BDP takes stock

| Wednesday January 13, 2010 00:00

'We want to find out what could have caused our losses in some areas and what made us win in areas that we have won and so on,' explained BDP executive secretary, Dr Comma Serema, yesterday.

His explanation was that the party has ordered a whole scientific research similar to the one conducted by South African based political consultant, Professor Lawrence Schlemmer whose profound examination, a few years ago, helped the BDP remain in power even during tough times.

'We are looking at a whole array of issues from our 2009 general elections performance.We have just finished analysing the questionnaires after administering about 1,000 questionnaire across the country,' Serema says and added that they are going to do follow up interviews mainly with the party structures.

The BDP has appointed the National Elections Evaluation Committee (NEEC), which is chaired by the Specially Elected MP, Vincent Seretse who is also the chairperson of the party's National Elections Strategic Team (NEST).

Other members of the NEEC are Serema, former Assistant Minister, Kavis Kario, and Segaetsho Garekwe.

'The NEEC has roped in two professional with the requisite skill in research. We have Dr Alfred Tsheboeng of the research company EIA projects and Dr Zain Kebonang, who is linked to some Australian university, albeit operating from Botswana,' Serema said. This Saturday, the NEEC will make follow up interviews in Francistown and on Sunday they will be in Selebi-Phikwe.

This will be followed by trips to the Okavango and Ngami on January 24 followed by trips to Chobe, Kgalagadi and other targeted constituencies.

Serema says the idea is 'just to get a gist of what happened during the election.'He emphasised that the BDP has been engaged in the evaluation of the election since the past three general elections.

'This is not anything new. It helps us to base our campaigns on pragmatism rather than on trial and error. Data is always available to guide the party on what to do.'

Serema describes the whole process 'as a scientific research where even in the terms of research, we have promised confidentiality.' 

The research project runs parallel to other investigations conducted by an adhoc committee appointed last year to look for those who worked against the party during the elections. After the general elections, there were widespread rumours that in some areas across the country, the BDP did not perform as expected because there were some party activists who chose to work in cooperation with the opposition to unseat the ruling party.

The BDP won 45 constituencies of the 57 up for grabs followed by the main opposition Botswana National Front(BNF) which got six constituencies, Botswana Congress Party(BCP) and its alliance partner Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) got five seats and independent candidate, Nehemiah Modubule won Lobatse constituency.