Gare Likely Unopposed In 2019 BDP Primaries
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday June 25, 2018 09:37
This comes after Boikhitso Disele who had submitted his name wrote to the party to withdraw his candidacy.
Gare had won the BDP primaries with 2,841 votes followed by Lentswe Mosanako with 767 and Stephan Kganela trailed with 514 votes. Disele managed only 182 votes while Benjamin Mogodi managed to convince only 50 people to vote for him.
Gare went on to win the constituency with 4,093 votes against Umbrella for Democratic Change’s (UDC) Jonathan Sethono who got 1,530 votes. The parliamentary seat fell vacant after Mokgweetsi Masisi ascended to the presidency of the country in April.
Disele said he was not pressured to back off. “I had submitted my name to contest for the primaries to be held in August. I have since decided to withdraw and support our current Member of Parliament. I submitted my withdrawal letter last week. Nobody told me to do it. I just decided on my own,” he said.
Mosanako also told this publication that though he had not submitted his name, he has moved away from the idea of challenging Gare. “I have decided that it would not be wise to contest when we have someone who won recently. We should give him a chance and support him,” he said.
BDP head of elections, Peter Siele said he was not aware of any names submitted to contest in the constituency. “The issue is not yet with the electoral board. It is up to the democrats at the constituency to decide whether they leave the status quo or go for primary elections. It is still at that level,” he said.
The BDP has already held primaries in opposition-held constituencies. They will hold primaries for constituencies they are currently holding in August.
Sethono will once again represent the UDC. The Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) made the announcement at a media briefing last week.
The Botswana National Front (BNF) has also announced that Moagi Molebatsi who recently won the Mochudi East constituency for the UDC will contest unopposed in 2019.