BDP Shifts Gear In Mochudi East Campaign
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday April 16, 2018 13:35
Over the weekend the two contesting parties of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), represented by councillor Mpho Moruakgomo and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) represented by Moagi Molebatsi held launches, which were not as vibrant as one would expect. Both parties only managed to fill a large tent each during their candidate launches.
Normally when there is a by-election, all party leaders and members pull up their sleeves to channel their energies towards the campaign.
Tlokweng and Goodhope-Mabule by-elections were loud from the beginning to the last the day.
Rallies were always fully packed, but that is not the case with Mochudi East. Though the two parties seem to be hard at work on the ground, voter apathy seems to be on the cards though there are almost 20,000 people on the voters’ roll.
When launching Moruakgomo in Mochudi over the weekend, President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced that they would be notching up their campaign in the area with Vice President Slumber Tsogwane and Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Developemnt assistant minister, Phillip Makgalemele leading the campaigns.
The party’s high-ranking officials will be holding rallies and doing house-to-house campaigns in the constituency until elections are held.
Masisi called on his party’s members to work hard and recruit voters to help him take Moruakgomo to Parliament. “Isaac Davids had defected from the opposition because he lost hope in them.
His wife is here with us meaning that she shared the dream with her husband. I urge you all to bring in voters for the party without buying them, sell our programmes to them and they will come,” he said.
Meanwhile, Masisi also hinted that he could be welcoming three legislators from opposition in the near future. “I knew Davids was going to come to the BDP before he came. He was my friend. I have friends in the opposition. This morning three of them called me and told me of their troubles. They are unhappy in the opposition and I believe they will come home to the BDP,” he said.
Various speakers praised Moruakgomo for being a true leader as he has led in many organisations he was part of starting from his youth days, through his being a pastor as well as a councillor.
Moruakgomo and Molebatsi face-off to replace Davids who was allegedly stabbed to death by his two herdboys in Sorilatholo early this year. Davids was yet to be welcomed to the BDP from the UDC, which he joined a few months before he died.