Tonota loss is not failure of unity opposition

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Friday September 10, 2010 00:00

After the elections, critics are pointing fingers at the opposition, especially the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) that caused ripples of near-seismic proportions on Botswana’s political scene when it was formed earlier this year.

They say its presence on the campaign trail contributed little, not least because it concentrated more on recruiting new members to bolster  - some will say bloat - its ranks ahead of planned opposition unity talks. This the BMD does, the criticism goes,  in order to attain equal status with the BNF, the grandsire of Botswana’s opposition politics with more than 40 years behind it, and its more organized spawn of 1998, the BCP.

The opposition parties were working together in Tonota North to help the BCP candidate wrest the seat from the BDP. But when the results were read, the BDP candidate, Molao, had knocked the stuffing out of the coalition of opposition forces.

Decisively so! Contacted for comment yesterday, the interim Vice Chairman of the BMD, Botsalo Ntuane, said the party worked hard to canvass votes for the BCP. In his view, talk that questions the BMD’s commitment in Tonota North is cheap political point scoring by the BDP, which is averse to opposition cooperation project.

“We had campaign teams on the ground, addressed rallies and did house-to-house campaigns,” Ntuane says.“But I prefer that you speak to our cooperating partners like the BCP who saw us in action.”  At any rate, he adds, it should be noted that the constituency is a BDP stronghold, hence it proved hard to win from the ruling party.

BCP spokesperson, Taolo Lucas agreed with Ntuane. “They supported us with resources and everything needed in the campaign,” says Lucas. “The BDP is the one that is going around spreading these divisive untruths to sow discord among us, but they will not succeed. They loathe the idea of having a united opposition because they know we will take over soon.”

He is grateful that the Tonota North by-election gave the opposition an opportunity to work together and agrees with Ntuane that the results are a reflection of the constituency being a traditional BDP stronghold some of whose wards are yet to be reached by the opposition. 

“Some do not even have structures there,” he says. “In the last two general elections, the BNF didn’t take part in the constituency while campaigning started before the BMD had even been launched as a political party.”

In the aftermath of the by-election, Lucas says, they appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses better, a basis upon which to formulate future opposition cooperation, which is on the right track and set for success, in spite of the loss in Tonota North.

However, the BDP says Tonota North has exposed fragmentation in opposition ranks. “The individual parties arrived in the area and distributed their T-shirts instead of canvassing votes for the BCP,” says BDP Executive Secretary, Dr Comma Serema.

He insisted that BMD, “which has no presence at all in the area, was trying to build itself up, in the process diverting away from the major task at hand - canvassing votes for their collective candidate.”