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'Flawed' Botswana still democracy model

Despite its ‘flawed status’, Botswana has made slight improvement in the EIU’s Democracy Index PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG
Despite its ‘flawed status’, Botswana has made slight improvement in the EIU’s Democracy Index PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG

Despite Botswana being labelled a “flawed democracy” by the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) 2021 Democracy Index, the country continues to receive accolades as the model of democracy in Africa.

This was relayed by different speakers this week during the international summit on Constitutionalism and Democratic Consolidation in Africa held in Gaborone.

The three-day summit, which started Wednesday and ends today, was co-hosted by the government of Botswana and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Flawed democracies are nations where elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are respected but may have issues like media freedom infringement, problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.

NDI president Derek Mitchell said at a time when democracy in Africa and the world at large is undergoing a great deal of stress, the summit provides an opportunity to celebrate Botswana’s status as an exemplar and champion of democratic values on the continent. “Botswana recently reaffirmed its commitment to democratic governance through its engagement and commitments during the global 2021 summit for democracy,” Mitchell added.

For his part, former president of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou said the summit celebrates the democratic progress made by Botswana, and on the other hand serves as a call for a common effort to consolidate the democratic advances made over the past 30 years in Africa. “I would therefore, first like to thank my dear brother President Mokgweetsi Masisi for having invited us here for this high-level summit on a theme of great relevance for the democratisation process on our continent and throughout the world.

I salute his foresight in having decided to co-organise this summit with NDI,” he highlighted. US Embassy Charge d’Affaires, Amanda Jacobsen, said Botswana is considered a democratic model in Africa. “Botswana has transparent elections, a respect for political term limits and a belief in the importance of human rights,” she revealed. Despite its ‘flawed status’, Botswana has made slight improvement in the EIU’s Democracy Index, which has seen the country move from being ranked number 33 in 2020 to the latest being 30 in 2021.

Botswana, which has long been viewed as a ‘shining light’ of democracy in Southern Africa, was ranked 29th out of 167 in the 2019 Democracy Index with a score of 7.81 out of a possible 10. Now the country has a score of 7.73. The annual index provides a measurement of the state of global democracy and the EIU first started recording it in 2006.

The index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide in 165 independent states and two territories. The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. Since 2006 Botswana has maintained a good record with its best performance being in 2013 after scoring 7.98 out of possible 10.

Between 2017 and 2019 Botswana maintained the score of 7.81 having already upheld the 7.87 score for three years previously between 2014 and 2016. While typically flawed nations have significant faults in other democratic aspects, including underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance, Botswana is ranked number two in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. With the continuing negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on democracy and freedom around the world, Botswana can sleep easily knowing that it continues to have the ‘beacon’ of democracy tag. Botswana is a prosperous, open, competitive democracy.

It has consistently held periodic transparent, reliable, and peaceful elections, which the ruling party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), has won since independence in 1966.

Editor's Comment
Enough is enough!

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