UDC, BPP Troubles Brewing In Boteti
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday April 1, 2019 15:01
Boteti East has been allocated to Botswana People’s Party (BPP). However, some members have since written to the UDC National Executive Committee (NEC), informing the leadership that the party is failing to find a candidate.
A group by the name ‘Concerned Members’ said the BPP is instead recruiting people from outside the UDC to come and represent the party when it is supposed to engage other affiliates. “As the Boteti East constituency members for UDC, we have ultimately found it fit to appeal to your highness for intervention with regards to the 2019 national election parliamentary candidate. Whilst we acknowledge the fact that the Boteti East constituency has been allocated to BPP, the said party has up to now failed to cooperate in order to provide a eligible parliamentary candidate,” said Newman David, one of the concerned members in their letter.
“We have failed on several occasions to sit in a properly constituted meeting with BPP representation in the constituency. The fact that the party is non-existent in the constituency has made them fail to heed our calls for a meeting, there are allegations that our colleagues in the BPP are now going out of the cooperation and are colluding with failed BDP primary election candidates to come and represent the UDC in the constituency.”
The letter stated that the confusion has adversely affected preparations for the on going 2019 election campaign, more so with the registration process coming to an end soon.
David said the UDC in Boteti East constituency progressed to hold a meeting on July 18, 2018 to discuss the matter and agreed to endorse the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) candidate in 2014 general elections.
“This was done in precedent to the 2014 elections where the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) was in the same precarious situation and it swiftly sourced a candidate from the other cooperating partner, namely Botswana National Front (BNF),” he said. According to the letter, the same representation disregarded their choice and told them that the issue of a candidate is their choice and they came up with a structure that is not in line with the UDC constitution.
“With reference to the clause 16.2.1 on composition of a constituency committee which states the numbers for any cooperating party it can bring to the committee, the BPP has failed that test as in all instances we have only seen one or two individuals and formal structure to talk of.”UDC spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa said they aware of the matter and it would be attended to but BPP would inform UDC if they have a problem of a candidate.