UDC may adopt new name
Chakalisa Dube | Friday October 21, 2016 18:25
Currently partners of the umbrella party are the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana National Front (BNF).
High-ranking insiders who preferred anonymity have said that the draft constitution was completed last weekend.
They have indicated that the draft constitution was handed to the chairman of the committee Tapiso Kgosikoma to submit to the UDC and BCP leadership for further review before endorsement.
However, Kgosikoma and his deputy Sydney Pilane were reportedly not part of the meeting due to other commitments.
Other committee members were attorney Martin Dingake who is the secretary, additional members; Thabani Peter, Parkie Pius, Nelson Ramaotwana, BCP spokesperson Dithapelo Keorapetse and Emmanuel Masie. “The only hiccup we encountered was whether we should have two positions of vice president (VP). However the idea did not see the light of the day. We realised that should we go into governance, our party constitution will not tally with that of the country which provides for a single VP,” the source said.
The proposal is to have two VP positions, occupied by the BMD and the BCP.
However, the BCP has also reportedly requested that it be allocated the position of VP since the president will be coming from the Botswana National Front (BNF) as per the current constitution.
“Representatives of the BCP felt that they are negotiating with the UDC, not individual parties and because the president will come from the BNF who are party to the UDC, they (BCP) should be allocated the VP position,” the insider said.
The mandate as to who should be the VP has been referred to leaders of the negotiating parties. The BNF will be allocated both positions of president in government, provided the UDC+ wins power, as well as the presidency in the UDC+.
As first VP, the BMD was to be allocated the position of the UDC deputy president while the BCP was to obtain the position of secretary general. The leadership of the two negotiating parties will also review the party positions because the idea to have two vice presidents has been shot down.
The BPP will have been allocated the position of chairman and a most senior position once the UDC+ wins governance.
The two parties also sought omitting a provision for specially-elected MPs because they feel is used to reward political friends. However, the parties ditched their suggestion because it went against the party constitution.
Martin Dingake, who is also the BCP presidential spokesperson, refused to comment when asked about the recent developments regarding the constitution.
“The negotiation process is very sensitive. Talks cannot be run through newspapers,” Dingake said by telephone yesterday.
Kgosikoma also told Mmegi that the UDC would only make a detailed pronouncement once the talks have officially been declared complete.
Both the BCP and UDC stated that coalition talks will officially be completed before Christmas.