Improve Bulela Ditswe or risk losing elections � analysts
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday January 26, 2018 17:54
While the party insists the first run of primaries held in opposition led constituencies were “peaceful and did not have lot of problems,” that was further from the truth.
University of Botswana (UB) political science lecturer, Leonard Sesa says hiccups that surfaced during the past weekend’s Bulela Ditswe could worsen the situation on the second lap of the primaries.
“Bulela Ditswe is bringing many problems to the BDP. It is better the party could outsource the elections to an independent body outside the party to run their elections. The problem is that the electoral board and some members who assist them during primary elections are compromised. There is no way the members of the same party could not know each other and favouritism will always be there,” Sesa noted.
He said if BDP outsourced the conduct of primaries to a company which would help to compile the voters roll and run the election, complaints such as doctoring of the voters’ roll by officers associated with candidates, would not arise. “It is time the BDP did something different about their primaries. In fact, they should start to improve the system now because the party could have more complaints in their second lap because they would be dealing with 39 constituencies,” he said.
Another political analyst, Anthony Morima said disgruntled members who lose or fail to vote because their names had been removed from the voters’ rolls will either vote for opposition or not vote at all. According to Morima, the disgruntled members could also revive old factions, which were there in the party.
“The BDP should ensure that it addresses problems that have been raised by members on their first lap of primary elections objectively without taking sides. If the party leadership could not be fair to members then a lot of problems would come out. I think the BDP should have learnt a lot during 2014 general elections when it had more enemies in and outside the party,” Morima said.
He said some members of the party assisting in the conduct of the primaries might use the system to settle their scores.
The BDP secretary general, Mpho Balopi, on the other hand insisted that the party would address all complaints or protests that might arise in the first lap quickly in order for them to prepare for the second lap. The BDP constitution section 12 (b) states that all appeals lodged shall be attended to within seven days and a decision reached within 30 days.
And (c) (i) says any appeals arising from the conduct of a primary election shall be lodged in writing not more than seven days after the primary elections date and only provided that the appellant shall have verbally indicated to the presiding officer/returning officer his intention to appeal and the reasons for such appeal.