The EVM has become an orphan and a destitute before it could even walk
Owen Nsala | Wednesday May 31, 2017 16:30
This is the machine which, come 2019 and barring any intervention either from the courts or some miracle, Batswana will have to use to elect a new government.
The EVM was introduced following the amendment to the Electoral Act which dealt away with our normal and conventional way of voting which simply was by putting a cross on one’s desired candidate or party. The amendment was of course shrouded in controversy and evident secrecy as the Bill was passed at the close of a sitting Parliament and at very awkward and rather unusual hours by our legislators. There has since been an outcry from the general public and opposition political parties from across the divide on the amendment of the Electoral Act. Concerns have been raised on account that the amendments fail to pass the necessary constitutional musters and that issues remain alive before the courts. I am therefore constrained to offer an opinion on that aspect. Another uproar emanates from the unorthodox manner in which the motion to amend the Electoral Act was passed without the necessary scrutiny that one would have expected from this drastic paradigm shift in the manner of voting.
And then came the biggest shock of them all. The Secretary General of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Botsalo Ntuane, has denounced his party’s involvement in the amendment of the Electoral Act. In his own account, the amendment of the Electoral Act to introduce voting by the EVM is a brainchild of the IEC and consequently was mothered, not by the Democrats, but by the Independent Electoral Commission.
I for one have never had doubts about Ntuane’s brilliant and natural ability to defend any position conveniently no matter how difficult the debate against his side. In all occasions that I have heard him justify a position that goes against the grain, he has always brought very convincing displays to the show. He never lives his brain behind. However as regards the amendment to the Electoral Act, with the greatest respect, the Secretary General’s mind went on vacation. It is unimaginable that his party, the BDP can claim to be oblivious to the amendment. It is very unfair on Gabriel Seeletso (former IEC head-turned EVM coordinator) who has now been put under the bus and is left to fend off all criticisms that come with the unpopular electronic voting machine.
Those that crafted the laws and voted towards it at the wee hours of the morning have gone onto sleep and know nothing of the law. How ironic. Parliament is constitutionally empowered to make laws for the good order, peace and governance of the Country. It remains the only institution that has the law making powers and no one else.
A quick look at our Parliament shows that the BDP is the majority party in government. It is a party that celebrates and religiously honours its commitment towards decisions taken at a caucus, bar, of course Honourable Moswaanae and Honourable Majaha on their day. All decisions regarding the voting pattern when laws are passed emanate from a caucus by the BDP. It is therefore unimaginable that Democrats would refuse to accept what they conceived. Who else other than Parliament makes and passes laws? Was this law not passed through Cabinet, the legal advisors to Parliament and the party president and also the country President? If the BDP did not support the motion then starting at the level of party caucus they would have shunned the motion.
Assuming there was an extraordinary defiance to the party position as the Secretary General wants to suggest, then the backbenchers must have said NO to the evil. We however know that Honourable Kablay accepted that they make these law and as the governing party, they are mandated to make such laws. He was very unforgiving on that viewpoint and said no one was sleeping during the debates. To him, it was business as usual in Parliament and the BDP had done Batswana justice.
The BDP must therefore shoulder all the blames that come with the amendment of the Electoral Act. Their representatives at Parliament level took the amendment to Parliament and voted for that amendment. It was not Seeletso who tabled the motion. It was a fully-fledged Democrat acting on the guidance and support of the party caucus and members.
The BDP is vicariously liable for acts and deeds of its members in Parliament. Whatever they do in legislating has colours and tastes of the party. Whatever they do carries forth the wishes and dictates of the party. If the members of Parliament committed an act of treason against the party, then the powers-that-be at Tsholetsa must suspend all those who sponsored a motion against the party wishes.