BDP admits mistake in setting deadline for CC nominations
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Thursday March 2, 2017 18:19
The BDP constitution does not stipulate or provide for a deadline for the submission of names for members hoping to run for office. It instead provides that members can nominate any person they want to contest for elections from the floor during the election day.
However, on February 20 the BDP secretary general, Botsalo Ntuane issued a call for “expressions of interest” to “all BDP members in good standing” interested in contesting positions in the Central Committee. The party’s national congress will be held in July and democrats were invited to indicate their desire to run for office by 1700hrs yesterday (March 1).
Yesterday, Ntuane said the deadline was not binding to members and was a violation of the party’s constitution.
“Nominations of names will still be permitted on election day in accordance with the constitution,” Ntuane said.
“We may have mistakenly omitted that part in their statutory notice, the part that allows members to submit names on the floor.
“It is just a mistake and we will include it. We had tried to explain to members who questioned us that they are free to make nominations for the members they want to contest at the congress.”
Ntuane said the idea behind the deadline was to have members submitting their names for administration purposes and to gather consensus if many people have shown interest before the election day.
In reaction to the latest developments, political analyst Anthony Morima said while there is nothing wrong with the deadline for submitting names, the only mistake the party made was failing to put a clause indicating that members could still submit their names at the congress.
“The part which contravenes the constitution is the deadline one. I think they should not have stated the deadline if constitution still allows members to submit their names at the congress.
The deadline part can confuse members especially those who do not know party constitution,” Morima said.