BCP lobby Saleshando�s Gaborone bid
Chakalisa Dube | Wednesday March 8, 2017 16:06
The members made their demands during a closed-door meeting addressed by Saleshando over the weekend. The party’s regional leaders in the north attended the meeting, which was held in Francistown.
The purpose of the meeting was to give members detailed information about the recent coalition agreement with founding partners of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). The BCP is now a fully-fledged partner of the UDC.
The BCP members reportedly said that they feel that Saleshando’s prospects of winning the 2019 general elections will be high if he contests one of the constituencies in Gaborone. Saleshando is a former MP for Gaborone Central.
The BCP got 17 constituencies as part of a coalition agreement with other UDC parties. All the BCP constituencies are outside Gaborone. The Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) who are the pioneers of the UDC got a combined 40 constituencies.
The BNF was allocated 22 seats while the BMD got 14 and the BPP the remaining four constituencies.
“In response the president said that contesting the elections in Gaborone may involve trading one of the party’s 17 constituencies in exchange of a UDC constituency in Gaborone. He has promised to engage fellow UDC partners on the matter,” said a high-ranking BCP insider who attended the weekend meeting.
An insider also said that Saleshando noted that the BCP is to some extent constrained when it comes to addressing the BPP’s demands to be allocated four more constituencies to bring their total compliment to eight.
“He (Saleshando) feels the best placed parties to deal with the matter are initial partners of the UDC. Saleshando is of the view that the BCP was negotiating with the UDC as one entity. For this reason he believes the three parties are best placed to understand how they can share their 40 constituencies,” said an insider.
Insiders said that Saleshando did not want to discuss much about the constituency allocation because it is a ‘sensitive subject’.
Yesterday Saleshando confirmed the weekend meeting but declined to give more details.
“I do not discuss internal party matters with the media. All I can say is that the meeting was meant to formally inform regional leaders in the north about the outcome of the coalition talks and the reasoning behind decisions taken (during the negotiations),” he said.