"Oh! My friend MELS will rule this country one day. By then the president of the movement might not be Joina," he said as a matter of fact. "Right now, people are joining us," he added. All that the MELS leader is remaining with is to harness the new membership into votes. He said that his party has 20,000 registered members with huge support in places like Kgalagadi. However, the party did not field candidates in Kgalagadi and only got 292 votes countrywide. This shows that even a councillor in a typical ward performed better than MELS as a party. MELS fielded four parliamentary candidates including Joina himself, who was standing in Mogoditshane. He was voted for by 85 people. This was an improvement to the number that voted for him in 2004. Even the television publicity failed to sell him. Joina, who is the only spokesman for MELS, appeared on a number of political debates on Botswana Television (Btv) with representatives of other parties. While other parties delegated different officials for the debates, MELS was always represented by its president.
The MELS leader said that one of their candidates was disqualified in Molepolole North because it was claimed that they did not submit their party colours. He said they have taken the matter to court. He argues that there was no need to submit the colours because they have already been made available to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
