MPs should respect the ballot

| Monday August 16, 2010 00:00

It is not the membership of the contesting political parties that is responsible for the mischief that appears to have taken over the politicians. Clearly, it is a section of the ruling party parliamentarians who feel threatened by the possibility that the turmoil at the BDP could cost them their jobs who are responsible for the traffic between the old party and the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).

Similar traffic has occurred between the BNF and the BDP, more significantly between the BNF and the BCP.  It is not so much the political parties whose conscience we wish to question, for now.  It is far more bewildering that the individual parliamentarians play hop-scotch between political parties without considering the implications for the value and integrity of the voter's ballot.

They have proved themselves to be of cheap character.  A democracy such as that of Botswana depends on the integrity of the ballot.  This ballot makes the parliamentarian a respected liaison officer between the citizen and Parliament.

The movement from one party to another after elections is worrisome in and of itself.  The problem becomes 10 times worse when the parliamentarian shifts to one party today, and a few days later, changes his or her mind, only to return to the old party, or perhaps to yet another organisation.

The voter is left powerless and despondent about whether his or her vote is really worth the effort it takes to go and drop it in the ballot box.

The electorate has every reason to be alarmed that it took the dramatic events at the BDP to persuade Parliament that a law was necessary to guard against abuse of the voters' mandate, permitting elected officers to travel as they wish between political parties without regard for the sensitivities of the electorate.

That should not by any means suggest that the lack of foresight at Parliament, which failed to anticipate the current dilemma, should in any way have prevented the dissidents at the BDP to exercise the greater right to freedom of association and expression, leading to the formation of the BMD.