UDC violates own constitution
Chakalisa Dube | Friday January 19, 2018 16:40
In light of the fact that some coalition members had been unable to raise the stipulated number of members to the congress, the executive decided to allow parties to bring 10 delegates per constituency.
The UDC’s constitution clause 11.2.2 states “each group member in good standing with the umbrella, is entitled to send one delegate for every 750 members or part thereof provided that the majority of these delegates are members of their organisation”.
The two parties that have failed to meet the deadline and submit their delegation as per the constitution are Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).
Mmegi has it on good authority that other parties’ databases are not up to date.
“It is true UDC NEC have agreed that each party should bring 10 delegates per constituency instead of one delegate for every 750 members per constitution.
The NEC wants all parties to have equal representation. Only two parties had managed to submit. The deadline for submission of delegates is February 9, 2018. Our congress is end of February,” UDC vice president, Dumelang Saleshando said.
He said the decision is just temporary for this congress then it would be up to the NEC or congress to adopt it or not at the national congress.
However, political analyst Leonard Sesa said, “Bypassing the law, which binds everyone for the sake of another is very dangerous going forward. Constitution is guiding parties on what to do when they have activities.
“This one shows that other parties do not have numbers on the ground because if they had numbers and proper database(s) there would not be asking for favours.
“In reality, the congress is not going to bring quality people who understand their parties. UDC then might be in the near future controlled by outsiders”.
Sesa said it is wrong to give people the impression that BPP and BMD could have the same number of representation on the ground or in the umbrella congress.
“The UDC leadership should be careful that small parties would use big ones to ride on them even when it is unnecessary.
Other parties will also want the constitution to be waivered to favour them.
The members will have to stand up on this one and urge the leadership to desist from bypassing the constitution.”
He said some parties have problems because of wavering constitution.