FRANCISTOWN: The recent defections of Francistown-West legislator Ignatius Moswaane to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) followed by MP for Jwaneng-Mabutsane, Mephato Reatile to the Botswana patriotic Front (BPF) have exposed the BDP as a leaking house. Reports are abound that more ‘frustrated’ legislators and councillors were contemplating exiting the BDP to the opposition en masse threby triggering the party leadership to come up with a law that will halt such defections. Perhaps, another worrying development was the continued defections of civic leaders from the ruling party to the BPF mainly in the Central District. This is still ongoing and the BDP could not watch helplessly as its elected members continued to troop out of the stable at that worrying level.
Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Kabo Morwaeng recently explained that the Constitution Amendment Bill sought to cause a vacancy in the event an elected legislator, elected as a candidate for a political party, resigned from an organisation. He said the Bill also proposed that a vacancy be declared in the event an MP elected as independent candidate tries to join a political party of his choice. The position of the Minister was that the Bill came as a result of the adoption of former MP Gladys Kokorwe’s motion, which was tabled during the seventh Parliament with proposed constitutional amendments.
