UDC worried by poor performance in UB elections
Innocent Selatlhwa | Wednesday November 8, 2017 13:55
The party mouthpiece, Moeti Mohwasa said they are not impressed with the latest performance where the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) GS-26 garnered seven seats to their six. The UB-UDC would later lose three more seats to GS-26.
“It is the first time that the BDP got more seats at the SRC, the trend is worrying. We have seen the BDP splashing a lot of money at the institution while we have not been doing much. We will be in the near future working on proper coordination of our structures to ensure we claim back our victory,” Mohwasa said.
Mohwasa said the UDC Youth League, which was tasked with overlooking the UB-UDC has failed to kick off. He said this was because the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), which was tasked with the youth league, had challenges leading to the failure.
The UB-UDC held a press conference yesterday where they announced that member parties had voted in a committee in unison and were on the verge of reviving structures to reverse their fortunes.
Addressing the media, the newly-elected chairperson, Victor Mmualefhe said the reason they lost some SRC members to the GS-26 was because they could not find suitable candidates on time, hence a need to empower students. “The UB-UDC is not dying. We just need to educate students on politics and be able to vote in people who will stay true and not easily defect. We do not believe the UDC leadership has abandoned us as we have had some of the elders support us, especially after some students were suspended,” he said.
He however admitted that they need to establish a formal working relationship with the UDC structure as opposed to the current situation where they are only recognised at their individual parties. Mmualefhe said they had intentions of growing their student movement to other institutions in order to get more supporters for the UDC.
Back in 2013, the UB-UDC won all the SRC seats. This was before the relationship between opposition parties was formalised. The GS-26 started making an impact in 2015 when they won five seats including presidency.
They have retained the presidency since then and the UB-UDC currently has only three members in the SRC. The UB vote contributes largely to the hot Gaborone Central seat currently held by Phenyo Butale and Village Ward under Kagiso Thutlwe who both won through the UDC in 2014.