Civil servants inch closer to voting in primary elections

Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Wednesday September 27, 2017 18:00

 

Yesterday, CoA acting Judge President, Isaac Lesetedi dismissed government’s bid, stating that there was simply no room for any proper allocation of a date of hearing, taking into account the CoA’s pending October session and the workload before it.

Government has a window of relief, however, as Lesetedi said the matter would be placed on the roll call for October 6 to see if any acceptable date may emerge, depending on other cases being postponed or withdrawn. 

High Court Judge, Modiri Letsididi ruled in June that the Public Service Act (PSA) does not prohibit public officers from participating in primary elections. His judgement came after the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) and National Amalgamated Central, Local and Parastatal Manual Workers Union (NALCGPWU) took the permanent secretary to the President (PSP) to court seeking a determination on the legal interpretation of a section of the PSA.

The lawsuit followed a November 2013 directive from then PSP, Eric Molale prohibiting all public officers from participating or voting in political parties’ primary elections.

Molale quoted Section 5 of the PSA, which prohibits civil servants from being active members of political parties, or holding office in them.

Letsididi ruled that the section did not bar civil servants from voting in primary elections. Government then sought leave to file an expedited appeal of the ruling, as primary elections for the 2019 elections begin in October. 

The BDP is due to hold its primaries in certain areas starting on October 21.

Yesterday, Lesetedi said government’s bid for an expedited appeal failed on all but one of the CoA’s grounds for such appeals.

“CoA rules clearly point out that an expedited hearing should only be granted exceptionally and not as a matter of course,” he said.

“Very special reasons must exist showing why any political appeal should be permitted to jump the queue.  “The leave should only be granted where there is interest of justice, the balance of convenience and the availability of dates of the hearing.

“(It should also be granted considering), the (availability) of justices to hear the appeal, the congestion of the court roll and availability of support staff.

“The court should also grant leave if there are reasonable prospects of success of appeal.

“The current application fails on all of the factors but prospects of success.”

Lesetedi said the appellants’ decision to take close to two months consulting without filing an appeal, did not demonstrate any urgency.

“That pace did not demonstrate any urgency on the appellant’s part and it will be unfair to now give the respondent a much shorter period to engage counsel and prepare for the appeal,” Lesetedi said.

Furthermore, the acting Judge President said there was nothing before the court to show any great harm would be suffered by, for instance, delaying the October primaries for a month to enable the court to deal with the matter.

It remains to be seen whether the BDP will postpone its primaries until after government’s appeal is heard.