There will be direct appointment of the parliamentary candidate by the central committee". Until then the party leadership (Central Committee) has been evasive about the status of the Maun East parliamentary primaries, hiding behind “the consultation is ongoing”. When the party released the list of its 609 council and 61 parliamentary seats contestants in May, it had a rider on Maun East, which noted: “Consultation process for parliamentary candidates is underway and democrats will be informed as soon as it is completed.” Unlike others that the central committee vetted then, the three Maun East parliamentary candidates were never vetted. The three candidates in the Maun East constituency are Chris Bethia, Kostantinos Markus, and Reaboka Mbulawa. They are understood to have been cleared at the branch level. Since then the “consultations”, which curiously did not involve the three candidates who had applied (and paid) to contest the primaries, had been going on endlessly. The party held its first batch of primaries last weekend (July 20), which included Maun East constituency wards but not parliamentary seats.
The primaries were, however, seen as widely chaotic with the late opening of polling stations due to the late arrival of voters’ rolls and voting materials. The second phase of primaries is to be held this weekend (July 27). And BDP secretary-general Kario will be contesting against Mpepisang Tuyereke and Lelejwang Sokwe in the newly created Ngami constituency while in Chobe Machana Shamukuni faces off with Paul Chabaesele and Luckson Likokoto. In last weekend’s BDP primaries, former MP for Ngami Thato Kwerepe (2,415 votes) won against Henda Uananisa (1,330 votes) in the reconstituted Maun West constituency while in Maun North, fire church leader Prophet TP Elias (1,076) defeated Gakenosi 'G-Force' Mpho (890), and former Maun West MP Ronald Ridge (238). In Okavango East, former education minister and former Okavango MP Bagalatia Arone (2,119) defeated Cameroon Dina (499), while in Okavango West, Sekwaya Pikinini (1,453) won against Akim Setswalo (1,379).
