Both the BCP and the BNF claim that they have a right to field a candidate at Bophirima. The president of BPP, Motlatsi Molapise encourages other partners of the UDC and not necessarily the BCP and BNF to always try by all means to exhaust internal remedies and not wash their dirty linen in public whenever they have disagreements in the coalition.
“If there are inter-party disagreements between the contracting parties of the UDC, the concerned parties should try by all means to resolve them at the national executive committee (NEC) of the UDC. We condemn in the strongest possible terms whenever issues concerning the UDC are discussed in the public at the exclusion of fully utilising internal channels that are available within the coalition. The BPP has thus adopted a neutral stance in the current conflict between the BCP and the BNF that arose from fielding a candidate who will represent the UDC in Bophirima ward in the Gaborone Bonnington South constituency,” a concerned Molapise said. Asked to clarify who the BPP will offer support to between the BCP and BNF candidates at Bophirima in the upcoming by-election in the event that the issue is not resolved before the day of filing nominations papers, Molapise said his party will support any candidate who will be fielded by the UDC. “The position of the BPP regarding the issue is that it will support any candidate who will represent the UDC during the by-election. We will not lend our support to any candidate who will be fielded by any affiliate of the UDC at the expense of the candidate who will represent the UDC,” he explained.
