BNF Taken To Court
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday September 16, 2019 11:45
The duo, Celsius Rambe and Fetumba Motsholopi are demanding a re-run of primary elections in some of the wards in the constituency. The urgent application, which has been filed with Gaborone High Court and is before Justice Michael Mothobi, will be heard today.
Rambe lost to Shawn Ntlhaile for parliamentary candidacy of the area while Motsholopi lost to Merapelo Manoe at Khakhea ward. In his court papers, Motsholopi argues that the reason he wants a re-run is because during the one that was ordered by the party, his name was not in the voters’ roll. Motsholopi highlighted that he had informed polling officers about the said deficiency.
“I could not vote because I was not in the voters’ roll. After the said re-run, the results were not announced at Khakhea due to the fact that there was commotion, which hampered the process. The re-run was held on August 18, 2018,” he said.
“On September 10, 2018 I was given a sealed envelope, the results were communicated to me. It is through the said letter that it showed that I had garnered 229 votes while Manoe and Oaketseng Batsheng garnered 230 and 110 votes respectively.”
Motsholopi said after he received the results, he made appeal to the party as the lower structures in his area had collapsed. Following his plea, the elections committee then ordered a re-run. On July 17, 2019 Motsholopi said he received a letter postponing the re-run because Manoe had appealed to National Elections Appeals Committee (NEAC). He said NEAC then overturned the elections committee’s decision.
“I therefore request this court to set aside the decision taken by NEAC so that a re-run can be ordered at Khakhea,” he said.
Now Rambe seeks the court to order the BNF to hold a re-run for two wards as ordered by the National Appeals Board.
His contention is that the general elections are near but a re-run for Sekoma and Kokong-Morwamosu wards is still pending. The two wards will determine who becomes the parliamentary candidate for Umbrella for Democratic Change on October 23.
The issue came about after the BNF elections board identified that there were irregularities and the results did not tally at Sekoma and Kokong-Morwamosu wards.
In its ruling, the BNF National Elections Appeals Committee (NEAC) stated, “Having considered the evidence provided by both sides to this appeal, we cannot resist the demand for a re-run as garnered from the said evidence.”
“There should be a re-run of Parliamentary elections in the affected/disputed wards, being Kokong-Morwamosu and Sekoma wards. The Electoral Board should tally the new results from the re-run with those that are not in dispute from the other wards,” the letter read.
Efforts by the party to convince the two members to withdraw the case on Friday were unsuccessful.