BDP could expel Tonota north ballot fiddler - Tafa

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Monday August 2, 2010 00:00

The alleged fiddler was once the Francistown deputy mayor. At a press conference last Friday, the Chairman of the BDP Electoral Board, Parks Tafa, said the woman was part of the team that conducted the controversial primaries. 

'She came to us saying she had found ballot papers at the counting centre,' Tafa said. 'When we asked her what she had gone to do there, she said she had gone to fetch some of her stuff she had forgotten there and had found the ballots under a table. I am talking about a PEEC member who has been a deputy mayor of some town.'  These allegations come in the wake of a protest by Onkabetse Daniel, one of the contenders in the primaries, challenging the results in which Fidelis Molao emerged the winner. It is believed the PEEC member who allegedly fiddled with the ballots wanted Daniel to win.

Tafa said on examining the ballots, they appeared to be genuine and turned in favour of Daniel. 'But we wondered how we could have a recount when there had been such an interference?, Tafa queried.

'As the board, we feel the winner and the loser deserve the same amount of protection. There is no basis for an appeal here because the evidence is flimsy.'

Pressed further, Tafa said the facts spoke for themselves but they would make recommendations to the BDP central committee on what action to take. 'It might be suspension (of the alleged culprit) pending investigations, a disciplinary hearing or an expulsion,' he said. 'The central committee will decide and you will know soon.'

Meanwhile, The Monitor investigations have revealed the identity of the alleged ballot fiddler as PEEC member Lamodimo Dikomang.

In an interview with this paper, Dikomang accused Tafa of unbecoming behaviour in his decision to call a press conference because they had agreed that the matter would be brought before the central committee. She said she had gone back to the counting centre to look for an envelope she had lost and was shocked to find a lot of ballot papers under a table.

'But I am surprised that Tafa decided to attack me in the media when he knows quite well that we decided that the matter will be handled by the central committee,' she said. Dikomang said the primaries were marred by anomalies. 'That's why I kept the ballots until the appeal was heard,' she said. 'I realised that if I had released the evidence at the counting centre, it could have disappeared like some election material that disappeared there.' A form bearing the results of a certain polling station went missing, Dikomang alleged.

So far, Molao is still the winner of the primaries after the committee verified the poll material used.

BDP spokesman Comma Serema says because the writ of elections for the Tonota North by-election is out, the central committee will make its decision known soon on the controversy surrounding the primary elections.