needs in Parliament,” commented Kay Morris.
Even some members of the ruling party said they welcomed the change, adding that Swartz had over-stayed and should pave way for young people. Some even suggested that Swartz saw it coming and should not have been surprised he eventually lost the constituency.
“Swartz saw it coming and so it is no surprise that he lost to Salakae,” said a source within the BDP.
The well-educated Salakae, known for his famous dictum, “Gantsi will never be the same again’, revealed that he was over the moon and thathe has made history. “I have managed to trample all scorpions and snakes who stood in my way and won the constituency through the help and hard work of members of the UDC,” Salakae said.
Though polling stations opened on time in all the polling stations, there were some polling stations which experienced a little setback such as Bosele and Kgapahamadi Kgotla where elderly people turned up in droves to cast their votes.
This resulted in delays as polling officers spent a bit of time explaining the voting process to them and also, they were given priority to vote first before other people. “Besides this hiccup everything went well as all the polling stations did speed up things and we closed them at the official time,” noted the Returning Officer Andina Dintwa.