BCP exit disappoints Umbrella

Speaking in an interview with Mmegi yesterday, BNF spokesman Moeti Mohwasa said based on the opposition's bad experiences with the pact model, "we had thought that the Umbrella would help us to deliver a government to the people".The BNF, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) have been engaged in Umbrella talks with the hope that the BCP would rejoin them after consulting its membership.However, the BCP leadership made a public announcement last weekend that the party would not be re-joining the talks.

"Given the disagreement among the negotiating parties on the principles that should inform the sharing of constituencies and wards and considering the compromises that were proposed by the BCP to break the deadlock, which were not acceptable to some of the negotiating partners, it is apparent that the Umbrella model is not an attainable option in the short term," reads the BCP announcement.