UDC must hold primaries for 2019
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday April 26, 2017 11:13
We learnt that cooperation talks were concluded and the launch is scheduled for winter this year.
We said at the time that this bold step by the coalition parties did not please everybody in the opposition bloc. We boldly said there were elements within the opposition bloc that were holding Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) at ransom. These are people who do not like a new entrant in the coalition with a passion.
They are using a certain maverick from the North East to achieve their Machiavelli tactics to achieve underhand tactics to sabotage this progressive project.
We call upon the UDC leadership to resolve this problem once and forever before it becomes cancerous during the 2019 general elections.
It is not clear why the very people who were crying for opposition unity are now sabotaging the move that was given the thumps up by all progressive masses. It does not make sense at all. These people should be exposed.
What they are doing is counterrevolutionary and are enemies of the masses. The masses should punish these anti-progressive elements during the polls.
The UDC should also call a congress and map the way forward. It should not be automatic that Members of Parliament and councillors should automatically contest 2019 general elections. The incumbent MPs and councillors should also be subjected to primary elections.
They should seek a new mandate from the electorates. And those who are opposed to primary elections are anti-democracy and should be chucked into the dustbin of history.
We know that the losers will either decamp or sabotage the winners. That is common in our local politics. We have politicians who think they are annointed to lead until the Second Coming of Christ.
It is not fair to criticise the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) for lack of inner democracy when the opposition is also guilty of the same.
The UDC must assure the public that it subscribes to inner democracy and that primary elections will be held in all the constituencies that the party is intending to contest in 2019.
Yes, compromise is also an option but it should not be used to protect UDC leaders from being challenged by other party members in primary elections.
Today’s thought
“Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life.”
- B. R. Ambedkar