Umbrella rejects constituency 'split'

LERATO MALEKE
Correspondent | Thursday August 23, 2012 00:00

 

Trashing the document in an interview yesterday, the publicity secretary of the Botswana National Front (BNF) - who doubles as the spokesman of UDC - Moeti Mohwasa, said member parties of UDC are still working on the allocation of constituencies.Mmegi is in possession of the controversial document according to which the BNF has been allocated 27 constituencies, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) 23, while the country's oldest political party, the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP), has a paltry seven constituencies.Incumbent BNF and BMD Members of Parliament have also been allocated constituencies.

Mmegi is in possession of another document according to which a tentative strategy for allocation of council wards was presented to UDC parties on August 2.However, the two documents have an outstanding irregularity for official papers: they are not signed, bear no office stamp and are written on plain paper that carries no emblem or letterheads. The one that purports to address the sharing of council wards characterises the task as 'a complex exercise that requires a judicious balance between the collective interests of the parties involved and (those) of the people to be served'.'The main object of the strategy must, therefore, be to produce a cadre of local councillors that is truly representative of and is acceptable to all the structures of the UDC across the length and breadth of the country,' the document says.Because the desired outcome of such a strategy must be improvement in the delivery of services to Batswana, 'it must inspire public confidence, be objective and all-inclusive'.

The document says the 'hybrid strategy' of the UDC is based on incumbency, past electoral performance of contracting parties, presence and visibility of the party at local level. The lead party in a parliamentary constituency should be allocated a 60 percent share of council wards in that constituency while the rest are to be shared between the other two parties.The principle of equity and fairness should be applied at all material times, through joint primary elections out of which the best candidate must emerge.In a situation where a candidate representing one of the contracting parties in the last general elections obtained a popular vote of 48 percent or more,  that party must be given first priority in the contituency.

Regarding presence and visibility at the local level, the controversial document notes that experience has taught UDC member parties that party which has more visibility and better functioning structures in a given locality is more likely to perform better at the polls, especially with the cooperation of the other contracting parties. The lead party is to be allocated 60 percent share of council wards in the constituency while the rest are to be shared between the other two contracting parties.To ensure equality and fairness, all contracting parties should have representation in all constituencies in order to enhance the profiles of UDC candidates to members across the country.

'We should, at all costs, avoid a situation where only one contracting party fields candidates in all wards in a given constituency as that might defeat the very purpose of the Umbrella, demoralise members of other parties and may lead to undesirable actions like voter trafficking,' the document warns.Regarding choice of candidates through joint elections, the document promotes primary elections as the most democratic method because, as it says, 'it allows the people themselves to decide who their leaders should be'. However, the document warns if they are not properly handled, primaries can be 'very divisive'. 'For this reason, we propose that for both purposes of the next general elections, contracting parties should first engage with one another with a view to settling for consensus on council ward candidates, failing which primaries would then be held to choose the candidates'. The overarching principle should be that of getting the best candidate for the ward regardless of party.