Phillip Matante East: The real battle begins
Ryder Gabathuse | Wednesday March 16, 2016 15:10
The UDC is a tri-party partnership consisting of the Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP). The Botswana Congress Party (BCP), which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the tri-party alliance for the purposes of working together in the by-elections, is once again backing UDC in the by-election.
The turn out at the primary elections for the two parties over the weekend perhaps provided a hint of what numbers to expect at the by-election.
In the 2014 general elections about 1,381 total votes were cast at Phillip Matante East ward with six of them registered as spoiled votes.
The UDC emerged with a large turnout last weekend as theirs attracted about 304 people who voted for the three contestants with Uyapo Nyeku emerging victorious after garnering 183 votes followed by Lillian Grismier and Omphile Mazebedi who got 80 and 41 votes respectively.
As for the BDP only 141 people participated in the crowded weekend primaries, which is less than 50 percent of the UDC turnout. Six contestants vied for the BDP ticket with former independent candidate (2014 general elections) Peter Nare running away with the party ticket via 42 votes with Kgabenyana Masalila getting 36 votes.
Elizabeth Morebodi (23 votes), Segametse Sebeyane (19 votes), Ditiro Morebodi (15) and Olatotse Speakson got only six votes.
From a mathematics point of view, the UDC is leading the race ahead of the by-election. Provided they maintain their numbers, they may retain the ward they won in the 2014 general elections represented by former mayor, the late Shadreck Nyeku.
A picture painted by the 2014 general election results show that the UDC partners and their latest friend BCP are in the lead. Since politics is a dynamic game, it changes all the time depending on prevailing circumstances.
The late Nyeku (Shadreck) had garnered 554 votes whilst 221 people voted BCP’s Nobert Madatha.
The BDP represented by Bridget Masalila was voted by 418 people and Nare, who then was an independent candidate (now BDP candidate in the by-election) had garnered 71 votes.
If polling was a simple arithmetic game then the UDC would be far ahead by simply adding what was garnered in 2014.
Whilst the numbers could not be very accurate, to a large extent they reflect what to expect on the polling day, as the same voting rolls used in 2014 will be used to guide the contestants.
Quizzed about the BDP’s low voter turnout at the weekend primaries, Francistown South branch secretary, Modiri Lucas said the BMD had booked all the traditional polling stations in the constituency forcing them to use little known areas.
“We didn’t have public address systems to woo people to the polling stations last weekend and this could have worked against us,” he said and added that on the whole people were given short notice about the primaries.
“We gather solace from the fact that we are a united force and we are working round the clock to win back this ward. We are in fact going to win this ward,” said the confident Lucas.
His opposite number in the BMD, Gaone Lewanika was elated that whilst their turnout did not reflect what they expected, it was promising that if they work very hard the situation could turn out to be better.
“We are happy and inspired by our numbers. It’s showing that we will make it going forward. We are elated and I promise you that even the BCP will be with us in this journey,” Lewanika said.