Parties Submit Presidential Nominations
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday September 23, 2019 12:14
The four that will battle it out for presidency are: Botswana Democratic Party, Umbrella for Democratic Change, Alliance for Progressives and Botswana Patriotic Front.
The other two parties that could not make it are Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and Real Alternative Party (RAP).
The requirements for one to be nominated for the country’s presidency are that candidates must be nominated by a proposer and a seconder and such people must be registered as voters for the purposes of elections to the National Assembly.
The nomination is made on a paper in the form prescribed in the first schedule. To be valid a nomination paper it must be signed by the candidate, his proposer and seconder or marked by them their marks.
Every candidate must be supported by not less than 998 supporters being persons who are registered as voters for purposes of elections to the National Assembly and every supporter must complete a support paper in the form set out in the second schedule.
A supporter can only submit a support paper for authentication in which he has been named as a supporter. The BMD secretary general, Gilbert Mangole said; “ there is no need for us to contest for Presidential elections when we are contesting less than 29 constituencies.
Our party is only contesting 11 constituencies. We cannot take over government as we contest less than 29 constituencies. The aim of our movement is to revive party structures in the country so that it grows in all constituencies and in 2024, we will be able to contest for Presidency”.
However RAP secretary general, Onkemetse Clark-Lerubise said his party is only contesting three constituencies and is still growing for it to contest for Presidency. President Mokgweetsi Masisi has set October 23, 2019 as the date for general elections.