TUTUME: Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president Dumelang Saleshando has for the first time openly admitted that the party’s performance at the by-elections has been very disappointing.
Saleshando was addressing party members yesterday in Tutume at the party’s annual conference themed ‘Save Botswana’. Since announcing plans to exit the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), an opposition coalition, the BCP has lost five council by-elections and one parliamentary by-election. “Many reasons account for this, including the use of money bags by our opponents to buy voters, confusion whether we are still part of UDC or not, and our failure to work sufficiently hard to overcome all challenges.” He added, “I noticed during the by-elections that we struggled to put sufficient boots on the ground, and we were under-resourced. We also lacked a winning strategy and on many occasions were gullible and believed anyone who said they would vote for us would do so. On some occasions we lost people who had committed to voting for us on polling day itself.”
Saleshando added that the other issue that is of concern to him is that the BCP is regressing in terms of establishing and sustaining structures. “We need to understand that it is only when the party has functioning structures that we can hope to win elections. As we prepare for elections, we need more activists in the field and volunteers to ensure victory of our party.” In addition to election disappointments the BCP also lost a number of councillors who were not keen to see the party exit the UDC. But Saleshando said that he is unfazed by the development. “Their departure proved beyond doubt that all along these were just fellow spineless travellers who had not understood what the BCP stands for. We are better off without them. Organizers on the ground report that these defectors did not shake our support in anyway and that in their place many new members swelled our ranks.”
The BCP leader also said that partnership talks with the Botswana Labour Party will soon come to an end. He expressed optimism that the talks will be fruitful. “We are involved in conversations and mobilization efforts, at the end of which, it will become clear which direction the wind is blowing.” He stated that an announcement on the outcomes of the talks will be made in less than 30 days. The BCP attempted to forge a working relationship with the Alliance for Progressives, but talks between the two parties have since collapsed. The AP is now in talks with the UDC.
