Khama believes the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president does not possess leadership qualities and has little that he, and his party can offer Batswana. Khama also believes that the opposition parties used underhand tactics to attract voters in last year’s general elections where UDC emerged as the main opposition. “He (Boko) is blank. In fact he should be named ‘Blankie’ because he has nothing to offer Batswana. The opposition cannot compete with us,” said Khama on Saturday during the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Youth Wing congress and elections. Khama said that what the opposition offers is a replica of what the BDP is already offering. The President also said that he is unfazed by the 2014 general elections’ results in which the BDP managed to attract 46.7 percent of the popular vote - its worst performance so far. “The 46.7 percent that voted for us does not reflect our support base. We could have swiped those people by 75%. I don’t care about the 46.7% which the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said we had attained,” he said. He said that one of the reasons the BDP did not win by a very significant margin is because some party members voted for the opposition due to disgruntlement after the primaries, not necessarily because the opposition was popular. He said that the opposition members were trafficking and buying voters because they could not compete with the BDP. He stated that the BDP would revamp its primary elections processes to ensure that it reduces disgruntlement among party members. “Dilo tse re tlile go di baakanya (We will fix our problems that made us perform badly at the elections). My father told me that if the opposition wins the elections, it would be because of disgruntlement within the BDP. We now have to embrace unity if we are to win elections,” he explained.
The President reiterated his stance that the BDP will not take back the members who ditched it to stand as independent candidates in the last general elections.
